Iconic music photography donated to Stagehand fund
Celebrated photographers including Rankin, Tony McGee and Jill Furmanovsky have donated iconic music shots to raise money for Stagehand’s Covid-19 Crew Relief Fund.
Over 100 iconic prints of globally treasured artists such as David Bowie, Grace Jones and The Rolling Stones, are now on sale for £95 each for a limited time of four weeks, with 100% of proceeds going to the hardship fund.
Stagehand was launched over two decades ago by live production trade association PSA and claims to be the only UK charity specifically dedicated to providing hardship funding for crew who have fallen on tough times.
“The livelihoods of people working in live music productions has been decimated by the effects of Covid-19,” says Mike Lowe, chair of Stagehand’s board of trustees. “Every day we hear from people who are struggling and Stagehand is raising funds to help those in most need, with the simple aim of helping to keep roofs over heads and food on tables.”
“None of these photographs would have been possible without the artists and those who support them”
The launch of Prints For Music for Stagehand was organised by leading photographer Ed Robinson who says: “Like so many others, the struggles of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected me deeply on a personal level as well as professionally. I have reached out to the people I know in the music and photographic industries with the simple idea to try to help those who are not getting the support they need to survive this crisis.
“For many photographers who have been privileged enough to have been given access to photograph these artists, it has only been made possible by the efforts of their production teams. None of these photographs would have been possible without the artists and those who support them. This initiative is our way of giving back in their time of need. It will help preserve their livelihoods and enable the shows to go on in the future.”
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Prints For Music also features artists including Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Bob Marley, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Marina Diamandis, The Streets, Florence and the Machine, Liam Gallagher, Jonny Greenwood, Beth Ditto, Tina Turner, Brett Anderson, Alice Cooper, Sting, Stormzy and Kate Nash. The sale is open on Prints For Music until 21 December 2020.
The Stagehand fund opened for applications last month (15 October) and initially awarded grants of £500 to help with “keeping a roof over heads and food on the table”.
The charity is working on a number of fundraising initiatives for crew who have been financially impacted by Covid-19 including a virtual tip jar and an upcoming memorabilia raffle.
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IQ 87: Special end-of-decade issue out now
Optimism about the future of the live entertainment business is high as we enter a new decade, with business leaders predicting further global growth throughout the 2020s in IQ’s end-of-decade issue, which is now available to read online.
Issue #87 sees IQ host a ‘virtual panel’ with some of the industry’s most important execs – including CAA’s Emma Banks, Oak View Group’s Tim Leiweke, Artist Group International’s Marsha Vlasic and Frontier Touring’s Michael Gudinski – as they reflect on the 2010s while offering their predictions for the decade ahead.
Move Concerts’ Phil Rodriguez, another panellist, says he sees opportunities in “consolidation on all fronts – promotion, venues and ticketing”, while Banks is looking to Asia, explaining that while China is “still not an easy market”, the potential for “certain acts” is huge. (If you can’t wait for the online version, read more on page 38.)
Covering the final IQ of the 2010s is Stormzy, as shot at Glastonbury by legendary rock photographer Jill Furmanovsky, who explains the story behind the photo in an online Q&A, published today.
IQ 87 also sees the return of the annual European Festival Report, which finds a mixed picture characterised by increased ticket prices, falling attendances and lower capacities; and The Gaffer award, which goes to John ‘Lug’ Zajonc, production manager for Metallica.
Issue #87 sees IQ host a ‘virtual panel’ with some of the industry’s most important execs
Elsewhere, Derek Robertson goes on tour with Dido to learn about the British star’s touring comeback, while Adam Woods heads to Russia for this issue’s market report.
There’s also everything you need to know about the Game of Live – aka ILMC 32 – ahead of the conference’s return to the Royal Garden Hotel in London in March.
All that, plus your usual dose of news analysis, new signings, emerging tech, comment from industry experts and much more.
As always, most content from the magazine will appear online in some form over the next few months. However, if you can’t wait for your fix of essential live music industry features, opinion and analysis, click here to subscribe now.
