14.6.23 Leftover(s) @ The George Tavern

Back from Cannes. Niamh was promoting a night at The George Tavern, so I went down. This was my first time there and it quickly became my favorite club. It’s run by lighting designers and they really get into it with the colors, the smoke machine, the wind machine — there are even antique candles everywhere being used functionally. The ambiance is outstanding and I feel that it really effects the performances. There’s something wonderful about this club beyond that. In my experience, good things always happen at The George.

Francis on lead guitar

Tash

Niamh and Jude

This was my first time meeting Francis Simmons-Barry, who was the lead guitarist in Leftover(s). Francis hadn’t been there for the previous gig. I remember thinking, “who’s this excellent guitarist?” and then not asking any questions whatsoever.

There was a lot of excited talk about what Niamh had in store, which involved queer burlesque (Unholy Trinity) and clowns from another dimension (Agents of the Lexicon). Niamh had asked me if I’d shoot some videos of everything and what ended up happening was that, ultimately, I shot so much that I had enough to cut together a terrifically lo-fi vertical format “rockumentary.” I called it The Best Band in the Whole Wide Room:

Niamh in the smoking area

Agents of the Lexicon getting ready

Meeting Louis for the first time

I continued my weird tradition of meeting a scenester and immediately putting my camera in their face with Louis Pearson (Nov LT). The people who weren’t bothered by this behavior and, instead, interacted with it playfully, are all still friends. Sometime later on, Louis gave me some chips to thank me for all of the photos I’d taken of him.

Louis was, at the time, the drummer in Pretyman. They weren’t on that night.

I can’t remember exactly, but I think he was talking to a friend of mine. I think I said something along the lines of “who are you?” and then just put my camera in his face.

When I’m going through old photos, I occasionally find pictures of people I’m now friends with from long before we ever met. This is because I sometimes take photos of people who look interesting as discretely as is possible. This night was particularly bizarre because I have these kind of soothsaying photos of three people who are now friends. But I wouldn’t actually meet them for quite a while and I had no idea I had taken their pictures.

This is definitely Milena Altschuler, who I would later photograph with their paintings and mixed media pieces in their studio

This is Nat, Francis’ partner, and Jodie Johnston. Jodie is another visual artist who I have continued to photograph.