Rockness 2011 – View from behind the Lens

What an overly grandiose title for a blog entry.  hehehehe………guess what – its just photos !!

Rockness this year, I have to admit, left me a little cold and Im not talking weather here.  Maybe its my age, maybe its the amount of DJ’s, maybe its the change of size and positions of tents and ‘arenas’………old people dont like change  :)

Dont get me wrong I love a good DJ and a bit of a bop around a tent but they’re not exactly the most exciting prospect for a photographer in the press pit.  On stage works much better but my only chance of that was blown due to issues with my flash unit.  Local chaps, Audiolife organised the oppurtunity for me to do crowd shots from their set up but I ran out of battery.  It had been a long weekend  :(

Sunday was the highlight for me as all the locals had their chance to shine on The Sound City Stage.  Unable to find it on Friday I discovered it was the back end of the Jaegermeister bar – this of course brought a grin to some of the local musicians.  Handy !  A tiny stage inside an orange tent about 100 yards from the Golden Voice Arena stage – the second main stage for this year – so there were sound issues from time to time depending on the breeze factor.  But having said all that everyone I saw play in there knuckled down and gave it their all.  The Leonard Jones Potential opened the Sunday with a soundcheck of Bump before deciding to just go for it early !!  Suns oot, funks UP !!  Wonderful. The Boosts, Iain Mclaughlin and the Outsiders and Ullapools Naked Strangers all went down a storm with a healthy crowd to boot.

As far as other treats for me this weekend there werent many expected ones. James Mackenzie did a sterling effort with the Aquascene on the main stage on Sunday – at least one local act made it on there this weekend.  Chemical Brothers finished off Saturday in their usual style – excellent.  Groove Armada were utter pish –  what the fuck is it with everyone now doing ‘DJ Sets‘.  Im seeing it a lot at Ironworks and elsewhere too – acts name in large writing with the add-on ‘dj set’ in somewhat smaller writing underneath.  I dont want to see you playing other peoples or even your own records – get the band in and play the hits !!  Purely my own opinion and other blogs are available

Kasabian and Paolo Nutini were the other headliners and both had their audiences in the palms of their hands. Yadda yadda etc etc

Now Im bored with typing and have a cold so without further ado I shall bang in some more photos – head on over to the flickr set to see some more.

As always all images are © Al Donnelly so dont nick em. If y’all do then Ill be forced to sue using my highly trained legal team

Davy, Davy Cowan………

…….King of the Wild Frontier? So Good They Named him Twice? Actually they named him Davy not Twice – Christ I annoy myself sometimes !!

My ‘relationship’ with Davy Cowan (no tongues, mind) began way back when I was a DJ at my local radio station, Deveron FM,  in sunny Banff, Aberdeenshire.  After making contact with Davy through myspace – remember myspace? Me either – I recieved my very own copy of Fragile People, Davys debut as a solo artist to which I happily gave airplay.  Fast forward to 2011 and I find my photos peppering all his websites and Ive created the artwork and produced the cover for his follow up ‘The Journey‘, son Shauns band Defcon Ones debut release, Life on TV and find his better half caring for my wife and newborn daughter as part of the team at the local hospital when Evie was born.  Oh and if you see a Davy Cowan poster theres a good chance I made it for him.  Yer never sure eh ?

Previous to all of this Davy had been the front man with Highland Celtic-Rock Band, Coinneach for around ten years or so.  (I dont know how to pronounce it either )  Over that decade they released three well recieved albums and played alongside Deacon Blue & Hue & Cry in 2004 to 40000 Hogmanay revellers in Aberdeen.  Now a well known solo artist he performs either on his tod, with backing band The Stormchasers or with fiddler Rachel Parker all of whom can be seen in these here photomagraphicals !  Davy & the Hosebeast is another side-project who I could have had photos of from Loopallu 2010 but couldnt suck my own thumb let alone press the shutter on a camera – such is life at a West Coast Festival !

It took me about 3 or 4 years to actually see Davy play live after my first listen to Fragile People and of course I had my trusty camera (or phone 0r sketch pad) handy.  These are just a few of the many, many photos of Davy I have in my collection (stalker) including Loopallu 2008 and this years album launch with The Stormchasers at Inverness Ironworks.

The Stormchasers are  Robin Abbott on bass & Derek Urquhart on drums,  from Inverness alt country combo Lushrollers,  Rachael Parker, ex-Coinneach fiddler,  Alan Leckie on organ and ex-Coinneach Steve Spence on keyboards.

