{"id":455760,"date":"2026-02-03T13:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T13:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/455760\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T13:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T13:24:10","slug":"a-dubliner-in-new-zealand-on-photographing-the-worlds-top-acts-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/455760\/","title":{"rendered":"a Dubliner in New Zealand on photographing the world\u2019s top acts \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rory Gallagher<\/a>: Garry Brandon is listing off some photographs stuck to the wall in front of him as he speaks from his rural New Zealand<\/a> home.<\/p>\n

The D\u00fan Laoghaire<\/a> native is not name-dropping but casually make a point about how these live music photos from his extensive archive have a jet black backgrounds while nowadays most stadium show photos have a vibrant video wall backdrop.<\/p>\n

Brandon, who is semi-retired, moved three years ago from Auckland to Thames, a small coastal town. Having worked for four decades as press and event photographer, he has caught some of world\u2019s biggest touring acts with his lens. <\/p>\n

Despite having musicians such as Lady Gaga, David Bowie to Dizzee Rascal in his New Zealand portfolio, some of the most eye-popping acts are from the early 1970s and 1980s in Ireland. In the era before fans taking smartphone snaps would plague concerts, Brandon was starting out in the career that would become his life\u2019s work and would often sneak his camera into gigs.<\/p>\n

The images he took in these early Irish concerts include The Clash, Bo Diddley, Mick Jagger and a photograph of what turned out to be the last ever Thin Lizzy<\/a> concert in Ireland. This experience got the guitar enthusiast \u201chooked\u201d. <\/p>\n

But photographing in the pre-digital era gave Brandon one of his most jawdropping misses, when a roll of film was expensive and he\u2019d only have 24 or 36 chances to get a shot. In July 1980, Brandon and his friends went to see Bob Marley and the Wailers play in Dalymount Park. He only captured Marley\u2019s image \u201cthe size of an ant\u201d because he couldn\u2019t get close to the front.<\/p>\n

As a disappointed Brandon made his way home down O\u2019Connell Street, Marley\u2019s bus pulled up outside the Gresham Hotel. \u201cHim and his whole band got out.\u201d Brandon and friends got chatting to Marley and even \u201ctouched his dreads\u201d. But Brandon \u201chad no film left\u201d. It was the reggae legend\u2019s only Irish concert before his death the following year. <\/p>\n

\"GarryGarry Brandon with the guitars he makes with his son Josef <\/p>\n

Brandon\u2019s passion for music was sparked years earlier by a teacher at Oliver Plunkett Primary School in Monkstown Farm who organised Brandon and his friends into a band. After school he worked as a civil servant but he got into photography on the side. He comes from a family of 11, and he built a photography studio with his dad and brother at their home and began dabbling in some paid work. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Music: 84 gigs to catch, including The Cure, CMAT \u2013 and one with \u20ac690 ticketsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Brandon\u2019s journey to New Zealand started when he met Denise, a Kiwi, now his wife, in The Purty Kitchen. \u201cEver supportive\u201d, she was key to one of his first paid photography jobs, loaning him the money to buy a roll of film to shoot a fashion show in D\u00fan Laoghaire Shopping Centre. <\/p>\n

The couple moved to New Zealand where Brandon worked in a dark room, then \u201cbluffed his way\u201d into a newspaper and photographed for decades for one of the country\u2019s largest newspaper groups. <\/p>\n

\"LeonardLeonard Cohen’s last ever show, Auckland 2013. Photograph: Garry Brandon \"JustinJustin Timberlake performs in Auckland. Photograph: Garry Brandon \"MadonnaMadonna in Auckland, 2016. Photograph: Garry Brandon <\/p>\n

Being Irish has been a \u201cbig benefit … As soon as people hear you\u2019re Irish, they want to talk to you, they instantly like you\u201d. Many Kiwis have Irish heritage, he says. <\/p>\n

Brandon became house photographer at the Spark Arena, with a capacity of 12,000, for 15 years. <\/p>\n

He has \u201cnever really been bothered about meeting\u201d all the famous acts. The live photography \u201cis what I\u2019m really into\u201d. Some work involved taking photographs of acts with fans as part of a package. \u201cEspecially with those meet-and-greets, I\u2019m just paid to do a job. It doesn\u2019t really bother me who it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

But much of that backstage experience gave him sharp insights into what many of the world\u2019s biggest acts are really like, \u201cwhen they\u2019re talking to underlings, not just when they are on the TV looking lovely\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest measure of a person is how they treat other people,\u201d he says. He found that the \u201cheavier the metal, the nicer the people\u201d and they \u201creally appreciate their fans\u201d.<\/p>\n

C\u00e9line Dion<\/a> was one of the acts who impressed him the most when he worked with her for three days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never let Celine Dion occupy any space in my head,\u201d he says of his diverging musical tastes with the Canadian singer. \u201cBut honestly, she was so nice to everyone. She\u2019d go along the corridor, have a chat to the bouncer, talking to ordinary people.\u201d <\/p>\n

But he has noticed with some of the newer artists at meet-and-greets, \u201cthere is next to no interaction, no \u2018thanks for coming to the show\u2019 … It\u2019s really weird\u201d.<\/p>\n

Brandon has been in a room taking photographs for \u201csome people you\u2019d know\u201d and they will \u201cignore\u201d him or talk to him through their management. \u201cSome of them are not nice,\u201d he says frankly. <\/p>\n

He says the world of live music photography has changed. \u201cThey don\u2019t need press photographers any more. The have 20,000 kids putting stuff on social media before they leave the venue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RoryRory Gallagher performs at Dublin’s SFX in 1982. Photograph: Garry Brandon \"KatyKaty Perry in Auckland, 2018. Photograph: Garry Brandon <\/p>\n

Brandon left Auckland just as the Spark Arena was being take over by Live Nation and \u201cthings changed\u201d. <\/p>\n

It something he is \u201csorry he didn\u2019t do years ago … I know three times more people here [than in Auckland] that I consider friends\u201d he says, \u201cIt\u2019s really friendly,\u201d and, he adds, \u201cthe beer is only $6.50 [\u20ac3.20].\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand has a \u201csimilar feel\u201d to Ireland and the people are laid back without any \u201cairs and graces\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

His three sons live in Auckland, just an hour away, and while they don\u2019t see themselves as Irish they do feel a connection with their Irish cousins.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of Brandon\u2019s negatives are boxed in his attic, and he plans to pull them together into a book when not spending time making guitars. <\/p>\n

And he has found another passion, as a music facilitator for people who have gone through mental trauma, helping them to play ukulele and sing. \u201cI really like doing that,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rory Gallagher: Garry Brandon is listing off some photographs stuck to the wall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,234928,142322,460,234929,134,87560,113469,23945,1736,196986,234927],"class_list":{"0":"post-455760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-bob-marley","14":"tag-celine-dion","15":"tag-design","16":"tag-dun-laoghaire","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-eric-clapton","19":"tag-irish-abroad","20":"tag-mick-jagger","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-rory-gallagher","23":"tag-the-clash"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}