It’s been a great year for the Arkells. In just 7 months, Arkells have won a favourite new artist CASBY Award (short for Canadian Artists Selected by You) from Toronto radio station 102.1 The Edge, the Juno Award for New Group of the Year and for their May 15th show, were hand-picked to open for Them Crooked Vultures at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
You may be wondering why I don’t have pictures of Them Crooked Vultures posted as well. Well, it’s because of their insulting release form which you can see here. I turned down a chance to shoot them back in October when this photographer’s release form first came up. The sad thing is, a lot of (mostly new) photographers will have no problem signing such a contract because they still get the chance to photograph some music idols which in turn, makes it harder for these contracts to disappear. Of course it’d be great to shoot John Paul Jones or Dave Grohl, but that contact is a full on rights-grab, having me sign over my copyright to the band. The publication I shoot for (AUX) would be able to post the images from the concert but I wouldn’t be able to do a single thing with them afterwards. They couldn’t go up on flickr, on this site, or be included in my portfolio. And don’t even think about trying to sell a print either. There’s been a big discussion over this release form on flickr, and you can read it here.
The point is: I didn’t shoot Them Crooked Vultures. I’ve been a fan of Arkells for a while and was more than happy to be able to shoot one of their biggest shows yet. In fact, the first time I saw them was back in Hamilton and they were still called Charlemagne. They’ve been working hard and are (deservingly) being recognized for it. And that’s why I decided to post extra photos of their show from the other night.
Shot for AUX.
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