2006:
Rolling Stone Magazine use to have this feature in the front of the magazine entitled, Random Notes. I shot for it quite a few times, sometimes they ran and often they did not. It was pretty hit or miss but I still got paid. Sometimes the reason was old news by the time it was ready to hit the presses, or it got bumped for something bigger and sometimes, the idea didn’t come out as they had hoped.
The members of MUSE are big poker fans and during their 2006 “Black Holes and Revelations Tour” they decided they would give fans a chance to play poker with them backstage at every stop. Well almost every stop. The promotion was connected with local radio station and for some reason they did not do it at the Chicago date. Yes the same show I was shooting for the magazine. They decided to send me anyway and I arrived at the Aragon Ballroom right after sound check. Right off the back I confessed I had no understanding of the game. The trio was kind and walked me through some of the basics. My initial thought was I needed a fan or at least their hand in the shot.
But pretty quickly I realized I needed to just focus on the three guys. As they continued to school me, for some reason I was obsessed to have Matt Bellamy drop poker chips and I had him do this again and again.
Through the course of the shoot I think the band had a lot of fun.
Even in the final shot, although not obvious, it’s still Matt dropping the chips.
