For the last few years I have been photographing Billy Idol and his band in concert. Luckily they play in Southern California a lot and even in a year where they only played a handful of shows, one of then was down the road at one of my favorite venues.
What I wanted to capture was Billy Morrison playing his signature Gibson Les Paul in a live concert environment. I was there when Billy saw the guitar for the first time at NAMM and I was able to photograph Billy at the Gibson showroom in Los Angeles when he was there to film some videos for Gibson. I was hoping to complete the set of images by getting Billy playing the guitar live. I was ready, I had a set list and knew which guitar was going to be played when, I had access allowing me to shoot the whole show. What I didn’t have, was any luck.
Here is my favorite shot of the night.
As you can see, there isn’t a guitar in sight. I love this shot. It captures a fleeting moment that is usually missed during a concert but I nailed it. I really like the hands reaching up from the crowd. Yet, there is not a guitar in sight. Ok, I did get a bunch of other photographs and am very happy with them but I will have to wait until next time to get the shot of Billy with his signature guitar.
The full gallery is below
Follow Me!