WangWen 惘闻 on tour, july 2008

GraemeNicol posted a photo:

Arriving from a 22 hour air-con train ride into the early morning heat and humidity of Changsha, the wide angle lens steamed up within seconds.

I recently spent a week on tour with Dalian post-rock band Wang Wen, currently on a 15 date tour of China, following right on the heels of their first European tour.

I joined them in Chengdu and travelled with them to Chongqing, Changsha and Wuhan, documenting both their personal journey and the physical journey of the places and people they (we) met on the way. They're currently heading down to Guangzhou and Hong Kong, but I'll join them again for the show in Beijing on 24th July and travel back with them to the final show in Dalian and continue documenting their return to everyday life after seven weeks on the road.

The sheer amount of photos taken - mostly from off-stage rather than the shows themselves, plus 3 hours each of video and audio, is all pretty daunting when it comes to starting the editing process, but hopefully the short 5-8 minute version for the wider audience will be all packaged and ready to stick online in six weeks or so, though the extended version for their fans, with lots more actual live gig footage, will take a little longer to put together.

This is a taster for now of the sort of access I was able to get though after a few days of eating and drinking with the band. They might be used to performing on stage, but having someone around them most of the time with a camera took a day or two to get used to. It's the first time I've done one of these "immersion" documentary projects, and I found it a hugely valuable learning experience. It's also the first time I've properly tried to use flash photography.

I've already got an audio recording of a foreigner down in Wuhan shouting "F*ck Mogwai, Wangwen kick ass !!!" from somewhere in the crowd . Those in Dalian can contribute their utterances to the final chapter by turning up for their homecoming show in Hopscotch on the 26th, i.e this coming Saturday.