For my first 2025 blog I am sharing my first Substack post. It’s all firsts today!
Triptych VIII
A very exciting return to gig photography this week, with my first shoot of 2025. What an incredible year of live music experiences shooting for Brighton and Hove News in 2024. From the cavernous environment of The Brighton Centre, the beauty of the theatrical Brighton Dome, the stunning place of worship in the shape of St Georges Church, and a cornucopia of grassroots upstairs, downstairs and backroom pub venues. It is the experience of shooting in the packed, intimate, shadowed, energetic, unique pubs that always lingers in the memory. And one of my favourites of these is The Hope & Ruin – hosting the excellent Triptych VIII over Thursday,Friday and Saturday this week. Situated just 5 minutes down from Brighton Station as you walk towards the seafront, my journey on Queens Road always brings that wonderful pre-gig feeling of excited anticipation and professional nerves.
Brighton promoters Love Thy Neighbour never fail to deliver something pretty special with their curated artists, and this time was no exception. Triptych includes three nights of music, with three bands performing each night – I can see what they’ve done there. After all 3 is a magic number 😉 I attended the first night, with two acts that I am happily familiar with, and the added thrill of seeing someone new.
The Hope & Ruin has a small stage in the main bar and the upstairs room is the performance specific space. Tonight we are upstairs. As a gig photographer the politeness of the audience at this venue never ceases to amaze me. It’s always my aim to be as invisible as I can be – but I also want to get those shots. There is no pit here, but people always signal for me to step in front of them. The stage being small adds that sense of energy and interaction to the images. It does bring challenges as well in terms of capturing the drummer as the band members move, and tonight the use of the dreaded red light was pretty dominant. So quite a bit of playing with those Lightroom sliders in post production.
Our three bands were Van Zon, Big Long Sun and Charlie Keen’s Silver Birch.
Charlie Keen’s Silver Birch
First on the line up is the beautifully named and wonderfully talented multi-instrumentalist Charlie Keen’s Silver Birch – armed tonight with his trombone, shruti box and a very pretty orange Korg synth – all coming together to create something very individual. For the next half hour we are then transported through some heavenly soundscapes interspersed with Charlie’s humble storytelling around the roots of each piece. These include inspiration from the Egrets at Cuckmere Haven, a neolithic monument in Thornborough, coping with loneliness, and journeys on the Gosport Ferry. After years of playing his trombone with various acts, including Skydaddy, Keg, Terry Pack’s Trees and Squid, this project sees this beautiful instrument taking the starring role. Much like Charlie’s fellow performers this evening, he is keeping a low profile online, so I felt particularly privileged to experience this music live.
Big Long Sun
Big Long Sun is the creation of Jamie Broughton, another performer who seems to keep a very low profile on social media. A Brighton based multi instrumentalist who combines analogue and digital instruments in creating his sound. He was joined on stage tonight by seven fellow musicians, including the violinist and vocalist from tonight’s headline act, Mina Alexander. His debut album Speaking is solely formed by James in his bedroom, so experiencing these tracks performed by this very enigmatic collection of artists was something quite special. Another 30 minute set leaving the audience very much wanting more. As well as delivering songs that seem to range from eccentric pop, through punk tinged energy, embracing fuzzy guitar and finishing on a climactic track interwoven with performance poetry and physically entertaining interplay between the performers. It definitely left the audience quite awestruck!
Van Zon
The headliners for the night are Brighton based Van Zon, only formed in 2023. My online research tells me they are named after a dutch serial killer, however ‘van zon’ also translates as ‘from the sun’ – both interpretations sounding intriguing. It’s been almost a year since my other Van Zon experience, and since then we have seen the release of their first single Cannon Fodder and much to the joy of their followers they have two more shows coming up soon, both in London. Van Zon describe themselves as being an experimental folk rock band, but they have a sound that is hard to define in terms of musical genre. With the violin from Mina Alexander having quite an impact on their sound, we also have Charlie West on guitar and vocals, Daniel Scott-Warren on clarinet and synth, Lottie Skala on bass and vocals and Ewan Vellinga on drums. With just a minor tech problem with one of the guitars, the band delivered their beautifully epic songs filling the space with unexpected otherworldly soundscapes that held the room spellbound.
To read the full reviews of the whole festival written by Music Editor Nick Linazasoro and Mark Kelly, head over to Brighton and Hove News
Thank you Hope & Ruin, Love Thy Neighbour and Triptych for a truly magical night!
For the gear geeks out there – I was shooting with the Canon EOS R, 85mm 1.2 and 35mm 1.8.