Rivoli Ballroom − Brockley, London ▪ 17th March 2005 ⚡︎ by Zed Nelson
The route that took MOJO, Oasis and Zed Nelson to South-East London’s Rivoli Ballroom was a weird one. Originally, the cover shoot was set for The Water Rats club in King’s Cross – the venue in January 1994 of Oasis’s second London show. But the romantic, lager-fugged reminiscences of the MOJO art team were cruelly dashed by the daytime reality, the crushed velvet decadence of our memories turning into cig ash and gaffer tape before our eyes.
In the end, we transplanted our visions of deep reds and faded opulence south of the river. But the technical demands of the venue nearly derailed the shoot before it began.
“The Rivoli Ballroom was such a massive space,” recalls Nelson, equally well-known for his edgy reportage as he is for his fresh portraiture. “It looked beautiful, but lighting it was a nightmare. It meant a really slow shutter speed, which in turn meant the band had to stand really still. But controlling Oasis is hard enough at the best of times. It’s like going into a zoo and having to tame the silverback gorillas.”
Nelson’s team were blessed with an unexpected ally: Liam Gallagher’s hangover. While drink can often make the Oasis singer even more volatile, his pre-prandial crapulence rendered him as docile as a puppy. While Nelson got on with the snappery, it was up to other members of the MOJO team to defuse the entourage…
“I was trying to get good pictures of Liam and Noel,” says Nelson, “but the PR was agitating to make sure the other guys were in the pics – it became a diplomatic dance, almost a comedy really. It’s hard to get an interesting dynamic with a group – in the end, it’s four guys in a line – but with Liam and Noel it’s a more complicated relationship, and that’s what you’re trying to capture. Luckily, everyone got what they wanted in the end."
Ultimately, reckons Nelson, if you keep thing in mind, rock portraiture should never pose insuperable problems. “Basically, half the people that pretend not to give a fuck desperately do give a fuck. The people who really don’t give a fuck are actually quite easygoing.”
Photographs by Zed Nelson ✦ Interview by: Danny Eccleston
↑ Mojo Magazine ▪ June 2005 (x)