Author: nibbsdublin

It has been such an unproductive couple of months for me with regards to writing and catching up with stuff, but I have been trying to get through it, which is easier said than done, there have been a couple of days where I thought the mist had lifted a small window of clarity, but like a switch it went back to not being able get cohesive thoughts from my head to the laptop screen. Got to persevere though, it will I hope click back into place as easily as it stopped. (Yes seems like crazy talk as I’m writing this, but this is right off the cuff, not an analysis of an Album or Gig. That’s where the problems seem to be arriving).

After looking back on the quantity of reviews that I’ve actually submitted over the last 3 1/2 years it’s pretty hectic, over 4 per month and then pretty much a Live Gig review a month on top of that and an interview here and there. Add that to the Photography, a very busy full time job and a very young family and it’s just that bit too much. So a step back and lets try this again 😉

Jo Harman may not yet be one of the biggest names in music, at least not quite yet, but Jo’s talent, ability, hard work and determination will pay off soon I’m sure. Sun 19th February 2017 provided the official launch for Jo’s second album People We Become, released on Feb 3rd to much critical acclaim and rightly so. Considering Jo and her team have always done so much of the distribution work themselves they have done a great job in promoting her name and her music.

Following on from 2013’s excellent Dirt On My Tongue, the new album takes on the mantel and just pushes so strongly forward, really well written songs and having Michael McDonald as a guest on the track “When We Were Young” (now playlisted on BBC Radio 2) is no harm at all.

Having followed her music since 2012 it’s been brilliant to see the development as an Artist and the new album is just stunning, as was her performance on the night in the Jazz Cafe, the new tracks sound amazing live and with an extended 8 piece band it just worked so well, having such a talented backing band must be a big help too. It was a pleasure to be in attendance and and even bigger one to be able to bring the camera along and take some photos. Working on them at the moment and hopefully will have a gallery uploaded over the next couple of days.Seriously go check out Jo’s music, if you like Soulful Blues, with a number of influences and a great voice, it would be criminal to miss out on this. There will be plenty of Live dates this year in the US/UK/Europe so if you can make sure you get to see the live show.

As I’m wrapping up my final Festival of the year, photos done, still a bit of writing to tidy up, maybe it’s time to take some stock of how things have gone and maybe how we can make things a little easier in how I work next year. More work during my time away at the Festival could reduce the amount of work required at home later, but the offset is that you are more tired each day and will that affect the quality of your work, never straightforward decisions really, and especially as you get older. Had I been doing this sort of thing when I was in my twenties it would have been getting attacked with relish, now the worry is that a hobby you are very passionate about would become a chore more than fun, and that could definitely ruin things.

Today marks 2 weeks since the last day of the Rockingham Festival in Nottingham, and as great as it is that I’ve at least got my photos done, 2 weeks is too long to be getting work submitted, but work has been particularly busy, leading to being overtired, which doesn’t help one little bit, and things just get in the way and push dates back, at least as I type this words are flowing a little easier. Will get as much done today as physically possible, head is pretty sore so if I don’t make it out later I’ll have a really good run at it but I sure don’t want to miss seeing one of my favourite atrists in an intimate venue. That’s another thing that knocks out schedules, gigs, although a lot have been missed out on this year through health issues there have still been a few since the return from Rockingham, so that’s a full night taken out of the free time and not being enough I’ve a review of one of the shows and some CD’s to go through.  But hey that all just sounds like negative stuff, there are so many positives, the Festival itself was just brilliant, great bands (some from the Bucketlist – the likes of Jean Beauvoir, Lee Aaron, Steelheart, The Defiants, Trixter etc….) great lights, and the chance to catch up with wonderful friends (just wish there had been more time for me to hang out with people) and a really great fun weekend.

So over 2 full days and an evening that’s 18 bands Photographed and to be Reviewed, a lot of things to remember along the way, things that maybe other people didn’t see or that you see from a different angle, it’s a busy and large body of work to get through, between 2.5k and 3k Photographs to sift through and polish up, and maybe some additional research to be done while writing the reviews.

