Not all live gigs are created equal, and some of the hardest gigs to shoot are those that are low key, quite and intimate.

I reckon anyone with a photopass for KISS could come away with stunning images, but this is about 99% down to the amazingly high levels of lighting, production, costumes, make up and the insane and over the top performances given by the likes of Gene Simmons.

I got down early and had a word with the tech guy and he showed me the proposed lighting for the show – not good news, James was going to be playing in near darkness, the only lighting coming from a few dim red lights.

I set to work setting up a couple of  remote flashguns, one up high and to the rear to throw some backlight and one to the side of the stage, triggered via my cheap rf-602 radio transmitters. I figured this would give me some nice contrasty lighting.

Now to make matters worse, I knew I had to be ultra discrete at this gig.

The venue was tiny and the gig invite only, packed full of industry types, journalists and other important people, and  I was the only photographer there.

Not to mention James’ music being very atmospheric and moody, with songs that make more use of silence than most.

The last thing I wanted to do was draw attention away form the performance and I figured I could get away with triggering my strobes maybe 5 times max over 3 songs, and shooting available light inbetween Рalthough even this was kept to a bare minimum as the sound of the shutter and focus motor during the eerily quite songs sounded horrendously loud, and  I was sure everyone would turn around and start tutting at me.

Last minute the line up was changed around and James came on before the support act – which completely scuppered my chance of a practice.

This was followed by a curtain being drawn just as James came to the stage which totally obscured the flash I had set up towards the rear, so I climbed a chair and reached up to switch it off.

This is what I came away with in the end, which the Observer ran with their review – with the original¬†commission¬†coming from a mag that is running a feature in their next edition and had requested b&w shots, which I’ll release when it has been published.