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Page
1: DVD/CD order & review  Page
2: Andrew MacNaughtan interview  Page
3: MacNaughtan pt. II
Page
4: Howard Ungerleider, Jim Ellis & fan accounts
of Rio

Andrew MacNaughtan interview - part
II

Bp: When you're shooting photos in
a live setting, what is your process before a
show as far as pre-visualitzation and planning?
Do you go in with a fairly structured
plan?

AM: Absolutely. Every night before
the guys go on I make a list of things that I
know I want and where I need to be and what
songs I want to get. What I do is get the set
list and I just watch the show the first night
and then I make notes about, "Oh, that's a great
moment there," "That's where Neil throws his
drumstick in the air, I want to make sure I'm
ready for that shot," or "Alex tends to do
something goofy that would make a good shot." I
make notes throughout the entire show and then I
leave them sitting on the stage in front of me
next to my lenses and I then I know, "Oh.
'Limelight' is coming up, I've got to get over
to the left side of the stage to get that great
moment when Alex does his solo" and that sort of
thing. You kind of need to prepare yourself
ahead of time and know where you need to be at
what point in the set.

©Photos by Andrew
MacNaughtan

Bp: Did you shoot anything in
Hartford for opening night [of the Vapor Trails
tour]?

AM: I think I just shot video
footage on opening night for the video clip.

Bp: Where is your favorite area of
a venue to photograph a Rush show?

AM: I think probably some of my
favorite shots ever are the ones beside Neil's
drum kit. Because I feel that's very cheeky. The
audience can sort of see me, it feels a bit
risky and maybe not necessarily appropriate, but
I find that it gives me those really unusual
camera angles that people can't generally get
access to. So I like those kinds of situations
like that. I also like behind Alex's amps. And I
really do love shooting from the rafters way
back at the furthest possible seat in the arena
to capture the energy of the whole building. I
did a shot like that recently in Quebec City
that I'm quite excited about. It's a bit of a
time exposure thing and all you can see is
thousands of hands in the air. It's a really
great moment - I'm sure we'll try to use it in
the next tourbook.

Bp: One of my favorite shots is
from the Test for Echo tour book of Alex's
Marshall stacks and his shadow silhouetted in a
spotlight. Alex isn't even in the photo, only
his shadow.

AM: Those unexpected things are
what make it exciting…anything is possible and
everything is unexpected. I don't do a lot of
concert photography, I used to do a lot of it
when I was first starting out in my career just
to get the experience and stuff. That's
basically how I started to get to know the guys.
The first concert I shot for them would have
been on the Grace Under Pressure tour and there
were some pictures used in the Power Windows
tourbook. Now, I don't really shoot a lot of
that stuff and Rush is the exception because I
find it way too stressful. I'm so passionate
about my work and I really want to get the very
best possible shot I can get in everything I do
and I feel that if I'm shooting and I miss a
moment I get really bummed out about it. I find
that concert photography requires you to be
really, really sharp. You have to be able to
anticipate and foreshadow what's about to occur
and what might possibly occur and be ready for
that and if you don't shoot concert stuff all
the time and a lot you sometimes miss those
moments. So it's tricky and that type of
shooting is very difficult I think.

Bp: Especially when you're using a
fully manual system. Other concert photographers
that I've spoken with who have gone digital or
fully automatic deliver nice shots but the
challenge is removed to some extent.

AM: It's funny that you say that
because I literally picked up a new digital
system yesterday. A lot of my album cover work
that I've been shooting lately is digital. A lot
of the labels are desperately trying to figure
out ways to save money and instead of spending
$2500 on film and processing because I'm
shooting 60 rolls of film for an album cover or
whatever, publicity and everything, they'd
rather I shoot digitally and save that money and
maybe put it towards renting a cool location or
something. So I had to make that jump - I was
resisting that move because I love my Leica. And
I love my Hasselbald stuff and the quality and
sharpness of that is very important to me. But
now I'm kind of excited about digital. I've shot
digitally a lot, probably the last 12 or 14
shoots have been all digital and it's been very
successful and even last night I was thinking,
"This would be really fun to try this live." So
I'm ready to explore that route.

[click images to enlarge]

Bp: Have you ever
shot a live performance with the
Hasselblad?

AM: Yes, once, but it wasn't very
successful. I think I shot some lighting shots -
full stage shots, from back at the lighting
board. It's difficult because….the Hasselblad,
it's hard to explain, but it just isn't right
for that. It does give you a bigger format and
better quality with the grain, but it just
wasn't as successful as I was hoping it would
be. Another time I used the Hasselblad I did
some shots of Neil over-top of his drum kit. Do
you know the ones from the Presto Tour where
he's wearing his purple and black striped shirt?
I shot a bunch of those with the Hasselblad and
that was the closest I came to shooting live
stuff and that was only with stage lights. And
it also really was not conducive because it was
a pain in the ass. I was dangling from a ladder
with wires hanging off my back holding me there
in case I fell off and I was hand holding the
Hasselblad. It was a pain in the ass - it just
didn't work. The better shots turned out to be
the ones I shot with my 35mm.

