Last weekend was very interesting. About a month earlier, I got a message from a friend of mine at the State Department. He was bringing a Malaysian folk singer and a documentary film crew to Chicago to film the singer studying Chicago blues. He wanted some suggestions, so I volunteered to set some stuff up for them and be their guide for a few days. What a cool experience! I met them Friday morning at a Muslim community center on the south side and led them to the Chicago Cultural Center where the singer (Halim Yazid- check him out on uTube; he has had 800,000 hits) performed in front of a noontime audience. We then went on a short tour of Chicago blues landmarks, and ended the afternoon at the Chess Records Museum. Later in the evening, we met at Buddy Guy’s club, where I got them an interview with Buddy and also with Lurrie Bell, who was performing that night. Shortly after that, they witnessed and filmed a jam session with Lurrie, Buddy and Billy Branch, a legendary blues harmonica player.

The next afternoon we went to Billy Branch’s house, where he and Halim jammed together in the basement and wrote and performed a song together. Just a really cool couple of days.

The following day, for something completely different, I photographed a band called Straight No Chaser. That was a challenge- 10 guys singing acappella and moving around like crazy! The guys were really nice, and put out the challenge- to get a good shot where you could see all 10 of them. Very tough, but I got a few.

Right before the show, I went out to find a good shooting spot and watch the opening, very funny video. Halfway through the video, the announcer started outlining the rules and regulations- no smoking, etc. When they came to the part of the announcement talking about no photos allowed, the video screeched to a halt and a new announcer yelled “Wait, not for our show. We want everyone to shoot as many pictures as you can, and post them to as many websites as you can. We also want anyone with a video camera to shoot as much as you can and post videos to uTube!”

WOW, WHAT A CONCEPT! And it really didn’t hurt their draw, they played in front of 10,000 people in 24 hours in Chicago.

Just got an email from my friend Joe telling me that it was nine years ago this week when a bunch of us got on a few buses in Lincoln, Nebraska and traveled around the Midwest visiting universities and churches talking about the problems in Africa.

The group was led by Bono, Ashley Judd and Chris Tucker and hit Lincoln, Des Moines, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville and ended up in Nashville. Each day was headlined with a performance at a college auditorium or a church, with Bono doing what he does best- doing his part to save the world. He would always start off each event with this comment: “There is nothing worse than a rock star with a cause.” Then he would disprove it, at least in his case. There is nobody better than him at distilling an argument down to it’s essential issues. And putting it forth so you see it in a way that makes you want to follow him anywhere. Both Ashley and Chris are brilliant speakers, and all were very funny.

Ashley’s sister Wynonna substituted for her on the final day. Not a lot of music but it put me in the mode of realization that the world can be a better place if people stop talking and start doing. I was also reminded of this trip when reading an interview with Bono in this weeks Time Magazine, where he made another impassioned plea for help in ending the AIDS epidemic- and explained how it could be done.

There were some lighter moments, as when Bono and Chris jumped up on stage with the hotel band in Cincinnati to sing covers with them at a Friday night singles party. Also in Cincinnati, at an AIDS clinic, I was standing next to a balding, middle aged guy in a blue sweater with a nametag on his sweater that said Peter Frampton. I thought that was pretty cool that a guy in Cincinnati had the same name as the famous English rock star. Then he started talking and lo and behold, it was the actual Peter Frampton, who now lives there!

Also, during that 10 day period, Bono was working on a newfangled thing called a blog! Every night about 1AM, the phone in my room would ring and this Irish voice would say “OK, let’s look at some photos.” I would grab my laptop, walk over to his room and we would go over the days photos. He would find the ones that matched what he was writing about, and I would go back to my room, size them and email them to some guy at a website that I had never heard of till that week- www.aol.com. Cool idea! I wonder if that blog thing will ever catch on.

Between all the laughs, awareness was raised in a lot of places, and maybe went a small way toward making the world a better place.

It was approaching Thanksgiving of 1988, and I got a call from my friend Larry White from Warner Brothers. He was traveling with a new band called Jane’s Addiction. They were coming to Chicago to play the day before and the day after Thanksgiving, and were going to be stuck in their hotel on Thanksgiving Day. He asked me if he could bring them over for a photo shoot. Although I had never heard of them, I said “Why not”?

