By Klaas Guchelaar

Hardly recovered from the Platosonic and Eurosonic weekend I was of to Groningen again yesterday to visit the 1 year anniversary of wishfulmusic. And how do you celebrate one year of programming lots of beautiful gigs? With more performances of course. The stage was the Groninger Museum, that I visited last year for an edition of Groninger Museum Live.

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And as soon as Eurosonic had started, it was over. On Saturday all eyes turn to De Oosterpoort where in the evening only Dutch bands will perform at Noorderslag. New promising acts, bigger names with showcases and of course the traditional Popprijs-beershower. I’m again only doing Platosonic today but that too has a line-up of only Dutch bands today.

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After a short snack and a little bit of a walk I went back to the Grote Markt square for second Eurosonic Air night. A bit sceptic I must add, as I didn’t think I’d like the bands of the Friday edition as much as I did the one from Thursday. Di-Rect, De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig and Go Back To The Zoo are all Dutch and I didn’t think too much about any of them to be honest.

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Had a very short night after the Thursday-edition of Platosonic and Eurosonic Air editing photos for FileUnder, but the festival was only half way, so Friday afternoon we headed back to Groningen for lots more music.

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Now I could have packed my things and go home after Platosonic as I didn’t get to visit the endless amount of Eurosonic gigs that were held all over Groningen, but luckily there are a lot of gigs going on around the festival where you don’t actually need a Eurosonic ticket. Most of them however also don’t have a lot of light or simply hadn’t started when I got there. So enter Eurosonic Air: a big stage on the main square of Groningen where some of the bigger names were programmed for a full gig.

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As I’m unfortunately not doing the full on Eurosonic, I’m only visiting the Platosonic gigs this year. Luckily there’s a lot of fantastic music there as well. And it’s popular, the two location (record store Plato and neighbouring coffeestore Coffee Company) are loaded and it’s hard to get from one location to the other. At least… it is if you’re trying to find a decent spot to take some photos.

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Since last year, there’s an extra night for Eurosonic: on Wednesdaynight there are a few locations where a small selection of bands are already playing some sets. Makes it easier for the promotors and journalists to see just a bit more, since the other two days of Eurosonic you will miss a lot more than you’re able to see. It’s my only ‘official’ Eurosonic night, so I was looking forward to this night very much.

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Here’s a small update to the upcoming photobook and a link to my online portfolio

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On April 14 2011 I had my official 10 year anniversary in concert photography and I wanted to mark that occasion with a book of photos over that period. However I got completely stuck in ideas about layout. As 2011 was about to end, I picked up the original idea again and got back to thinning the selection of photos for the book.

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As I’m looking back at 2011, I might as a well add a list of the concerts I’ve most enjoyed this year. Putting them in a numerical order is not really going to work, is instead I’ve chosen for an alphabetical order.

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By the end of the year it’s traditional to look back at the past year and overflow every for of media with lists. And I’ll gladly add to that pile. Although making a list of the best albums of a year always feels like comparing apples and oranges (to many different genres), here’s a list of the albums I loved the most this past year.

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On January 19 1980 Joy Division played in Vera / Groningen. I wish I had been there, but as I wasn’t even 4 at the time, my musical interests lay elsewhere. It would take me about 25 years before I really took interest in New Wave and Joy Division became a big name for me. So seeing that Peter Hook (Joy Division’s Bass player) was coming to De Oosterpoort with his band The Light to perform the entire second Joy Division album Closer was the perfect concert-ending to a great year.

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I really have Inge van Calkar/Zaza to thank for this great extra concert as she invited me after the photos I took of her at Schradinova’s gig. Back to Groningen again for a great night of music.

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Tim Knol is touring his second album and plans to take a break for a while, so I was glad he stopped by in Groningen on this tour. And he currently has Assen based Tangarine opening for him this tour and finally getting these guys from my home town before my camera was an opportunity not to be missed.

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There have been a good deal of great concerts in Groningen lately. And although it’s hard to keep up a schedule like the last two weeks, going cold turkey over night isn’t really working either, so I was very happy to see that Schradinova was coming to Vera. With Zaza opening for her no less!

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