Gig photographs - Andy Lepki

Photos from various concerts taken in the UK..

All Photography Copyright Andy Lepki.

Rush at the o2


Damon Albarn	Lily Allen


Rufus Wainwright	kris kristofferson

madonna in camden (crap picture)

it actually is madonna, honest

The Polyphonic Spree live Koko August 2005

croisette shot

Shepherds Bush Empire 2004

croisette shot

Edinburgh 2003

Glastonbury 2003

The Polyphonic Spree are a 23 musician collective, who manage to pull of truly epic, and breathtaking performances.
At Glastonbury (2003), they delivered enough energy and enthusiasm to make an on-form radiohead and supergrass look stupidly ordinary.
With spectacular stage presence, Tim DeLaughter conducts a willingly insane robed orchestra through hypnotically nice songs like "It's the sun", and "Hanging around the day" making them instantly likeable.
After their Edinburgh Fringe gig (2003), countless standing ovations warmed the crowd to the point that the band couldn't finish When The Fool Becomes A King due to the incredible unending applause

That's how I saw it, you might think they're mental, sliding around with trombones and cymbals; gospel with a theramin on top. See them before the collective do their 23 solo albums, or suddenly find themselves bigger than Texas.
The state, not the band.

Super Furry Animals live Somerset House July 05

Lemon Jelly live at Kentish town Forum, Mar 12 2005

slightly eccentric duo bring a box of tricks and enthusiasm to their live performances which don't simply retread their coffee table friendly work.

their latest album 64-95 comes alive on tour ( sounding unusually unpolished on record ) and the addition of real instruments is a definite plus point, along with the impressive graphic show going on at the same time

imaginative and pretty good fun

The Australian Pink Floyd Show live at the Royal Albert Hall, April 05.

Particularly good when playing material from The Wall, with additionally stand out performances of Us & Them and The Great Gig in The Sky.

Whereas 'Waters' seems to be at his peak in late 70's mode, 'Gilmour' seems based on the overblown Pulse era, and maybe the 3 hour set could do with a little bit of a trim

Go! Team live at Electric Ballroom, May 2005

Woody Allen performed standard dixie classics at the Hammersmith Apollo with his New Orleans Jazz Band. Dec 04

Ian Brown has emerged to be the most consistent performer to emerge from the legacy and later shambles of the stone roses

Notoriously patchy, but occasionally brilliant. At best when performing his own catchy material like Dolphins were Monkeys. Strangely not so hot on old Roses classics

Quantic Soul Orchestra >> are a stylish combo from the west midlands and beyond. Dapperly dressed and obeying jazz etiquette with their expressive and obviously talented soloing ( without ever sprawling too far the wrong side of an over abstract ten minute cymbal opus). Playing heavily from their Stampede album, Saturday's set was smooth, dance friendly, and they drew from their contemporary peers too, covering Mr Scruff's Get A Move On with swagger, charm and not a sniff of a wrong note. The band jammed solidly, every beat on the money, and had the ability to mix it up; after a handful of instrumentals the stage was clear for Alice Russell to dominate with her jazzy Joplin power and subtle flavours topping a thoroughly confident display. Great to see smiles and enthusiasm, especially with the great acoustics and quasi afficionado friendly crowd, who largely stuck around to keep the groove going with some choice cuts served rare and warm.

stampede

1996 : the annual sublime esoteric experience is growing, improving, and evolving into a quite unmissbale experience.
stereolab arrived gently, then departed after confusing and mesmerising us with mad infectious tunes...

in general, the boys ( drums, bass, guitars ), set up a song with pleasant chords and driving beats, and then the girls* ( keyboards and vocals ) do their siren thing by luring you in with sweet almost childlike melodies. But by the time you realise it, the songs have shot off on some mad tangent that makes it impossible to return to the original idea. the tangent hooks and cuts, digging deeper in persuit of more chaotic bubblegum.

the beauty of stereolab is that songs like metronomic underground develop byond all recognition, and you find yourself grooving away to discordant Moogs, convoluted rhythms, and french singing about socialism. this progression of stereolab's music shows more innovation than any other band at the moment: the music is challenging, but at times, no pain, no gain.
cybele's reverie is perhaps the most mellow moment in the long set, but it again emphasised the evolution of the group, not just content to rehash their more established tunes.
there is something beautifully playful about la chanteuse laetitia, as she coolly croons and messes with her moog, creating some mad collisions of noise that the rest of the band expand and tamper with, leading us to the promised extension trip.

stereomad maybe, but it's not every band that can take you to heaven and hell and have song titles like international coloring competition along the way.
ko-koo-ki-choo seems a long time ago.

2004 : 2 Olympiads on and stereolab have still got it. on the down side, they have lost the influential Mary to outer space, but have come back with some of their most structured and pleasant songs of their prolific career. They still maintain elements of their one chord marathons that kept them going through the early nineties, but now seem more interested with crafted harmonies and sounds of a more melodic nature than they were perhaps once more prone. Golden Ball doesn't make the cut these days,

Primal Scream have been going for nearly 20 years, defying the effects of fame, drugs and categorisation.

Each re-invention has had critics salivating and sharpening their knives in equal measures, especially after the untoppable groundbreaking bliss of screamadelica, released to the loved up masses back in 1991.

Perilously inconsistent both in the studio and live, a fluctuating percentage of album tracks have hit the bullseye since, but with a reshuffle invlving the acquisition of ex-stone rose mani, they seem to have found consistency with two consecutive industrial edged releases.

That said, it was at Glastonbury 2003 where they wooed crowds away from REM with a miraculously crowd pleasing beefed up Screamadelica set, then a few weeks later at Reading they played like shit!

It must have been the brown acid...