Julian Baird Julian Baird

A Recap of My 2023 and 2024 Live Music Photographs

A recap of the photographs I captured in 2023 and 2025 featuring Muse, Snow Patrol, Nick Mason and Del Amitri!

Where Have I Been?

While I have been out photographing concerts and festivals as normal, I have been rather slack and not posted on the Unplugged Blog since May 2022!  But I've got some great concerts to photograph in 2025 and I will be sharing those photographs here on the blog.  Before I do though I thought I'd share some of the photographs I've captured from the last two years.  It seems a shame not to share those photographs, especially as I have photographed so many amazing artists and bands!   

There's a lot of photos to share with you, so I'll keep the words to a minimum, but let's make a start with one of the biggest bands in the world!

Muse - Plymouth, 27th May 2023

Not only is Muse one of the biggest bands in the world, but I'm also a massive fan.  So having the opportunity to photograph them in Plymouth was something I was definitely not going to miss.  Due to the position and limited space available for photographers at the gig, it was tricky to get the compositions I wanted, but this doesn't take the shine off photographing such an amazing gig!

Beautiful Days Festival, Devon - August 2023

My annual attendance of my local festival is always a highlight and a great oppertunity to photograph some amazing bands and artists.

LYR, Exeter Phoenix - 2nd October 2023

After hearing Simon Armitage interviewed on the Rockonteurs podcast I knew I had to check out LYR live when they played the Exeter Phoenix.

Ocean Colour Scene, Bristol - 4th December 2023

Plymouth Summer Sessions - June 2024

This was my first time covering a Summer Sessions and it proved to be an excellent chance to photograph some really big names!

Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, Plymouth - 17th June 2024

After the disappointment of being turned away just as Nick took the stage in Plymouth in 2022, it all came together for his Bristol gig. A rare opportunity to photograph one of my musical heroes.

Sleeper, Exeter Phoenix - 21st June 2024

Beautiful Days, Devon - August 2024

My annual pilgrimage to my local festival yielded another collection of cracking photographs!

Snow Patrol, London - 11th September 2024

What’s better than photographing Snow Patrol? Getting to photograph them again ahead of their new album release and tour!

King Creosote, Exeter Phoenix - 23rd November 2024

Del Amitri, Bristol - 8th December 2024

If photographing Muse, Snow Patrol and Nick Mason wasn’t enough, I finished off 2024 by photographing a band that I’d been listening to since high school!

Read More
Uncategorized Julian Baird Uncategorized Julian Baird

My 10 Favourite Images of 2016

It's that time of year again when I share with you my favourite 10 images of 2016. These are my personal favourites. Images that I love because they have emotion or capture a special moment. 

Looking back at my images for 2016 I soon realised I had a lot of great images to pick from. This is always a good position to be in!

So Let's get straight into it and let me show you my 10 favourites.

93fe3-20160528-mumfordandsons-10787-11.jpg
aa0d4-20160529-coldplay-13093-25.jpg
a5f21-20160528-sigma-9998-05.jpg
417d6-20160529-biffyclyro-12968-24.jpg
a7971-20160529-wolfalice-12031-18.jpg
53306-20160308-wetwetwet-7080-12.jpg
65159-20160529-yearsandyears-11940-17.jpg
459c0-20160820-reef-15584-173.jpg
bd6e4-20160528-tinyfolds-10634-364.jpg
15ffe-20160529-crowd-11680-11.jpg

As you can see It was a bumper year for me.   I got the chance to photograph some of the biggest artists on the planet as well as some of the most interesting new bands out there. If 2016 is anything to go by I can't wait for 2017. 

Want more?  Why not check out My 5 Favourite Bands of 2016 or look at My Top 10 Images from 2015 and My Top 5 Bands of 2015

Read More
Uncategorized Julian Baird Uncategorized Julian Baird

Beautiful Days Festival - 19th to 21st August 2016

b1e28-img.jpg

Beautiful Days

Beautiful Days is one probably one of the biggest festivals in the South West and it's only a few miles from my doorstep.  So when I was asked by my friends over at MusicMuso to photograph the festival I jumped at the chance.  

