New Model Army at The Forum

17 December 2009 – Tonight I photographed New Model Army for the 4th time in 5 years and I was really excited about this show because I have been a huge fan of their work for years.

The night started off perfectly as I exited the tube station in Kentish Town to be welcomed by snow coming down while I made my way to The Forum. As I had remembered from the passed shows, the band came out on to the stage and with the help of front man, Justin Sullivan, killed the stage. The crowd was very different to the last bunch of shows that I have photographed but it was really good to welcome some new fresh older faces to the good evening.

Majority of the material tonight was from their newer work which I am still getting into but the crowd fed off from the start. The older tracks that they played included Get Me Out, Whitecoats, Vagabonds, What a Wonderful Way To Go, I Love the World and the most well known 51st State and these really brought back amazing memories of good times with friends back in the day and discussions about things that would change our lives.

The show was unbelievable and I feel privileged to have worked with and witnessed these guys in action again. Unfortunately the lighting was really extreme in terms of the colours and majority of it was supplied from the back of the stage with only red lights being used from the front. I hate moaning about lighting but I really wish I could have done better with this show and this could have been so easily done with some simple fill in flash but there was a no flash policy so these will have to do. Justin is an incredible front man and I really wanted to capture some of the presence that he has and some of the emotion that he sings with.

Make sure to check these guys out. Next year they will have been playing for 30 years but they still have as much relevance as they did back then.