Gritty black and white to suit the lighting and expression, if not particularly the music. Though there are plenty more from this event, I’m drawing a line under this series for now.

Actually, instead of being the poor man’s choice the balcony was a select space reserved for the sound engineer, road crew and yours truly. Whilst the visual spectacle was better by the stage, up here you gained a fuller appreciation of the music as the sound swelled, reverberated and filled the performance space. It was nice to put the camera down for a couple of songs and just enjoy the show.

The set list is not only an obvious gig shot, but if you’re familiar with the artist it also serves as a useful reference to the progress of the show. This one, thanks to the presence of the harmonica, made a nice ‘storytelling’ image to flesh out the performance photos.

And the drummer must try holding time together
So the rest of us can keep it tied forever

Josh Rouse’s backing duo, ‘The Long Vacations’, are a talented pair of Spanish chaps. This guy played guitar, drums, added backing vocals and probably lots of other stuff I missed when peering through the narrow tunnel of the viewfinder.

I can’t recall the name of the record shop where I bought my first Josh Rouse CD, but I remember it being a great little place at Miami South Beach. That disc formed the soundtrack to my rather unorthodox Floridian adventures and, to cut a long story short, Josh’s continued musical presence is the only remaining artefact of that trip.

Almost nine years later and I found myself wielding a photo pass at one of his rare UK gigs. Life is cyclical and (at times) marvellous.