Sep 07 - Capturing GMF Through A Camera
By Stefano Blanca Sciacaluga
I’ve just turned twenty-seven and I think I’m ready to admit that I’m too old for this ish. I’ve just about recovered after three days of excess (including Friday’s Wine Festival) and now I’m ready to sit down and look at these photos and give you some commentary on some photos I took at this year’s Gibraltar Music Festival.
I’m a sucker for the kind of music that Enkalomaos play. It’s like rumba, rock, flamenco and awesome. Like Los Delinqüentes or Muchachito Bombo Infierno; the kind of thing that makes me proud to live stuck to Andalucia. The best thing is that they got the reaction they deserved. Ten out of ten, would see again.
I drank a lot of these over the two days, here’s my friend Daniel, probably sick of me taking photos of him, after an excellent set with his band Dead City Radio.
Bro’s twinning at Foxes, this is funny. Foxes was AWESOME but I felt bad for the chick who was definitely having a tough time dealing with the heat. How did nobody tell her not to wear black jeans and a black t-shirt? Anyway, she looked great though, great voice.
Shady weather for the shadiest performance. I really can’t remember seeing a bad performance last year, and in general this year every performance was excellent; but The Vamps were a joke. I must admit I did sing along to their songs, but I was a couple beers in. What I don’t get is why they had to have backing tracks for their vocals. I’m not against a backing track, Little Mix did it last year and they were good, but why have four guys on a stage with microphones and nobody’s really singing. Come to think of it was the singer even singing? Sorry Vamps.
Here’s my friend Luke, of Mystic Mountain, MellowMind, Orange Peel and Manatee fame, enjoying the Incredible Tiggs Da Author.
It wasn’t just Tiggs that was awesome on the Seaside Stage, the lighting was something else.
Here’s proof of how awesome Tiggs was. His performance was spot on, here’s a man that knows how to get the crowd going, and then he even had people come up on stage (including a girl that thought it was her show…) and even waited up round the side of the stage after his performance for photos. There he is in the middle, in the black hat looking like another festival goer.
I used to listen to Travis all the time in my mid-teens. I still love them, even if I’ve lost track for a few years. So I was a little shocked to see how old Fran Healy looks now but I was even more shocked to see how amazing they were. I mean, here’s a big band and the guy was cool enough to jump off stage and onto somebody’s shoulders for a song. Excellent crowd interaction again. Twenty out of ten, would definitely watch every weekend.
As much as I was enjoying Travis by this time I also felt like this little fella. My mostly sedentary lifestyle meant that I was absolutely shattered by the time they came on, so I felt for this kiddo who probably didn’t even know who these ‘old’ folks were.
But I still had a little bit more energy left, so we wandered back to the Main Stage after a break and headed a little closer to the stage for Ne-Yo. This is definitely somebody you need to be in the crowd for. I don’t think I’ve seen any big hip hop artists, I’m trying to think, but if I haven’t watching Ne-Yo was definitely the best introduction. What a performance, world class backing band with the best dance moves (Ne-Yo, his backing dancers and the musicians were all dancing), and recognisable hit after hit. Absolutely amazing, I loved every minute and it’s only got me wanting more. Would definitely see again but would be a million times better if Pitbull came out and not just a clip. He’s next on my list together with R. Kelly.
Day two: Still tired but with energy for another day. Here’s my friend Urge watching The Fratelli’s. I’m not going to lie, they were great. I think I have a copy of that first, famous record somewhere. Proper lad rock and they definitely had all the lads going.
After a whole day of being in the sun, and a whole other day before that, nothing looked better than this sunset. And it made me really appreciate not only the sunset but the beautiful Gibraltar sunset and how incredible it was to experience it there, at this great music festival on our doorstep.
I loved the food cart idea. I wasn’t too hot on the beach bit for the food court area, it was too much sand, maybe a little less would’ve been great. But these food trucks were nice, shame the queues were huge, but it must mean they were great.
I used up the last of my energy on Stereophonics. They were SO GOOD. The crowd were responsive, they were definitely having a good time, especially their drummer (who was pretty great) and they were a great way to end my GMF16 experience; because I didn’t have energy for anything else after that, unfortunately, evening if the party continued. I like this shot. There were a bunch of welsh flags about and they even got one on stage (and a Gibraltar flag, although that wasn’t around for long). Excellent show, definitely add to the list of acts I would see over and over.
More photos coming soon at: http://blog.stefanoblanca.com
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