Supergroup Goodnight Wembley returned for one night only (In Cape Town, they did another night only in Joburg too) to the delight of the fans who showed up at Mercury and with support from opening acts Stoker and The Dirty South. The show wasn’t packed, but it was a fun night filled with energy and laughs.
Funnily enough, the last band I shot in 2016 was also the first band I shot in 2017 – and at the same venue too! The Stone Jets were the perfect opening act for quirky American singer-songwriter (and Lumineer) Stelth Ulvang, who returned to SA earlier this month for another round of lovely and intimate shows.
Here are some shots from his Cafe Roux show, featuring his multi-instrumentalist partner Dorota Szuta and local drum machine Werner von Waltsleben.
The danger of doing something too often is that it loses its charm – I shoot a lot and sometimes having a camera with me just feels like work, but I tried really hard to make time to shoot more recreationally in 2016.
Joining Instagram helped a lot in that regard – similarly to when I started this blog 6 years ago, having a platform to publish work is a great incentive to push yourself to shoot more.
Here are some personal/previously unpublished images from the last 12 months as well as some of my personal shots from Instagram.
And just like that it’s 2017, and even more scarily, my 10th last.fm anniversary. I honestly can’t believe I joined it a decade ago.
Though I don’t spend much time on the site these days I still find the stats and graphs fascinating, athough I never judge my favourites of the year by the data alone, it really does come down to overall impression of the music over number of plays.
So herewith is a roundup of my favourite music of 2016.
My last gig shoot of 2016 was really lovely – the Stone Jets put on a great show at Cafe Roux in Shortmarket street. It was my first time at the recently opened city counterpart to the Noordhoek venue and I really enjoyed the vibe. I always struggle shooting seated events especially where people are eating bit generally everyone felt pretty relaxed and I didn’t feel overly stressed about getting in the way.
The show itself was great too – the Stone Jets get better each time I see them and have a great stage presence, where any awkwardness becomes charming and funny. All in all a really great night and a perfect gig to cap off 2016.
Here are some shots from the night.
