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Friday was our first gig of the year: the King Billy Rock Bar at Northampton has had mixed fortunes since the pandemic and, like a lot of grass roots music venues, has been threatened with closure several times. In fact, it has closed twice and has only recently re-opened under new ownership with reduced opening hours. I wish him well. There hadn't been anyone we fancied seeing, but they put a call out earlier in the week for bands to play this weekend as they had the Friday/Saturday free and a band I've shot for many years, probably going back around 12 years, stepped up to play so we decided to go over and see them.
It didn't look promising when we arrived: the pub was probably only about a quarter full at 830. The band were due to play at 9, and that obviously wasn't going to happen whilst so few people were there. A bit of frantic Facebook posting to advertise that they were playing (including me as LadyGigger) and by 930 there were enough people in the bar to kick things off - and that's when the fun began. I'd taken my OM-5 plus my usual selection of 'small venue' lenses - the 12-40 f2.8, the 8mm fisheye (which never came out of its bag) and the 25mm f1.7 Panasonic. I started off with my normal settings - iso3200, f2.8, 1/200 - nope, that wasn't going to work... even at iso6400 things were decidedly muddy so I put the 12-40 away and out came the 25mm. Luckily the bar wasn't too crowded, so I could get a little distance away - sometimes the 50mm equivalent is too short in a crowded environment and you can't get all the musician into the frame! I was still shooting at around iso4000, but that seemed to work pretty well for most of the time.
Not a great hit rate for the night - took around 150 (single shots, I hadn't turned on the motor drive) and kept 15. As I said in an earlier post, the low light capability of the OM5 isn't up to Canon full frame standards - in reasonable light it's absolutely marvellous but this was low level dive lighting: one set of 4 lights up on the ceiling shining down on the band, who'd luckily brought another bar of 4 on the other side. I just wish Andy (the singer) had brought some more of his lights!
I'm happy to say that by the end of the first set the pub was heaving, and the majority stayed around for the second set too - there was even a short encore.
So - pictures here are of Black Rose Society, a cover band who do mostly rock/metal. It used to be heavier but nowadays they include more ballads: perhaps like a lot of us they're getting older (drummer excepted, who's in his 20s). Andy also has an originals band (Still Remains), and three tributes: Blizzard of Ozz (Ozzy Osbourne), Motorpace (Motorhead - the 'Pace' bit comes in from the surname of the bassist), and the newest, Reckless. He's tried several times to get me to go along to that to get some decent pictures but I'm really not a Brian Adams fan. I did see him once at a festival but as you needed a 'special' pass just for him, and couldn't publish any pictures until approved - which could take up to several weeks, no good when you have to get a review up in 2 days, I decided not to bother. Partner still had to review him, so we went and sat out on the field and laughed like a drain as Mr Demanding's sound failed multiple times during his set.
It didn't look promising when we arrived: the pub was probably only about a quarter full at 830. The band were due to play at 9, and that obviously wasn't going to happen whilst so few people were there. A bit of frantic Facebook posting to advertise that they were playing (including me as LadyGigger) and by 930 there were enough people in the bar to kick things off - and that's when the fun began. I'd taken my OM-5 plus my usual selection of 'small venue' lenses - the 12-40 f2.8, the 8mm fisheye (which never came out of its bag) and the 25mm f1.7 Panasonic. I started off with my normal settings - iso3200, f2.8, 1/200 - nope, that wasn't going to work... even at iso6400 things were decidedly muddy so I put the 12-40 away and out came the 25mm. Luckily the bar wasn't too crowded, so I could get a little distance away - sometimes the 50mm equivalent is too short in a crowded environment and you can't get all the musician into the frame! I was still shooting at around iso4000, but that seemed to work pretty well for most of the time.
Not a great hit rate for the night - took around 150 (single shots, I hadn't turned on the motor drive) and kept 15. As I said in an earlier post, the low light capability of the OM5 isn't up to Canon full frame standards - in reasonable light it's absolutely marvellous but this was low level dive lighting: one set of 4 lights up on the ceiling shining down on the band, who'd luckily brought another bar of 4 on the other side. I just wish Andy (the singer) had brought some more of his lights!
I'm happy to say that by the end of the first set the pub was heaving, and the majority stayed around for the second set too - there was even a short encore.
So - pictures here are of Black Rose Society, a cover band who do mostly rock/metal. It used to be heavier but nowadays they include more ballads: perhaps like a lot of us they're getting older (drummer excepted, who's in his 20s). Andy also has an originals band (Still Remains), and three tributes: Blizzard of Ozz (Ozzy Osbourne), Motorpace (Motorhead - the 'Pace' bit comes in from the surname of the bassist), and the newest, Reckless. He's tried several times to get me to go along to that to get some decent pictures but I'm really not a Brian Adams fan. I did see him once at a festival but as you needed a 'special' pass just for him, and couldn't publish any pictures until approved - which could take up to several weeks, no good when you have to get a review up in 2 days, I decided not to bother. Partner still had to review him, so we went and sat out on the field and laughed like a drain as Mr Demanding's sound failed multiple times during his set.
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