Qween at the Everyman

We went to see Qween perform in The Everyman theatre last night. Their performance had to be delayed because of one of the major winter storms a few weeks ago, but it was most certainly worth the wait!

They put on a great show, entertaining us all with the fabulous music of Queen, the greatest band in the world.

Definitely, if they are performing near you, go see them!


Apertureƒ/6.3
CameraILCE-7RM5
Focal length144mm
ISO6400
Shutter speed1/320s

Brian May in the Spotlight

Queen + Adam Lambert played in the O2 in London as part of their 2022 Rhapsody Tour, and I was there in the middle of June.

I love Queen’s music. I wanted to go see them for a long time but left it late to book tickets for one of their London shows. The only seats left were away up in the rafters, to the side of the stage. (and then they announced a Belfast show a few weeks later, but we had paid for concert tickets, plane tickets and a family hotel room. Ah, well.)

One of the highlights of the gigs was when the late Freddie Mercury was shown on the big screen singing Love of My Life with Brian May. Guess who didn’t see any of it because of where he was sitting? A beautiful moment, and I knew what was happening when the crowd cheered. And I missed it all. I was crushed.

Earlier in the day, on the way to the concert, in the taxi, I took my phone out of my pocket to check Google Maps. To my horror, my phone screen remained blank. I figured the phone was still on because I heard a WhatsApp notification, but the screen remained stubbornly black. Disaster! The tickets were on my phone! Luckily, we had installed the O2 app on my family’s phones, so I consoled myself that one of those phones would work. I couldn’t be more wrong. They were logged out and because the password manager was on my phone, we had no way to log in. I remember wishing I had my laptop, which was back in the hotel. However, we weren’t the only ones in that situation, but customer support at the O2 are used to it and got us physical replacement tickets. The following morning, my phone worked fine again.

So, It wasn’t an ideal experience. Yes, you can say it was my own fault for not booking earlier, but they still offered those sections of the arena for sale, and every seat was taken. I didn’t post this or any other photo from the concert as I was so disappointed by everything that happened, but time has dulled my feelings about it. I still love Queen music, and I even love their 80s and 90s output. Despite my experience, it was spectacular to see Brian May and Roger Taylor perform.


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CameraDSC-RX100M4
Focal length25.7mm
ISO12800
Shutter speed1/500s

Qween at the Regatta

Qween rocked Cobh on Sunday night, the last night of the Cobh People’s Regatta 2023. They’re an outstanding Queen tribute band, and they played all the hits, and soon had everyone singing along, dancing and cheering to the music. A short break in the middle of the set was required for the fireworks at 10pm, but the music started up shortly afterwards to the delight of everyone around.

Alas, I had to leave then. I was up early the next morning, but I can’t wait to see them play again!


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CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length58mm
ISO5000
Shutter speed1/500s

Flash Harry in 2021

A few more photos of Flash Harry from their September 2021 performance in the Opera House, Cork. They played there recently but I didn’t get to see them. They are a great Queen tribute band however. Go see them if you can!

Posting these because I wanted to test out Topaz Denoise on some high ISO noisy images. It did a fabulous job cleaning them up!

Mike Gray posted some great photos of musicians performing on his Twitter account, and he said he used DXO PureRAW. I was going to try the free trial of that but since I already had Denoise I wanted to give that a proper go at these images. Very happy with it too.


Apertureƒ/6.3
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length98mm
ISO16000
Shutter speed1/640s

Flash Harry at the Cork Opera House

A much delayed concert by Queen tribute band, Flash Harry, in Cork went ahead tonight in Cork Opera House and it was worth the wait. The band were great and had everyone dancing around by the end of the night!

Mask wearing by the audience started out well but by the interval hardly anyone I saw was wearing one. I guess that probably happens at every venue. People are sick of restrictions, but the pandemic isn’t over yet. While the auditorium appeared quite full our row of seats was mostly empty, and the rows ahead of us were packed. So I’d believe they’re limiting attendance to 60% of capacity. Things go back to normal on October 22nd.

As I’ve said before, if Flash Harry are playing near you go check them out!


Apertureƒ/6.3
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length63mm
ISO6400
Shutter speed1/400s

Flash Harry at the Opera House

This was my fourth time seeing Flash Harry perform, and third time in the Cork Opera House and they brought the house down as they always do. The first half was sedate with a good mix of well known and more obscure Queen songs. I loved their rendition of ’39. After a brief interlude where we were told cups of tea were consumed, and not some illicit drug the band took it up a notch with great versions of Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Gaga, I Want to Break Free and many other hits!

The band are touring Ireland this year with lots of gigs announced. If they play near you go see them! You’re guaranteed a great night!

For more, check out my Flash Harry archive of photos.

For the photographers in the audience. All the photos were shot with a Sony A7III, and and adapted Tamron 28-300 “super zoom” which unfortunately doesn’t focus that well. As a result I used back-button-focus since the performers were mostly standing in the same general area, and I wasn’t moving from my seat so it worked well!

Flash Harry at the Opera House

Flash Harry played in the Opera House last night to a sold out crowd. They’re a Queen tribute band from Belfast and this is my third time seeing them, and I have to admit, they’re getting better with age!

Check out their Facebook page for updates and go see them if you have the opportunity!

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera ILCE-7M3
Focal length 100mm
ISO 12800
Shutter speed 1/125s

Flash Harry in the Opera House

Flash Harry played in the Cork Opera House on March 23rd 2018. The last time I saw them play was in 2006 at the Cobh People’s Regatta. They were great then, they’re great now!

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 6D
Focal length 133mm
ISO 640
Shutter speed 1/125s

Cobh Peoples Regatta – Flash Harry

Flash Harry, a Queen tribute band played to the crowd at the Cobh Peoples Regatta last weekend after the fireworks. They were great, driving the crowd wild!
*phew* This post took ages to do, had to get up early to work on this one. Hope you enjoy the photos!

You can find out more about Flash Harry on their website.
Sorry if you’re on dialup, this may take a while to download!

Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry
Cobh Peoples Regatta - Flash Harry

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 125mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/60s

Queen at the Ballet

Queen at the Ballet is a ballet accompanied by the music of Queen. It features an on-stage orchestra, and two charismatic vocalists sing and act as ringmasters for the action on stage. It played for the last two weeks in the Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland, but it’s moving on now. If the show comes to your city make sure you go!

I’m a big fan of Queen music, so seeing this show was an emotional and amazing experience for me. Jacinta loved it too, soaking up the music and the visuals with me as we were awestruck by the performance! Easily the best show I’ve seen!

Thanks to the generosity of Ken Guest and Aisling and Proinnsias and Sinead we were able to go see the show. We’re still fairly broke so soon after our wedding and I really must thank them sincerely for making this happen!
It was remiss of me to forget another three important people who helped us greatly! Donal and Celine took care of Oscar for the weekend. My sister Mairead helped too, bringing him for a walk in the lovely sunshine! Thank you all!

Photos were taken with my Panasonic FZ5 from about 20m away so please excuse the poor image quality! Besides which, I didn’t feel like using the camera much because I was enjoying the show so much.

Surprisingly, “God Save The Queen”, was part of the show. A performer appeared on-stage waving two tiny Union Jack flags as the orchestra played the anthem of the United Kingdom.

He looked sheepishly out at the audience, put the flags back in his pocket and unfurled the Irish tri-colour waving it about to cheers and applause before wrapping it about himself as the lights went down and the music faded.

Aperture ƒ/3.3
Camera DMC-FZ5
Focal length 24.6mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/30s