Theres plenty more info and interesting history on Davys site – head over and have a look.  Davys one of the good guys – he does this whole music thing cos he loves it and thats the best reason of all !! Cheers !

Cheers !!

DAVY COWAN

DAVY ON MYSPACE

DAVY ON FLICKR

All images contained in this post are
© aldonnellyphotography / houdi
unless otherwise stated

Copying, displaying, manipulating or redistribution of these images
without permission from the artist is strictly prohibited !!

Homework on Church Street

Cheeky wee two song set – or was it three – from Homework this afternoon in a pre-Rockness appearance at the goNorth Fringe.  A guerilla gig with the chaps from Detour Scotland.  Sounded great and the weather held although they were unable to do the, hoped for, ‘Apple Building’ bit on Hoots roof !!  Good enough at the shady nook at the side of Hootanannys on Church Street, Inverness.  If youre feeling eagle-eyed keep a close watch on the above video where you can see a proper idiot with a camera and a baseball cap on back to front – Im 44 ferfucksake not 14 !!  Its a necessary evil to combat bed-hair (I was just up when got the heads-up from Mr Kass) and has to go back to front for shooting – honest

Families stopped and the traffic was slowed slightly  :).   One woman stopped me while I was snapping away – she looked in her 60′s and asked what was going on and what did the band hope to achieve from this.  I explained about GoNorth, Rockness etc and that nights gigs around town – she looked bemused but, and I was waiting for negativity, she said that she thought that Homework were brilliant……….and they were !!

www.wearehomework.com  

 

More Homework in this flickr set  

All images are copyright Al Donnelly - that’s me, houdi – the Sunday name !!  Don’t do stuff that you shouldn’t with them – ta !  :)

Gerry Jablonski & The Electric Band

It’s nice to blog/write/post photos of acquaintances or people in bands you meet briefly.  Give them a bit of coverage – every little bit helps they say, even this unread, lost in cyberspace page of mine.  It’s even nicer to do something that features someone I can class as an actual mate.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you Mr Gerry Jablonski.  I’ve known Ger for around 30 years on and off I suppose, spending strange evenings sitting with him in Kingswell Lane in Banff while he created weird and wonderful new solo ideas – remember World War 3, Gerry?  or when we broke in when you were in your nest and packed the PA in the hallway – Mr Mac physically assaulted me after that one while Stu was attempting to escape via his roof or playing the Scout Hut with Sheepy and there was immac involved……anyhoo I digress!

Gerry Jablonski and the Electric Band!!  That’s Gerry’s ‘new’ project.  Proper electric blues that’ll rip the roof off any self respecting music venue and quite a few with no self respect I’m sure!

We had them up here in the Highlands a few times this last year and a half courtesy of the now defunct Ceol-Mor venue where they blew audiences away every time – I believe there was even a smashed guitar at the one gig I didn’t attend !  First time they played they killed me – literally.  Two nights of blues and partying and I ended up having a cardiac arrest on the Sunday – exciting stuff but I’d rather not repeat the experience!

Soooooo imagine my delight when visiting family in that London when I checked my F**eb**k and see Mr Jablonski ‘checking’ in at Camden Underworld – 20 minutes on a bus from where I sat!  It was too good an opportunity to miss (although ‘the nearly a fiver a pint’ situation almost finished it early – I’m fae Banff ye ken).  Bro-in-Law in tow we jump on a number whateveritwas bus and head to busy Camden Taaaaan.

Arrived just in time to say hello to a very sweaty Beefy coming off stage and straight to the bar – we missed The Lorelei set – bugger .  Wandered down to the dark and dingy main hall to see what’s what and found Gerry, Peter, Grigor and Dave mid-soundcheck.  I’m only sorry I didn’t get a shot of Gerry’s confused face when he heard a Banff-accent from behind him asking if they were any good.  It is a bugger of a place to shoot in – as I mentioned, dark and dingy with red lights – great for the blues but bloody awful for photography!  Anyhoo – best (ish) of a bad (ish) bunch here.  Twas a blistering set from the chaps – only managed a swift blether with Dave Innes at the end.  They were packing up to head up to Harrogate I think for the next date on the Fat Hippy tour and we had to catch a bus (did I mention the pints were nearly a fiver)

So heres a few shots from the Camden gig – plenty more can be found on my flickr set.  Enjoy

Usual reminder that all photos here are my creations so please don’t nick them or even borrow them without asking first – cheers