Zurich, 15 April 2010
When I was much younger Ultravox were part of the New Wave pop movement if my aging memory serves me correctly (I have to admit it was not quite my scene…). Midge Ure did Live Aid with Sir Bob Geldof, and also that amazing song ‘Vienna’ which was held off the UK No.1 spot by an awful novelty track. So it was a touch nostalgic for me to get a pass to shoot them.
We were told ‘first four songs’ and joked that was a bit long for us given the ‘training’ we all have for just three… When the band came on we realised just why we got four… the first song was nothing but brief white strobes and nothing else! There was no point in even turning the camera on and we all stood there looking at each other and waiting! Songs 2 and 3 proved much better, with nice orange lighting on Midge. Song 4 was solid blue the whole time and simple ‘moody’.
I shot all these on the 5DII, f/2.8 and ISO3200. The lights were surprisingly bright and I had a good range of fast shutters. Starting off with the 24-70mm, switched to the 16-35mm, and ended up on the 70-200mm. The songs were slow paced enough to give me plenty of time to make these lens changes and the action on stage was less than hectic… still there were some nice shots of a very famous band and person.
Again, the full set is at usgang.ch