Thanksgiving morning, to prepare, I went to the grocery store and bought some sliced turkey, a loaf of Wonder Bread, some mustard, some beer and a pumpkin pie. Early afternoon a taxi pulled up in front of my house. Out of it walked four tired LA musicians, and a tired Warner Brothers guy. They immediately dug into the food (It was kind of a joke on Thanksgiving, but they were real hungry).

After a great two hour shoot, I piled them into my car and gave them a tour of great gangster sites on the way back to their hotel! A good time was had by all.

The following year, their publicist asked me to come to LA to do a new shoot with them before their homecoming show there. I lined them up outside the LA Palladium, and did a quick shoot with them. Not a single guy in the band remembered me, the shoot, the gangsters or the food!

Oh well, maybe I should die my hair orange.

In May of 1983, I was asked by a publicist if I wanted to do a shoot with a new band from Georgia called REM. So a week later, I drove over to a venue called Park West in Chicago, and found four very quiet and shy guys lounging around the dressing room after sound check. I dragged them all outside across the street and posed them on a statue in a small park.  They had no idea why they were there, but they were very nice about the shoot.

In April of 1985, their publicist called me and asked me if I would like to go down to Athens and spend a day with them. The had a new album “Fables of the Reconstruction” coming out, and I was offered the band for a day of photography. I flew down to Atlanta, rented a car and drove to Athens and pulled up at their manager’s house. He jumped in and we drove to Michael Stipe’s house, where the band was waiting. Stipe jumped into my car, the rest of the band jumped into another car, and Stipe started directing me through the woods to one great shooting location after another. I kept waiting to turn the corner and see guys on a porch with banjos playing the theme to “Deliverence” but no such luck. After about five hours of this, we went back to Stipe’s house where I had left some lights and backgrounds and we did a few studio sessions. In my entire career, both before and after, I have never produced as much rich and varied material in a one day period!

It seemed that every time they came to town, I would do another shoot with them for one purpose or another. One trip to the suburbs found me hanging around with the band and Gary Zeckley, the guy who wrote “Superman” on of their big hits.

In March of 1989, I flew to Iowa to photograph them for Time magazine for an article about their “Green” album. Put them on stage and had their lighting guy turn on all the green lights on stage.

Then the band became huge, and access was immediately cut off. I never shot them again, but I ran into Peter Buck a few times when I was working with Brian Wilson. He was like a little kid around Brian. Every time we would play Seattle, he and Eddie Vedder would be waiting in line to get backstage to shake Brian’s hand after the show. It was always fun to help them out in those situations.

Last week the band called it quits. It will be interesting to see what they do next.

Seems like the good old days!

Wednesday:

Photographed a band called Mona. They were opening for some flavor of the week band. They look like they want to be today’s Clash. Nice guys, 2 from Ohio, 2 from Kentucky. They are getting big in Europe (they just spent 6 months there) and are close to getting a US following. Some really good songs, and great stage presence.. They only played for about 40 minutes, but I got the impression that they would be moving on to bigger and better things.

Friday:

A day with Mastadon. The loudest day I have spent in quite a while. The four guys from Atlanta rocked Chicago. Offstage, they have a quite southern charm. When they hit the stage, it sounds like you are in front of a jet plane ready for takeoff! The band is very smart- their lyrics are way above the level of the normal hard rock band. Not a lot of movement on stage, as all four of them sing and have to stay close to their microphones, but man do they rock!

Saturday:

I first photographed Judas Priest in 1978 at the Rockford Speedway (I think they were opening for Ted Nugent at the time) and have been a fan ever since. I have photographed them about 30 times since, including a 1980 portrait of Rob Halford on a Harley that graced the cover of Creem Magazine in 1980. They have always been extremely nice to me and very easy to work with, both band and crew.

So, down to Indiana to hang with Judas Priest. In the history of hard rock, they get a full chapter! One of the greatest shows on earth. They have smoke, lasers, a mirror ball, AND……..some of the greatest hard rock music ever played. The lineup has changed over the years, but the constants remain- Glen Tipton’s great guitar playing, Ian Hill holding down the bottom on bass, and Rob Halford, the most amazing voice in the history of heavy metal. The band was on their Epitaph tour, and rumors were flying around that this was their final tour. I asked Rob about that and he laughed. He said it only meant that they weren’t going to do any more 2 year world tours- Just 2 or 3 months at a time when they felt the need to rock. Then they proceeded to rock the house for two and a half hours, going back through their entire career, ending with about 40 minutes of their biggest hits.

