Rock Concert Photography

Dusting Off Old Images

I've been getting my head around building flash web galleries via Lightroom 2.

I now have 3 galleries up and running via a page called latest images on my main website - Adare Images.

The latest one Rock of the Eighties is a small collection of 6 B/W and 1 colour print of rock concert photography that I took in the early 1980's. All of the images were taken at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool, UK which, for a few years, became a regular venue for rock music - and especially 'heavy metal'.

The two great passions in my life have always been music and photography. I got to be a slightly better photographer than musician - and so the opportunity to photograph truly great musicians has always been a labour of love for me. I still photograph live music today - and welcome every opportunity I get to do so. That time at the Royal Court theatre was extra special though. I was well known to the theatre management, and usually had freedom to go backstage and into the (empty) orchestra "pit" and lean on the stage at times! I met a large number of famous - if not legendary performers, too.

Extremely memorable was the visit to Liverpool by the Rock 'n Roll icon Carl Perkins (see Rock of the Eighties Web Gallery) who wrote "Blue Suede Shoes", but another singer - someone called Elvis Presley - went on to have a much bigger hit (and career) than his own. Mr Perkins and his management were extremely helpful to me - and I found myself shooting from every conceivable angle - including from behind the stage backcloth!

My most successful image of that period was probably the one of Bif Byford (above) vocalist with the British rock band Saxon. This shot appeared as full page spread in the 1983 Photography Year Book and also on television - including an appearance on Top of the Pops.

I have moved house about 8 times since I took those images - and the other many hundreds I shot at the Royal Court and somewhere along the way, the original negatives and transparencies got lost! All I have left are these 7 prints - from over 4 years of regular rock concert photography work.

So, let that be a lesson to you. Don't lose your originals! In this digital age it's important to backup your files at least once, and then to make sure that your storage facilities (most people prefer external hard drives to CD disks) are safe.

I hope you like the images and I'd welcome your comments. They haven't seen the light of day for a while!

Rock on!