Bp: What is your normal gear
set-up when shooting Rush live.

AM: The gear I use now is all
Leica and I still shoot transparencies. I have a
28, 50, 80 - a beautiful 80 f1.4 which I
absolutely love, it's my favorite lens in the
whole world, and I have my 135 and a 180mm.
That's my standard set-up for concert stuff. But
now with this whole digital thing I guess I'm
going to have Canon Digital now. I'm not really
sure how that's going to work for concerts, I
have no idea. Will it be something I like or
something I hate and curse at - so we'll
see.

Bp: Are there any plans on
releasing a photographic Rush book?

AM: There's been talk of it
because there's a whole bunch of stuff I have
that people have never seen before. I've just
gone through all of the pictures for a project
that I have coming up which I can't really talk
about, but it's really cool. I think the fans
are really going to be excited about it. I've
been going through all the photos from day one
of Rush and it's their 30th anniversary coming
up so it's been a great opportunity to go
through all the historical pictures. I'm just in
awe of some of the great moments that Fin
Costello caught - man o'man - he's a real
talent. I have thought about a book and I did
investigate it at one point, but to do it the
way that I would want it to be done the
reproduction and the quality of it would not be
cost efficient. A publisher probably couldn't
recoup the money for that, not the way I would
want it to be presented. I'm not interested in
doing just a soft cover flipsy-flopsy thing that
you can buy at a record shop - it just doesn't
interest me. We have the tour books and those
are really beautiful and that's a really good
representation of my work with the band through
the years. I love the tour books. I think last
year's tour book is one of my favorites, I'm not
really sure why, maybe because there's a lot of
interesting variety in there that I'm really
excited about. It just looks really good and
Hugh did a beautiful job with the design of it.
I know the band considers it one of their
favorites, so that was really nice. I love
Alex's portrait and I love Neil's portrait in
the desert - I'm really proud of that. There are
some other moments in there that are really
special. I love the whole sofa series, that's
pretty funny and I love that whole Alex shot of
him molesting poor Neil inside the front cover -
it's pretty hilarious, jumping all over
him.

Bp: I think that set of photos for
the album was very important; it showed that the
band was back with a new album and that they
were excited and full of life and energy. It was
an important message to convey after such a long
and difficult time away.

AM: Well that was really our goal.
Neil's not crazy about having his picture taken,
I think that's pretty much common knowledge, but
obviously there's a comfort level with me being
there because we're pals and all. I think the
way Geddy said it best about that series of
photos, "Neil's been through a lot and we wanted
some pictures that show Neil with his two best
friends there on either side of him supporting
him."

[click images to enlarge]

Bp: Speaking of
that comfort level, it wasn't until your shots
for Roll the Bones when we really saw their
humorous side showing though with the shot of
them goofing around with their fists
up.

AM: Well, I don't know, I came
across a picture of Fin's from the Moving
Pictures photo shoot when Geddy's hair was
really, really long. From that series of photos
there's a number of good ones of them goofing
around and having a good time. I don't know, I
think because we have such a great friendship it
really does let their guard down and part of
those photos are them basically playing around
with me because they love to make me the butt of
their jokes. It's just the way it is. That's
just part of my job I guess and I think that was
because being their Personal Assistant on the
Presto and Roll the Bones tours we got to know
each other pretty well and I think they sort of
feel, "Ok, he's making us stand here and take
these stupid pictures of us that we really don't
want to do, let's make the best of it." So we've
captured some pretty fun moments. They've
allowed me to experiment and do some unusual
things. I'm really proud of those three
portraits from the Roll the Bones tourbook - I
think it was really great that they allowed me
to be a little experimental and I tried
something different that they'd never done
before and I think it worked very
well.

Bp: The one of Neil in particular
is a striking contrast of images.

AM: It's the two of Neil's
personality: the intellectual reading Aristotle,
but yet him dancing in the background which is
really the other side of Neil. He's a very fun,
very funny, great guy who likes to have a good
time. I really like that shot and that was his
idea. All of those shots were the guys' ideas
and I just executed them as best I
could.

Bp: Do they usually come up with
the ideas for the portraits?

AM: Yes, for the most part. Well,
the Neil in the desert shot that was my idea. I
really wanted to try something that felt really
special instead of just shooting the drum kit
against a backdrop which is something we've done
for the last five tours. I really wanted to do
something a little more artful and challenging.
The shot of Alex, I think I said to him "I want
to do something weird and sort of stupid. What
about a shot of you on a beach with chicks and
bikinis." And then he said, "Oh no, how about
this: how about you shoot a huge muscle guy,
like Charles Atlas was the term he used, and
then take a picture of my head and stick it on
his body." Perfect and that's what we did and
that's how quickly it came about. And just so
you know we didn't really squish Alex's head
that much, this guy was absolutely huge. When I
showed Alex the picture of the guy, he was
laughing so hard he was actually crying. He
could not believe how hilarious that photo
turned out.

