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!

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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!

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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!

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Halloween Zombie Ball 2014

I knew before I turned up at the Lemon Grove to cover this years Halloween Zombie Ball that it was going to be a BIG night of rock music.  I was not wrong.  And with at least six bands to cover and an army of zombies to wade through to get from one stage to the other, I had a lot of work to do!

First up were local band Cambion.

Cambion

Cambion

Cambion

Cambion

Cambion were also good enough to invite MusicMuso and myself back stage for an interview.  I always like getting the meet the bands back stage to take some photos and hear the bands story.

Cambion

Cambion

Next up we have I Divide who really kicked up a storm on the 2nd stage.

I Divide

I Divide

I really like this next shot.  The beaming red lights in the background seem to suit the look of the guitarist from Glamour of the Kill.

Glamour of the Kill

Glamour of the Kill

And the action doesn't stop there.  Here we have Kill All The Gentleman.

Kill All The Gentleman

Kill All The Gentleman

Running across back to the main stage I caught up with Knotslip.

Knotslip

Knotslip

And my 2nd to last shot for this blog entry is The Dreamer Within

The Dreamer Within

The Dreamer Within

And finally, my favourite band of the night, the kick ass Skindred.

Skindred

Skindred

As you can see, it was a very busy night of shooting, but I loved it.  Life is much easier when the bands know how to use the stage and get the crowd going.  I just wish I hadn't decided to get up at 5.30am that day to take some landscape photos.  Yes, that's right, I do have a more arty side to me as well!

See you next time on the Unplugged Blog where I will be bringing you images straight from the Boomtown Rats gig.  Bye!

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