Just recently my 1T Maxtor external hard drive failed without warning and on it was all my photography from 2009. All my gigs all my festivals, private work and band promos all of it gone. So I thought, after much stress and tears I pointed in the direction of a company found via Google. Praise Google search engine.

I was lucky enough to find a company called Payam Data Recovery. They have just opened here in Brisbane but you can also find them in Sydney and Melbourne. I was also lucky to be charged a very reasonable amount to recover my lost data.

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I recently took my first road trip up to the Sunshine Coast for Parkway Drive at their Lake Kawana leg of the SickSummer Tour. This is their last regional tour of Australia before they head off on a tour of the United Kingdom and Europe then on to America for the Van’s Warped Tour.

Parkway Drive were supported by 3 bands Word Up!, Confessions and They also had a first support band but I can not find their name for the life of me.

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Headline act Pink, though, is a sheer force of nature – from the time she arrives on stage, swinging on a trapeze and bellowing her lungs out in the middle of a hugely ornate circus set, she seems determined to raise the energy again … and again … and again …

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Lily’s black-clad backing band snaps into action with Everyone’s At It and the girl herself makes a dramatic entrance as a larger-than-life silhouette before the curtain drops and strobe lights go mental.

She too is dressed in black, her diminutive presence allowing her vocals to take centre stage in what is a surprisingly intimate show given that ticket demand could have filled a much larger venue.

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I haven’t devoted much space to headline act Pussycat Dolls because, umm, they weren’t very good.

They seldom hit the notes, they clearly despised each-other, their stage show was nowhere near as inventive as Gaga’s, and the whole thing kinda gave me flashbacks to that episode of Sex & The City where Samantha is attacked by the angry transvestites (for any straight men who don’t happen to get that pop culture reference – it’s a bad thing).

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Although she’s on the bill as the support act, it’s pretty clear that many people are here to check out Lady Gaga, and from the opening moments of her set – a bizarre short film about her alter ego, Candy Warhol – it’s clear we’re in for quite a ride.

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I have let this thing go since January, I’ve been so slack. So very slack.

I’ve shot so many bands: Howard Jones, The Waifs, The All-American Rejects, Hey Monday, Fall Out Boy, Amanda Palmer, Mogwai, The Stills, Kings of Leon, Counting Crows, The Who, Kean, The Greats, Little Birdy, Oh Mercy, Lady GaGa, Pussycat Dolls and Lily Allen.

I’ve also shot a bunch of festivals: Sunset Sounds, Soundwave, Big O, V Festival and the Victorian Fire & Flood Benifit concert in Brisbane.

I will upload some photos from the most recent shows I’ve shot but probably not ALL. You can however see most of them on my Flickr photostream if you’re really curious!

Serj Tankian, lead singer of System of a Down, is next. A lot of punters here haven’t heard his solo efforts, eventuating in the 2007 album Elect the Dead. Tankian walks out in a white suit and white top hat.

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American star Alicia Keys is having it both ways, introducing elements of pop to her sound with latest album As I Am, but still flying the flag for old-school soul. There was room for it all on the opening night of her Australian tour at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, where she showed why she has proven the most durable of this decade’s R&B stars.

There’s energy, excitement and a big show, but there’s real musical substance as well.

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Kate Miller-Heidke is stunning, in both looks and vocal range, appearing like a retro diva with a hint of burlesque in a black 80’s taffeta dress with sequins and gloves. She almost sounds operatic as she launches into songs about metro sexuals, scooters and super girl, with a voice like an angel and the smile of a demented Alice in Wonderland in a cute, yet sexy keyboard driven way. There’s something wicked going on in that little pixie’s mind and the audience love it!

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