One final note: before the show, I met the Global president of the company that makes and sells One Million Sharpies a day worldwide, and am now the proud owner of two limited edition Judas Priest Sharpies! A great time was had by all.

I photographed a band this week that might be around for the long run. They are so young that they had to cancel a show a week ago because the band members weren’t  old enough to get into the venue. They are called Dawes and hail from Los Angeles. Two of the guys are brothers, whose father, Lenny Goldsmith is the singer of the legendary Tower of Power. They have a great album out and are getting a ton of great critical acclaim.

Thursday night they played a sold out concert at the Metro in Chicago. An hour of great pop music, reminiscent of the Byrds, played to a sold out crowd who seemed to know the words to every song, the band gives me faith that there might be a future to the world of music.

Hanging out with them before the show, they were  very nice to me and the people that I was with, constantly offering us something to drink. When they hit the stage, there was a great intensity to what they were doing, coupled with some great musicianship and some perfect harmonies. Go see them while you can still get a ticket!!

In June of 1997, one of the radio stations in town (now defunct) put on the usual hodgepoge summer concert spectacular comprised of all the top people who they were playing at the time. It is a tradition throughout the industry that if you “make nice” with the radio station b=y playing their show, they will keep playing your records, or, if you are new they will start playing your records.

I would always ask for a photo pass, because it was a good way to get photos of many bands, both established and up and coming. One of the bands playing that day was Veruca Salt, a local band that was famous for about 5 minutes. They looked kind of cute and sassy so I took a few pictures of them.

After their set, we were all waiting around in the pit for the next band, a very weird set comprised of one half of the band Bush (Gavin the singer- Mr. Gwen Spefani and Nigel, the guitar player) doing acoustic versions of a few Bush songs. As they were very popular at the time, it was a perfect time to photograph the two guys on a big stage with good lights.

Into the pit walked a very harried manager type, who proceeded to pass out contracts to all the photographers, telling us that we couldn’t photograph the Bush guys unless we signed the contract. Many of the photographers pulled out their pens, but I proceeded to actually read the contract! Imagine my surprise when I found out that the contract was for Veruca Salt. I yelled for everybody to stop, and I asked the guy why he was bringing us their contract after they played (illegal and unenforceable- you can’t ask someone to agree to something after the fact; they have to be given the right to read a document beforehand and decide if they want to sign it). He admitted that he had forgotten to get them signed before the band went on. He told us that he worked for a big management company, and he forbid us to shoot Gavin and Nigel until we signed the contract. I tore up the contract and handed him the pieces as the Bush guys took the stage, and proceeded to photograph them. There was nothing he could do. The rest of the photographers followed my lead.

Too bad neither band had any real success after that and the pictures are pretty worthless!!

I have been watching the new season of Bored to Death, the fine HBO series on Monday nights. The stars of the show are Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson and Zach Galafianakis. Great stories and great acting. Every time I watch it I am reminded of some time spent with the star of the show.

In February, 1995, my friend Dan called me to ask me if I wanted to photograph a new band he was managing called Phantom Planet. I went to the House of Blues and met the band who showed me a cool passageway in the backstage area that had a Blade Runner feel to it. When I finished the shoot, the drummer was the only guy who stuck around to talk and even helped me carry my equipment to my car. We talked a lot about his starring role in the movie “Rushmore” but not much about his famous relatives- Cousin Nicholas Cage, Uncle Francis Ford Coppola, and Mom Talia Shire (Adrian from the Rocky movies.) The most amazing part of all this that a kid born and raised in privilege to Hollywood royalty was one of the most down to earth people I have ever met in this business- one of the truely nice guys.

Skip forward to 2000, and I was tour managing Brian Wilson. We played two nights at the Roxy in Los Angeles. I new that Jason was a Beach Boys fan, so I called Dan and invited him to bring Jason to the show. After the show, I found them in the back of the room and asked them to follow me to the dressing room to meet Brian. Jason laughed and told me he didn’t want to meet Brian, he just wanted to steal Brian’s empty Diet Coke can off the  keyboard on stage. I told him to go for it – he did. I hope he still has it as a souvenir!

