Exhibition!

It’s finally coming around. Between January 2009 and September 2010, I have been consistently photographing live music at venues around Norwich and across the East. It’s been a quite indiscriminate little journey. From raucous local bands such as The Brownies and Violet Violet, to nationally renowned folk artists including Duke Special and Lau, to internationally known performers such as T-Model Ford and up-and-coming New York band the White Rabbits, I have intentionally photographed musicians with an array of different styles.

If one thing links the musicians to have made it into this exhibition, it is an outstanding ability to inject their music with raw emotion. In my live music photography, I have no interest to speak of in simply capturing well-known or attractive faces. Only the music matters. If a singer’s face is scrunched up, sweaty and exhausted, or a guitarist is making frantic movements at the climax of a song, it is a joy to watch. I can testify that it is also a joy to photograph.



Norwich can count itself fortunate indeed to have venues such as the Arts Centre, the Brickmakers and the Norfolk & Norwich Festival’s Spiegeltent, venues which offer expansive and varying programmes of music, actively seeking and inviting immensely talented performers from across the globe to showcase their abilities to responsive and gleefully open-minded East Anglian audiences. It is a testament to these venues that they should end up depicted in this exhibition, devoted as it is to the same love of well-crafted, fresh music that they share. Special mention, I think, should also be made of the Bassment in Chelmsford, which offers a great deal of support to Norwich-based bands on the road, and which consequently features prominently in the show. I’d like to thank them for all the sellotape…

The show opens on Wednesday 6th October at 8pm, at the Rumsey Wells pub in Norwich. With performing musicians, of course. A warm welcome is extended to all.