I first saw Motörhead back in 1984. It was their first tour of Australia and it was one of the most blistering gigs I have seen in my life. It was the one gig where I remember my body being pushed to one side by an invisible presence known as volume. Yeah, the sound that was pounding off the stage like invisible waves was pushing me to one side. I had no idea what it was but I think after that night, I suffered permanent ear loss. My left ear was never the same after that night and I followed it up by seeing the band for a second time the next night. Yep, brain turned to pure mush.

So many bands boast ‘loudest band in the world’ – unless that boast has a Motörhead logo underneath it, they are liars. No one comes close!

Over the years, I’ve seen Motörhead about four or five times. Always amazing. Always a kick ass rock and roll show. Tonight, however, I was working for the promoter – the ever amazing Red Ant Touring as I would be photographing the band’s Meet & Greet with 40 lucky fans a few hours before the show.

I have done a few of these Meet & Greets for them and at this point in time, its old hat – but still, it requires planning and consideration as punters have paid top dollar to get their photo taken. I take it very seriously but today’s proved to be a ton of fun because well, Motörhead are a ton of fun and the nicest buncha freaking guys you could meet.

Wandering through the backstage area of Festival Hall, I almost found myself in a Spinal Tap moment as I totally lost my way back to the allotted photo area after a toilet break. I laughed to myself and then drummer Mikkey Dee appeared from outta nowhere and pointed me back in the right direction. He took the time to introduce himself to me and to the support act who were also wandering around. Kudos to Mikkey for being so damn nice. Fantastic stuff!

The Meet & Greet area was prepared and a plan of attack was sketched out on how we would handle 40 Motörhead fans in order and unity making it all a smooth and safe process for both band and fan alike.

The whole thing went as smooth as silk. It was a breeze and a blast at the same time. Motörhead were so cool towards their fans and to the photog (me!) – by posing it up and the great one Lemmy, pulling all sorts of faces in my general direction as we snapped away each photo.

When all was said and done, I wanted to get the photos off my camera and onto a computer as soon as was humanly possible. I had my Macbook with me but I preferred to drive home and do it on my desktop straight away. I rushed home and took care of business. The photos turned out fantastic. I was well pleased with them all.

After some rest and a brief sit on the couch – which over the past 5 days has seen me on it for about 10 minutes – it has been that crazy of late. I grabbed a bite and headed back to the venue as I would be shooting the gig as well.

Refer to the opening para, for the first time in my gig going experience, I wore earplugs tonight. The band blasted onto the stage. They looked and sounded as fucking Motörhead as you could get. Loud, pounding rock and roll delivered with speed, precision and pure class. Even through the plugs which were wedged in so tightly, I could feel my teeth rattle! With my chest leaning on the stage to take my shots, I could just feel my rib cage almost part from the vibration seeping over the edge of the stage. Fucking hell!

It was such a great day all round and I’ve been smiling like a chesire cat from the get-go! Thank you to the wonderful folk at Red Ant for making this Metalhead’s dream come true!

First of all, before we kick things off here, I gotta thank the promoters Blunt, Metal Obsession and Soundwave – for allowing the photographers to stay in the venue after our respective three song allotment for each of the four acts on tonight’s bill: Machine Head, Hatebreed, Bleeding Through and Emmure. You made our lives a helluva lot easier and we didn’t have to endure the stupidity of being escorted out of the venue after the first three songs. (As was the case for the Lamb Of God, Devil Driver, Shadow’s Fall & Hire On Fire gig back in December).

At one point, it looked like it was going to be a repeat of that as Emmure had hit the stage and all the photogs were still outside and waiting to be let in. Thankfully, we were escorted in and the shooting began in earnest.

Emmure hit the stage a little before 7pm and played in front of a mostly empty Festival Hall. They tried their guts out and put in a serviceable set. Can’t say I am a fan of that particular brand of music but I did my best to get some shots under the very, very limited light show they had at their disposal. (2/5)

Security was quick to pull us out of the pit after the 3 song limit and were proceeding to escort us out. Oh no, not again. I quickly flashed my pass AND the ticket we had been given by the promoter and were subsequently allowed to stay in the venue. My fellow photogs and I got to witness the remainder of each band’s set from stage-right. Much nicer than sitting outside the venue in-between bands I-can-assure-you!