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‘Nothing beats a photographer who loves music’: Jill Furmanovsky Q&A
In 1972, Jill Furmanovsky attended a two-week course on photography at the Central School of Art and Design in London. A lucky break gave her the chance to be in-house photographer at London’s Rainbow Theatre in the 1970s, shooting concerts and rehearsals by the likes of Pink Floyd, the Faces, Led Zeppelin and Miles Davis.
She went on to shoot for the music press, as well as directly for bands such as the Police, the Pretenders, Oasis and, most recently, Catfish and the Bottlemen. Nearly 40 years on from her first shoot, she is one of the most respected rock and roll photographers in the world, and is also the founder and artistic director of Rockarchive.
Following her recent interview at Festival Congress – and as issue 87 of IQ Magazine, whose cover features her photo of Stormzy at Glastonbury Festival, hits the shelves – IQ catches up with Furmanovsky to talk Rockarchive, Instagram, Bowie and more…
IQ: What’s the story behind the cover of IQ’s end-of-decade issue?
Jill Furmanovsky: This is Stormzy at Glastonbury 2019. I thought he put on a superb show (much better and infinitely more human than Kanye West’s a few years earlier). The Eavis family has championed new artists from the word go and taken risks with giving them the best stage in the world – the Pyramid – in front of the best audience in the world: Glastonbury!
Why did you choose it?
I gave IQ quite a choice, but for me this was the right one to celebrate the end of a decade and the beginning of a new one.
What motivated you to set up Rockarchive in 1998?
Well, we don’t have a rock and roll museum in the UK, which is beyond belief. Rockarchive was set up in 1998 as a way for the public to find out about rock and roll photography. We encourage our 60-plus photographers to dig out unseen work that forms the basis of the whole history of the rock and roll era – which is now nearly over, but will be an inspiration to coming generations.
We fund ourselves by selling prints, but barely survive. Really we should be brought into the public arena by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and given a permanent space for fans and scholars.
“We don’t have a rock and roll museum in the UK, which is beyond belief”
You’ve previously mentioned Magnum Photos as an inspiration. Why?
Their support for truth in reportage, copyrights for photographers, and promoting the art of photography. Their business model no longer works as it used to in the analogue era, but it’s good that they’ve survived.
How has concert photography changed since Rockarchive launched?
Less access, more photographers and, of course, the endless phone cameras!
With user-generated content now so excessive, what to you is stand-out concert photography today?
Phone pictures can be good but nothing beats a good professional photographer who loves music and knows how to shoot it. It’s the classic ‘the right moment’ shots that do it for me every time.
Would you ever archive a great photograph from an unknown photographer? For example, a great iPhone photo taken by a fan that you found on Instagram?
I don’t have time to look through Instagram! But I’ve nothing against the equipment and never have. I use a phone to take my personal pictures all the time. They tend to be better in bright light than concert lighting, I find.
“It’s the classic ‘the right moment’ shots that do it for me”
Do you shoot in digital, or film, or a mixture of both? Why?
I mainly shoot digital, as it’s more practical for clients who want the images quickly. However, I do still shoot a bit of film on a Leica M6, mainly B&W, and I love the economy of exposures available and the process of developing and printing images in a wet darkroom.
Looking ahead to the next decade, what’s the future for Rockarchive?
We are working with Manchester University to make our There is a Light That Never Goes Out exhibition remains in Manchester.
I also have my eye on a building I’d like as the headquarters for a Centre of Rock and Roll Culture. It’s in the borough of Camden… will someone on the council there come and speak to me soon?! If we don’t find a long-term solution to keeping Rockarchive going, we are in danger of losing our rock history archives to the US or China, which would be terrible.
For now, just buy a print – each one sold keeps us going for a bit longer, and is a good investment, too!
Who’s the greatest performer you shot live, and the greatest that you wished you’d had?
James Brown, Bob Marley, Jeff Buckley, Kate Bush, Chrissie Hynde, Bob Dylan, Neil Young… I can’t chose just one!
I would love to have shot the Beatles, but I was too young – and more on David Bowie. I only photographed him live once and a bouncer ripped the film out of my camera…
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