Julian Baird 11/02/2025 Julian Baird 11/02/2025

2025

There’s not always a lot to do on a February Thursday evening in Exeter, so when my friends over at MusoMuso asked if I wanted a photograph three hard hitting bands at the Exeter Phoenix I couldn’t say no!

Midweek Madness at the Exeter Phoenix

Moriaty

Local legends Moriaty to the stage first with a heart pounding set and bags of humour.

Ramkot

Next up where Belgium band Ramkot.

Mother Vulture

Headline band Mother Vulture tore up the stage with their set.

Julian Baird 31/12/2015 Julian Baird 31/12/2015

My Top 5 Bands of 2015

Every year I get the chance to photograph a stack load of bands. It's hard work but it can also be great way to discover new music. Most of the time I'll be familiar with the band, especially the headliners, but every now and again a band I haven't heard of blows me away.

This special blog post celebrates those bands. These are the artists that I remember the most from 2015 either through their music, stage presence or combination of both!

First up in my list is The Worried Men who were supporting Jefferson Starship at the Exeter Phoenix back in February. Lead singer Jamie really owned the stage and put on a great show! See my blog post of the gig here.

Jumping forward to June and I was back at the Exeter Phoenix to shoot The Sherpas. Cornish band Auction for the Promise Club were first on and their music really hit a note with me (excuse the pun!). You can also see my blog post of the gig here.

Covering festivals is a lot of work but when I shot Moriaty at Glas-Denbury in July I was blown away by the shear energy of the band. Talk about putting on a show! You can see lots more images from this festival by clicking here.

About a week later I was at another festival, Chagstock. You can see all my images from Chagstock here, but the standout act for me was Gaz Brookfield. I loved the lyrics of his songs and as soon as I got home picked up his live album.

Finally, and more recently, I saw Beardyman perform at the Exeter Phoenix in November. To say that Beardyman is a talent would be an understatement. His ability to mix up comedy with all sorts of music genres was just a pleasure to experience. You can see my blog post of the gig here.

If 2015 was anything to go by, 2016 should be a bumper year of discovering new music!

Finally, be sure to check out My Top 10 Images of 2015 blog post.

Julian Baird 31/12/2015 Julian Baird 31/12/2015

My Top 10 Images of 2015

As the end of 2015 approaches I like to take some time to look at all the images I took over the year. Looking at my 2015 collection I realise that I've had a very productive year. At the end of 2014 I wrote about my Favourite Images of 2014, a collection of my 5 personal favourites. I soon came to the conclusion that narrowing 2015 down to 5 images would be impossible.

So to celebrate 2015 I've selected 10 of my personal favourites. This gallery of images are the photographs that I'm either very pleased with (artistically speaking) or strike some sort of personal chord. An image should spark an emotional response and for me these images do just that.

I really hope you enjoyed my selection but if you want to know what my favourite bands were, please check out My Top 5 Bands of 2015 blog post.

See you all in 2016!

Julian Baird 22/09/2015 Julian Baird 22/09/2015

The Unplugged Blog is One Year Old!

A year ago today I started The Unplugged Blog as a quick way to talk about and share the images I had recently captured. My first blog post shared some images from the Lewis Watson gig at the Exeter Phoenix - you can read it here.

One year and 24 blog posts later I've shared images from The South, The Boomtown Rats, Europe, Grandmaster Flash and UB40! It's been a blast.

For those who read my blog on a regular basis you'll know that I like to share my images as soon as I can. And while I will post images direct and live from a gig on my Twitter feed, you can't beat the quality of a fully processed image from the computer. So when I get back from a gig the first thing I do is catalog and select my best images. I will then normally select one or two of my best images from the shoot to share on my blog. It's important to share some images while the gig is still fresh in everyone's mind!

So to celebrate The Unplugged Blog's first birthday I've collated a selection of some of my favorite images. Not only are there images from previous blog posts but I've included some images from gigs before I'd even started the blog. So have a good look through and you might see some images previously unshared!

I hope you enjoyed this selection of images, I certainly enjoyed taking them. Remember to keep checking my Twitter feed and The Unplugged Blog for all the latest images!

See you next time!

Julian Baird 14/07/2015 Julian Baird 14/07/2015

Glas-Denbury Music Festival!

For my first festival of the year I took the not so long trip to Denbury for the cunningly named Glas-Denbury. Though not as large as that other festival with a similar sounding name there was plenty to do and see, and of course plenty to photograph! In fact I barely got time to post any images to my Twitter feed I was so busy going from tent to tent. However, even though it was hard work it was great fun and I got to meet some awesome people.

I'm going to keep this post short on the words front and let the images do the talking. If you are looking for a review of the festival, the music and the people keep an eye out on MusicMuso for a full write up!

It was a long day but I really enjoyed shooting Glas-Denbury! It's got everything a photographer wants from a shoot. Lots of musical talent, happy festival folk and plenty of action. I've still got lots more photos to process so keep an eye on my Twitter feed and I'll let you know when I've posted them.

See you next time on the Unplugged Blog!