There’s plenty to thing about, ideas that might help out a lot – I think making quicker decisions on what to get rid of and not waste time working on could save a lot of time, that could also free up some time each day to start writing, I think that’s the way forward for the moment and see how we get on next March at HRH AOR.

Next year, the plan’s going to be work smarter, and keep trying to improve the work I’m doing, let’s hope that we catch a few breaks along the way. Expect to see a lot of Galleries on the site in the near future from Rockingham 2016.

It’s been almost a month since 2016’s edition of Ramblin’ Man Fair and my review for the second day only got submitted over the weekend, finally, I’d felt it at the time, but when you take a step back and look at the work involved Reviewing and Photographing the guts of 20 bands over a 2 day Festival can be quite tiring while you are there doing it, having to run from one stage to the next to ensure you are in the pit early enough to get some shots and listening to and noting important points of the set for your review. People do things in different ways, personally I do my gig reviews from memory rather than writing physical notes while a band is on, that way I think you can immerse yourself in the show a bit more.

But the real work starts when you get home and start editing and trying to put it all together. The reality is that it’s a time consuming process and even more so when you have a busy full time job and a 9 month old son at home, time is not always your own and when you lose a couple of days to life the whole project becomes that little bit more involved,  more stressful and plays on your mind a little, add to that you know you have another even bigger Festival coming up with only a three week gap – where does the time go 😉    So you keep chipping away piece by piece, when the words aren’t flowing work again on the photos and vice versa, but it always depends on the time of year and the other life influences. On the plus side I got to work with my new Sigma 70-200mm lens at Ramblin’ Man for the first time, on the negative side the budget didn’t stretch to a new camera body, but will keep saving the pennies for that one, but we will get there, hardware doesn’t come cheap (and neither do boilers by the way).

With the upcoming work for Bloodstock approaching rapidly the only choice was to cut down on other review work for the rest of August, things being busy enough as they were and a tonne of hard work to still get through. Anyway I’m starting to go off topic here, back to the main thing behind this post, doing Photography & Reviewing solo at a Festival, well one of the main problems is fitting in everything you want to see while remembering to eat and take on board liquids (especially when it’s 29º C and the sun is baking us all). With 10 to 11 hours of moving, shooting, storing memories, repeat for two days in a row, keeping energy levels high enough is a struggle, but the music itself generates an energy all of it’s own which helps to carry you part of the way, for me there’s always a problem in dropping a band to get food or take a seat for a half hour, at least when the weather is this good you can grab some food and sit on the grass watching a band, or on the off chance that there’s nothing on that interests you there’s the opportunity to scan through the photos you’ve already taken and clear out some of the errors. This weekend I’m working for the great guys at Overdrive, so there’s the added option of taking a break or two in the Media Area when coming out of the photo pit. Reality this saved me over the weekend I think. In an interesting conversation with a friend also covering the Festival it was revealed that they had seven personnel working the weekend, more involved of course as they were doing interviews on top of Photo/Review, but still, what a luxury, and it’s at that point you go to yourself “I’m mad, aren’t I”, but having seen it a lot with gigs over the last couple of years it is very true that getting reviewers that can commit is getting more difficult as time passes by, so it’s going to be more of a reality for photographers to double job. Thankfully for Bloodstock I was just going to be reviewing, but reviewing 30 bands is still a large body of work, had there been thousands of Photos to work on as well then the Ramblin’ Man work would still be ongoing and the end of the month would come and go without much progress.

So doing both tasks for a Festival rather than a gig is pretty crazy when you think about it, but in reality on occasion you have to step up and help out the team, modern life doesn’t always allow us the extra time or flexibility we need, so I have one more double job Festival in the pipeline this year, but it’s an easier format and should require a lot less running around. For now it’s back to the Bloodstock Reviews and in between times add galleries here for Day 2 of Ramblin’ Man, we will get there one way or another. Hard work for your passion is often a difficult thing to add onto the hectic daily toil, and maybe it will have to be scaled back in the years to come to avoid falling apart, but it’s a pleasure to try and bring a flavour of these events to others, and I’m always hopeful that others like these Photo’s/Reviews.