Bp: In the Vapor Trails tourbook
the candid rehearsal tour shots were a nice
treat and I read that there might be some video
footage from the tour rehearsals that might make
it to the documentary?

AM: Yes, I did put in some. I shot
some video footage from that day, but it's
actually quite sparse because I only shot for
about a half-hour or something. I really didn't
shoot that much. Remember, this is
pre-documentary or even knowing that there'd be
a documentary, so certain people weren't all
that open to being videotaped if you know what I
mean. It wasn't anything official either, it was
just Geddy saying "Hey, maybe you should bring
the camera up and just grab a little footage and
you never know what we could use it for." So it
does appear in the documentary, I think I put a
little bit of them practicing "Natural Science"
and a bit of "The Trees" in there. I also really
love those photos I did of them rehearsing, that
was a really cool thing that they finally said
"Yes, sure Andrew you can come up and shoot some
pictures while we're rehearsing, no problem."
And again they've never really let me do that
because it was just again their private time.
It's them working and they need to be focused.
They don't want to be thinking about Andrew
running around with his camera. But again
there's now more of a comfort level and they
know that I can be discreet and not be intrusive
in anyway.

[click images to enlarge]

Bp: You also put together a video
segment for the SARS Benefit show from Toronto
where they played to their largest crowd ever,
almost 500,000.

AM: Yea, that was pretty
incredible too I must say. It was a pretty
amazing day. It was really important to them. It
was Neil's idea to do it and what's funny is
that generally it's the most difficult for Neil
to come out of hiatus to be able to gear up for
something like that because it takes him a week
of solid rehearsals and a lot of pain to get
back to the condition he needs to be in to play
a show like that. If you had seen his hands the
day of that show, they were cracked and bleeding
because he had been practicing so hard that
week. And it's very painful for him, it's hard.
It's one thing for him to ease into doing a tour
when you slowly ease into getting up to
practicing several hours a day but he literally
had to go in and do five hours a day in order to
get his chops up to his standards of being able
to be 100% ready for that concert. It was hard
on him. The guys were really so glad and really
felt the need to do it. It was a great day all
around for everyone.

Bp: Has there been any discussion
as to whether or not that footage may be
released in the future?

AM: I don't know. The Rolling
Stones own all that stuff. They own all the
rights to it and I think there was maybe talk of
a DVD coming out eventually, but who knows. I
don't know really anything about that and I
don't think the band knows anything about that
either. It's out of their hands.

Bp: Did you take any still photos
that day?

AM: Yea, I got a couple of shots.
I got some shots of them right before they went
onstage, it was a great moment. They were
onstage about 10 minutes before they actually
went on just waiting for the cue to head over to
their instruments. So they're just nice casual
moments of the guys waiting and anticipating the
show. I think you'll see some of those photos
showing up in the next tourbook.

Bp: What one Rush track would you
like to see them bring back for the next
tour?

AM: "The Camera Eye" without a
doubt. I've requested that song every single
tour from the guys and they still won't play
it.

Bp: It ranked pretty highly among
fans on the rushpetition.com poll prior to the
Vapor Trails tour as well.

AM: I know. I just think they feel
there are other songs to play, "Ok, is it going
to be 'Camera Eye' or is it going to be 'By-Tor
& the Snow Dog." I think everyone felt that
a song like "By-Tor" was a song that was much
more interesting and a lot more fun to play.
I've asked for "The Camera Eye" every single
time they start practicing for a tour because I
love that song. It's probably one of my favorite
songs they've ever recorded.

Bp: Approximately how many shows
do you shoot still photos for during a Rush tour
and do you shoot the entire show or specific
songs on specific nights?

AM: I shoot the whole show. Back
when I was touring with them and I was also
their tour photographer I was able to get a lot
more stuff and a lot more unusual moments both
backstage and onstage. It bums me out because I
can't really capture those moments as often as I
like now because I don't go out on the whole
tour with them anymore. The last three tours I
would probably shoot about seven shows, so
there's a lot of pressure to get as much
interesting stuff as I can within seven shows.
Roll the Bones and Counterparts those are pretty
strong tourbooks because I was able to shoot
five songs, or two songs every single night. I
could go out and just grab a moment or two. Or I
could go out and shoot a moment in "Show Don't
Tell" and I always had tomorrow night to go and
grab it again. So I had the luxury of that, but
now I'll fly out and do three shows and leave,
and then two shows and leave and then do two
shows someplace else. You don't get on a roll,
you kind of have to remember and pick up where
you left off last time and continue on from
there. It makes it more challenging.

Bp: Thanks for your time Andrew
and congratulations on the
documentary!

AM: I really hope everyone enjoys
the DVD and I hope they really like my
documentary because I really worked very, very
hard on it and I'm really proud of
it.

Page
4: Crew & Fans on Rio

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