I thought Bleeding Through were a little on the disappointing side. Granted, they were without two band members and had fill-ins take their place. It all seemed rather sloppily put together but I can only imagine how hard it would be to replace your drummer and guitarist for any given gig. All in all, a pretty forgettable performance. (2/5)

Hatebreed on the other hand, well, they were simply phenomenal. They received tremendous support from the crowd and put forth a blistering set. Seriously, they blew me away and if tonight was any indication, I’d clearly go and see these guys again when next on our shores. (5/5)

Headliner Machine Head are quickly moving to the upper echelon of Metal acts. After a few years of some amazing albums, they are quickly becoming a slick, polished, well oiled machine. It was an absolute pleasure shooting them. There were several times where I was getting total eye contact with main man Rob who stared me down at one point as I was clicking away frantically. He finished his verse off with giving me the mighty finger, but I was getting some great, great expressions from him and was well pleased with the resultant shots. An amazing live band all round who can now mix it up with the big boys. A class act! (5/5)

Back in 1996, I was as big a Marilyn Manson fan as you could get. The band, having signed to Trent Reznor’s label ‘Nothing Records’ – had released a couple of classic albums, ‘Portrait of An American Family’ and the magnificent ‘Antichrist Superstar’. A couple of records I played to death. Matter of fact, I still listen to them today.

I first saw Manson in concert in early 1997. The band were still practically unknown and touring Australia promoting the aforementioned ‘Antichrist Superstar’ opus. Witnessing the band playing at St.Kilda’s then Palace venue – was an amazing experience and a gig that truly, changed my life. They were so dastardly evil and dangerous back in the day – I felt as if I had watched Lucifer himself appear on that stage with arms stretched out in a sickly Jesus Christ pose, Manson stepped out from a cloud of smoke and tore the Palace a new one. It was a classic gig!

And here we are…

To be perfectly honest, I don’t even know how I landed the photopass for Marilyn Manson’s first Melbourne show at Festival Hall. I remember approaching the promoter for a pass to Dream Theater’s forthcoming tour and then many weeks later, there was an email in my inbox informing me of ‘Marilyn Manson photo accreditation’.

Nice! I wasn’t gonna complain.

This would be the biggest gig I have shot and my first time at Festival Hall. But, there was a catch.

One song, and then to be escorted out of the venue.

I had heard of such strict photo policies before and even tho I did feel a tad upset at having such limited access, I quickly debated in my head whether I should bother or not but when all was said and done… one song is better than no songs right?

And it was at this point… right then and there that I knew, I knew I would never bitch about the standard three-song limit ever again(!)

I arrived at Festival Hall to meet with my contact at the allotted time of 8.45pm. There were several photogs present, some I have shot alongside before but I remained quiet and truth be told, I was a little nervous about the night.

Just before showtime, we were escorted from backstage to the front of the stage and then to stage-right. The band had a huge black curtain present and that would have to drop and be gathered by the roadies before we were allowed center-stage in the photo-pit.

I felt my heart pounding in my chest as the lights lowered and the bottom-end tone of the intro music kicked into gear.

The curtain fell. The lights were blinding and I watched as the other 8 photogs scrambled ahead. It was so surreal. It was as if we were running into battle about to go over a trench and face enemy fire.

Man, the buzz was amazing.

Somehow I found myself directly in-front of Marilyn Manson himself. He was a mere inches away from my camera and I and knowing full well that the song had barely minutes to go, I clicked away frantically all the while conscious of getting it all in focus and getting it all composed as best as I could.

In a blink of an eye the song was coming to a close and I looked up as Manson was leering down at me. I then felt the cold wetness of a beer being spilt over the left side of my head and looking up and seeing an evil grin stare back at me. All I could do was high-five the man before being dragged away by the bouncers and escorted out of the venue.

Our song was up. The night was over.