Madonna

Madonna played and we all got soaked. That’s about the gist of it. She, on the other hand, had an alter boy carrying an umbrella for her. NikonD4, 400mm (we were about 60meters away) and rain hood!

Electric Picnic 2011

Festival season has nearly killed me this year… I was nearly about to give it all up, then Hot Press made one of my Arcade Fire images the latest cover. Feels kinda like getting an A in a school report, so I’m hooked again.

Bands worth a nod: M Ward & Willy Mason. A lot of other people (with bigger budgets) bored the pants off me.

For the tech heads: Everything shot on a D700 using either 200mm 2.8 or a wide 2.8. Didn’t go near the 1.4 50mm even though the stage lighting was appalling.

Expect a future rant about the festivals poor treatment of snappers. Not today though, today’s a cover story glory day! Issue hits the shops on Thursday (8th Sept!).

More on Flickr!

The Script (Aviva)

First time shooting in the Aviva. I even did the “whoah” when I walked in…. ain’t nuffin on Nou Camp tho!

The Script were as epic as always. Glad to have my long lens (200mm) as Danny tends to stick to the back of the stage playing keys. They put some nice little touches to the Homecoming show in fairness. Have a look for his Tri Colour lined jacket and the electrical mic tape too!

Ful review by the fabulous @Maeverlene in next weeks @hotpress !

 

Sufjan Stevens

With a buttery melty voice such as his, he really didn’t need all the theatrics. I’m glad he brought them along anyways. Every lead singer should wear 5 foot fairy wings.

Bellx1

I love these guys and all their musical goodness so it was an absolute pleasure to shoot them for the latest Hot Press cover.

Shot on location in Kelly’s Hotel on Georges Street.

Royseven

There’s 6 people in RoySeven… who knew? These lovely lads popped into Studio62 the other week for a shoot for Hot Press. Our studio mutt Chewie got in the way, as usual.

My Chemical Romance

To my surprise My Chemical Romance is full of hotties. Yum. Kids these days (yes, I just said that) are so lucky to have fit little camp men to gawp at.

Neil Jordan

OK, It’s not music, but neither is Alexandra Burke and I could post about her. So here’s the legendary film director Neil Jordan.

I popped out to his beautiful home one rainy afternoon and took some shots. He was polite, inquisitive and challenging (in a good way). He was everything I expected, it his house that was unbelievable.

Floor to ceiling full of beautiful books, trinkets, family photos and art. Wooden staircases, creaky floors and THE view of our fantastic coast.  His P.A. has an office attached to the house so he works from home. Children potter about playing with cats and dogs. It’s warm, inviting and smells of home cooking.

It broke my heart to leave, but I don’t think Neil was too gutted to see us off. If it were mine there’s no way I’d let the press in.

Funeral Party

I was all excited to check out these wee lads after seeing them on Soccer AM.  They were good but I was expecting great. Their recorded tracks are exciting, shouty and the right amount of keys and guitars to please my plugged in punk tastes. But unfortunately they’re lacking originality.

I think they’ll be awesome next time they’re back unless their Californian accents and silly moustaches gets them swamped by a million Emo kids. And of course they’ll be playing upstairs in the Academy by then.

Jerry Fish

Jerry is such a great guy. He’s charming and decent and just so bloody lovely. He came out to visit my new studio for his latest batch of press images (I had shot him once before in the Library Bar). I think one of the reasons I love shooting Jerry is because he knows what he’s doing. He’s confident in himself without being cockey and that’s a fine line that many inexperienced musicians just can’t keep.

Jerry’s Website, go have a listen.

Bad Blogger… very Bad Blogger!

I’ll hold my hands up. I’m a shit Blogger. I’m non-existent in the blogging community. I don’t read other people’s blogs unless someone specifically links me. Before today I didn’t even have a blog roll. Shame on me, I know.

I look at other journos blogs and I’m ashamed. They seem to have all the time in the world to construct beautiful gig reviews full of witty puns. They also have shit hot web design…most of the time I’m doing well if I can even turn the computer on.

The fact of it is that I’m busy. Physically busy. I shoot every day whether it be at a gig or a photocall, or running around town with some drunken band. I also try to run my own portrait studio. Then there’s the editing of the pix to be done and the celebratory pints to be had.

But I’ve made a Resolution. I’m going to give back to the blogosphere and to all the other bloggers out there. Ya see, I got nominated for a Digital Socket Award for Best Music Photography not too long ago. And I’m fairly sure that the nom came from my wonderful little blog readers and other like-minded bloggers. People are throwing so much love at me and I’m hogging it. But that’s gonna change. I’ve now listed the top Irish music blogs in the Blogroll (big thanks to Digital Sockets for making up the handy list!). Now I vow to actively read and comment on all those inspiring blogs. I’ll shake these bad blogging habits once and for all… I’ll bet you I’ll even learn a thing or two!

To infinity and beyond!

xxR

 

 

Shayne Byrne

I went for a walk around our city with this particularly kind music man. I fist shot Mr. Byrne when he played in a band called Arrow In The Sky (see video). He’s since departed and is working on his debut solo album.

Villagers (Vicar Street)

Ah bless, it’s another Villagers gig. My sixth this year I think. Check out the bass player, yum. End.

Shakira

Her breasts are small and humble and the gig was primarily in Spanish. Her visuals were awesome… if you were a stoned 15 year old in 1985.

Elton John

I’ve never shot Elton before. I naively thought he’d have a fabulously extravagant live show full of feathers and lights. But no, there was none of that and I was just being a massive stereotyping Ho. Bold Ruth.

Elton and his very underdressed piano:

The Flaws

The lovely Flaws shot in Ireland’s best new photo studio. It features state of the art natural light and much coveted sticky tape walls and broken plug sockets. It also doubles up as the Hot Press back offices. You just can’t buy that type of character.

Devendra Banhart & Vampire Weekend

Supporting Arcade Fire in the o2. Can I just say, on behalf of all straight women present last night… Yum. Very very yum.

Arcade Fire

Beautiful gig last night in the O2 in Dublin.

As always, prints are for sale starting from just €35 (signed and delivered!) Perfect Xmas pressie for Music lovers. email me for more ruthmedjber@gmail.com x

 

Snow.

Nothing to do with music i’m afraid. It’s just snow. In East Wall. On my way to the shops to pick up loo roll.

Too justify this being on a music blog, I can tell you I was listening to Epic 45. Maybe you’d like to listen too?

CODES Video Shoot & Button Factory

The ever so wonderful CODES have a new video out soon and I had the pleasure of popping in for a quick nose. I don’t want to ruin the many surprise so I’ll just post some sneaky behind the scenes/obscure/impossibly irrelevant
snaps. I’ll re-post with the video link when it’s wrapped!

They also played their last show of 2010 in the Button Factory. Immensely proud and utterly pissed was I. Their newest song Triangulum being the highlight of our starry night.