The last time I saw The Brian Jonestown Massacre was Glastonbury Festival 2008. I don’t remember much about it, apart from being sat in the Sunday sunshine, and buzzing after seeing one of my heroes in the legends slot (Leonard Cohen).

Since then I’ve spent a lot of time zoning out to the dreamy BJM anthems. And when I saw they were touring Manchester in 2025, I was eager to be there. With my camera!

The Manchester Albert Hall is one of my favourite venues to shoot in. There’s loads of room for photographers (and there’s always loads of photographers!). The setting itself, and old church, is beautiful and well lit. And you get quite a lot of freedom to bop about taking photos from all angles.

But let’s talk about the red light…!

Red light can, and often is, a music photographer’s nightmare. The light destroys details, making it hard to focus in on a band. It also means the edits can look flat and lifeless. Not good for showing the dynamism of a live show!

So when the band walk out to a completely-crimson stage…

You fear the worst!

Thankfully, with many years experience as a music photographer, I’m very used to the red light now. It took a while to find my style with it. And it was really last year, after a GOAT gig, that I decided to lean to it!

Now I know how to edit in red light, I almost look forward to it as I know how to produce some badass images from it. Which means I can enjoy The Brian Jonestown Massacre and shoot my shots.

Though with extra effort going on the focussing – you can’t claw back blurry photos in the edit…! (I might blog later about tips for focussing in red light too!)