John Blade’s Homepage

Wowsers, professional photography can be pretty good…

One of my favourite bands had their last tour in Australia before heading overseas to conquer the world, and their last night was in Brisbane! Whilst it wasn’t a sell-out in the Tivoli, the crowd were all fans. I managed to take a few snaps on my trusty Nokia N70, have a listen to the crowd get into it!

Because tickets were available at the door, we ended up with a small posse of 6 or so mates going in. Of course when the concert started I ditched them all and raced to the front. Nils seemed to enjoy the concert…This was a piccy that Steve snapped just before I shot off on my bike, ROCK AND ROLLLL!

So last night I come home a little later, sit down on the couch and start doing some paper work at 7:30pm and then I hear…
BANG

Hrm, that didn’t sound too good. I grabbed some thongs and walked outside. My partner Cara had stepped out earlier and saw a groaning man lying on the floor just outside the automated rolling garage doors for the shared unit carpark. Thinking that this guy might have fallen off the balcony Cara hit the switch to open the gate, it soon came apparent this wasn’t the case.

“Aghgh, just fucking kill me!“

The man was lying on his side and started screaming, a mate of his jumped off his bike and ran to his side. There was pieces of shattered glass everywhere. Cara ran back inside to grab a phone, and other neighbours in the unit came out to see what the noise was.

I looked down and had a look at his arm, he’d managed to cut a 5 centimetre gash in his right arm triceps. I had a brief look to see if there was any glass still lodged in his arm, he was lucky he hadn’t hit an artery. One of my neighbours grabbed a towel from his garage and we started wrapping around his arm. This is when it became apparent it wasn’t going to be so simple.

“I fucked up Mark, oi just cut my fucking head off!“

The man was drunk and clearly upset. Looking to my left I noticed what had caused the injury.

He’d punched a hole through a solid glass window, and managed to drag his arm on a piece of glass when he pulled it out. The cut in his arm must have gone almost to the bone, and even though he was lucky he didn’t hit an artery, I did wish that he would have lost more blood; it would have shut him up quicker.

Cara called the Ambulance and the Police via 000, and considering we’re so close to a hospital I thought for sure the meat wagon would arrive before the cops.

The drunken man stumbled around towards us refusing to sit down. His mate was holding on to the towel wrapped around his arm and trying to calm him, but really the guy just wanted us to kill him. Dripping blood everywhere he just kept on shouting at us to cut his head off, calling us cowards when that wasn’t going to happen. He kept asking his mate to take care of his kid cause he was gonna cap himself. Reasoning with him was impossible, all I could do was try and keep him calm by focusing on his friend.

I’m so happy that his mate was there to try and hold on to him, because I doubt we would have been able to contain him before help arrived. He kept starting to walk off and I called him back, just a hundred metres down the road was the park with kids playing soccer at night, I didn’t really want to have to deal with him down there.

Turns out his girlfriend lived next door and she was part of the reason on this drunken self-destructive rampage. Luckily for her she was smart enough not to come outside during this ordeal.

Not one, not two, but three Police cruisers rock up almost simultaneously about 20 minutes from the call. I approached them and explained the situation and how deranged this guy was, trying to make sure they didn’t aggravate him further. He kept yelling at his mate who was still holding on to the towel on his arm to run away so he wouldn’t get into trouble from the Police. His mate just kept telling him ‘I’m sorry Micky but I love you too much to let you go”, the crazy man tried to punch him to let him go but his mate just held on tight.

Eventually the crazy guy stumbled towards the cops and explained that his mate has nothing to do with this and wanted him left alone. From there on it was just a struggle to keep him in one place, as the Police torches kinda made him a bit more aggro. There were times where he forget where he was and kinda raged out until his mate calmed him and brought him back to reality. The Police warned him that ‘mate, if you start running you won’t get far from where your standing’.

The Police officer writing up the night explained to us that it usually doesn’t take that long for the Ambulance to arrive. It was clear the Police were a become a little bit impatient with this crazy man. The Officer talking to us said she couldn’t wait for the Tazer’s to be issued out in March…

It took over an hour for the Ambulance to arrive. Next time you have a non-fatal injury, get someone to drive you.

The next day we find out that the guy is alive and has been charged. I feel sorry for the medics who would have had to subdue him to stitch him back together. It’s a sad story really, it’s clear that this man has some serious issues to deal with before he can become a contributing member of society again… all we can do is scrub away the blood and pick up the broken glass.

Thought that it was time I updated my hair, and became a Japanese Anime character.

The recent rains have brought some much needed life back to Brisbane. Sure the drought hasn’t been broken, but it isn’t very often when you see this.

Here’s a quick vid I shot walking down…

Soccer anyone?

Daft Punk came to Brisbane with the Nevereverland tour. A bunch of LS friends came and we congregated just below the riverstage. The crowd was super happy and friendly, and we didn’t feel crushed at all.
First up were The Presets, with this support act bringing them back to Brisbane. My expectations were high, since the last time I saw them was in Splendour’06 where they rocked hard. Ultimately I wasn’t disappointed, but they did sound rather flat early on in their set. Perhaps it was jetlag, or it could be their a little tired of their own material.As soon as they gave us a taste of their new album though, things changed and the crowds vibe was electric. The future looks promising for the Presets and I can’t wait to see them live when their new album is launched.
Daft Punk have raised the bar in Live performances for me. I’ve never seen something so polished and so energising live. Their light show was second to none and the beats kept the crowd pumping. I’ve purchased the Alive album which is essentially exactly what I heard on the night, and it is still sending chills up my spine.
As always, I youtuberised my night. I still can’t beat my trusty Nokia N70 for recording at music festivals, it really handles the crazy bass sounds unlike most other recorders which just have a blur of noise.