When I first arrived on the Friday evening I was taken back by the sheer size of the event and the happy vibe from the crowd was contagious.  I immediately asked myself why I hadn't attended before!  So while I noted that I really must attend one year as a punter, my priority was to take photographs and capture the spirit of this wonderful, family friendly festival.  

Over the the three days of the festival I had no end of opportunities to shoot some brilliant live acts.  It was a busy few days and I barely had time to stop as I walked from stage to stage, but that's half the fun to be honest.  It's not just the musicians that make the even but the crowd and I met some awesome people on my walks between stages.

So this blog post is a celebration of Beautiful Days, the musicians and the crowd so please go ahead and enjoy some of my photographic highlights from this epic festival!

Friday and Saturday

77927-20160820-reef-15584-173.jpg
e51a8-20160820-reef-14975-172.jpg
f29d6-20160820-reef-14984-174.jpg
e7a59-20160820-reef-14972-171.jpg
a5968-20160820-theproclaimers-15061-176.jpg
c2272-20160820-theproclaimers-15080-177.jpg
362b1-20160820-theproclaimers-15184-180.jpg
fd534-20160820-james-15191-181.jpg
4926f-20160820-james-15241-183.jpg
ee14f-20160820-james-15723-182.jpg
6aef7-20160820-terrorvision-14819-162.jpg
80030-20160820-terrorvision-14827-163.jpg
893b0-20160820-terrorvision-15405-164.jpg
2bb01-20160820-terrorvision-15430-165.jpg
8cf15-20160820-thedamned-15661-178.jpg
60431-20160820-thedamned-15671-179.jpg
cd04f-20160820-themembranes-14875-166.jpg
5751c-20160820-themembranes-14886-167.jpg
0c13c-20160820-wardthomas-15327-158.jpg
f85d5-20160820-wardthomas-15348-159.jpg
95423-20160819-leftfield-14710-157.jpg
5303b-20160819-sethlakeman-14610-155.jpg
c8f51-20160819-sethlakeman-14618-156.jpg
12fef-20160820-dreadzone-14928-169.jpg
94f67-20160820-dreadzone-15486-168.jpg
9669f-20160820-dreadzone-15524-170.jpg
8cd2b-20160820-raphaghetti-14782-160.jpg
84a63-20160820-raphaghetti-14787-161.jpg

Sunday

51fa6-20160821-crowd-16357-209.jpg
37858-20160821-thecoral-16088-206.jpg
c2494-20160821-thecoral-16354-207.jpg
5ea07-20160821-crowd-16278-198.jpg
84361-20160821-crowd-16126-212.jpg
740bd-20160821-thelevellers-16166-214.jpg
b6d3f-20160821-thelevellers-16380-213.jpg
5d6a4-20160821-crowd-16270-194.jpg
63919-20160821-mariachielbronx-16289-203.jpg
c182f-20160821-mariachielbronx-16043-201.jpg
b585d-20160821-mariachielbronx-16048-202.jpg
08981-20160821-crowd-16282-200.jpg
f2394-20160821-theloungekittens-15887-184.jpg
3cb9e-20160821-theloungekittens-15904-185.jpg
a1474-20160821-theloungekittens-16194-186.jpg
99d7d-20160821-crowd-16271-195.jpg
7abfe-20160821-theragnboneman-15926-187.jpg
c59ed-20160821-theragnboneman-15928-188.jpg
4046f-20160821-crowd-16273-197.jpg
bbfe8-20160821-ibibiosoundmachine-15987-190.jpg
5bb1a-20160821-ibibiosoundmachine-15966-189.jpg
bf29b-20160821-crowd-16281-199.jpg
ddd35-20160821-theselecter-16016-191.jpg
6eede-20160821-theselecter-16034-192.jpg
7ccab-20160821-crowd-16272-196.jpg
6574f-20160821-treacherousorchestra-16112-211.jpg
86408-20160821-treacherousorchestra-16358-210.jpg
9fb24-20160821-crowd-15730-193.jpg
15d8b-20160821-callingallastronauts-16310-205.jpg
f5ea5-20160821-crowd-16299-204.jpg

And Finally

Those awesome folks over at MusicMuso will be posting up a full review of the festival really soon so keep an eye out for that.  Remember though if you want see some images as they are shot live from my gigs follow me on Twitterand Instagram!  See you next time on The Unplugged Blog!

Read More