Shortly after that, Jason left the band to be a full time actor, but the band still called me whenever the came to town. During one of those stops, Jacques Brautbar one of the guitarists showed me a little point and shoot camera that he had just purchased. He asked me for some photo tips, and became one of my long distance students:

http://www.facebook.com/jbrautbar

He must have gotten pretty good! Here is a quote from his Wikipedia bio:

He left the band in 2004, after their self-titled third album, to pursue a career in photography. Brautbar’s photo credits include Rolling Stone, Spin, Nylon, Jane and High Times magazines.

Wow- another student hits the big time

Just flew round trip to NYC this week and used it as an opportunity to read a great new book by my friend Aaron Cohen, the associate editor of Downbeat. His book is part of a series by Continuum Books. Each book dissects the making of a classic album. Aaron picked “Amazing Grace” by Aretha Franklin, the best selling gospel album of all time. A lot of people who write these books are fans who write about the album as a fan. But Aaron incorporates into the narrative not only the making of an album and the coming together of a group of people at the height of their careers, but also includes an examination of race and religion! He packed a ton into 150 or so pages and wrote in a manner that makes it impossible to put down.

This book reminded me of an Aretha experience that I had in the late 1980’s. I was assigned by InStyle magazine to cover a Christmas party at Aretha’s house outside of Detroit. The details were: Aretha cooks a Christmas meal for 20 or so of her closest friends, including many members of the Detroit Pistons. After dinner, the Temptations play in her living room! Sounds like a great time.

Went out to the airport to catch the short flight to Detroit. At the gate, I picked up the USA Today sports section. First thing I noticed was the headline about the great matchup in Los Angeles that night between the Lakers and the Pistons. Oh well, no Pistons at the party. Got to Detroit in the late afternoon so I could take pictures of Aretha cooking, rented a car and headed to Aretha’s house in the suburbs of Detroit. First thing I saw when I got to her house were two giant catering trucks parked in the driveway! Oh well. No Aretha cooking pictures! During the party, guests sat around and ate catered food! The biggest stars were some local Detroit TV anchors. Then came the entertainment- one Temptation (not an original member) singing with a karaoke machine!

Oh well, at least the plane trip was uneventful.

Over the last few weeks, I have been scanning my Kiss file and thinking back of my time with them. Kiss was the first big band that understood the idea of photography helping define their image. As big as they got, they always allowed people to shoot the whole show. It was an embarrassment of riches- wherever you pointed the camera, a great photograph was happening. Every Kiss show was the ultimate photo op!!

In the 1980’s, their career went on the skids, and so did their photo policy. In the beginning of that period, things were still good, and photos were plentiful. The band was playing without makeup, and they wanted pictures out there.

But then, things went downhill. In 1987, I was working for the Oprah Winfrey Show. They were doing a show about Jackie Collins, celebrity author, who had just released a book called “Rock Star.” They had already booked Pamela DesBarre, the legendary groupie and author of the book “ I’m With the Band.” They needed some rock stars, and called me for advice. I looked at my calendar and saw that Kiss was going to be playing in the area the day after the taping. So I called their office, and found out that Gene and Paul would be delighted to be on the show. This show produced the famous moment when Oprah asked Gene how long his tongue was and he replied “Long enough to make you a happy woman.”

After the taping, their road manager came up to thank me and asked me if I was shooting the show the following night. I told him to put a pass at the box office for me. When I got to the venue (50 miles away in northern Indiana) I found out that I would be allowed to shoot the first three songs and only license photos to one publication! I went backstage and found the road manager- he told me that the word came down from Gene. I asked him to ask Gene if the rule could be changed. He checked with Gene and came back and told me no. I handed him back the pass, got in my car and went home. I never photographed them again.

The final chapter in the story occurred when the band put the makeup back on and went back to world domination. Their road manager called me before the tour to tell me that the band had come up with a great way to get photographers in the fold. I asked him what it was. Here is his explanation: “First off, you get to shoot the whole show from wherever you want. At the end of the show, I will meet you at the side of the stage with an envelope. You will put all of your film in the envelope and write your contact info on the outside. We will then pay for all the processing! At that point we will send you back 5 or 6 frames approved by the band for you to use to send to magazines. The band will then own the rest of your photos, but you will have some great shots to send to magazines!” After a shocked silence, I asked him who had agreed to this. He answered “Plenty of people.” I asked him if any of the known photographers who had helped the band get to where they were had agreed to the terms, and he answered “No- I don’t understand it.” I tried to explain, but I was wasting my breath.