1982: I’m driving back home from Omaha, Nebraska, after a day of hanging out with friends at the mall and going to the record store. You still called it that back then. We’re listening to the new Judas Priest cassette, Screaming For Vengeance. Two of us chipped in and split the cost as neither had the money to buy it solo.
Of the five of us in the car, I alone had seen the Mighty Priest in concert: once at the Austin Opry House in ’77 or so, and once in San Antonio at the Hemisfair Arena. Then I moved to the musical wasteland that was Nebraska. In two years, I went to maybe eight total concerts, and these were 160 mile round trips to Omaha or Lincoln. Months later, Priest toured and I had tickets go unused due to a blinding snowstorm that closed the roads for several days.
Back then, when Vengeance‘s “Electric Eye” played, it evoked video rather than photos. Now of course, 25 years later, all my equipment is digital, hence the name of this blog as suggested by my boss and friend Raoul. I’ve seen and photographed Judas Priest a half-dozen or more times, and am looking forward to seeing them again this summer at the Verizon in Selma, Aug. 24.
A few weeks ago I was telling Raoul how tired I was. “I’m shooting 13 shows in six days and it’s getting tiring.” That was April. In May, I have but a handful. So it goes with concerts. This blog will be mostly visual, with some photos of the shows and a short entry on what I saw and heard in the short time I was there. As a professional photographer, I don’t often get to stay for a show beyond the first three songs I’m allowed to shoot. Usually, it’s those first three tunes and then I’m gone.
Gary Miller
This article appears in May 2 • 2008.