On several occasions I have had the pleasure to see Deep Purple perform live at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In most cases they would end the show with the emotional encore ‘Smoke on the Water’. This always delighted the crowd and created something of a frenzy in the appreciative audience.

In the last few years I was granted a photo pass for the festival and in 2011 I was able to stand in the photo pit for the concert. The photo pass permitted me access but limited that access to working under the usual ‘three songs, no flash’ conditions. In spite of these restrictions I was quite happy with the photos I took, so much so that I had a one-off hard-cover photo-book of my pictures made.

When DP returned to Montreux in 2013 I used all my connections to get in touch with the band’s management and told them of my photo-book and that I wanted to give them it as a present. The stage manager of the venue was kind enough to introduce me to the band’s tour manager. He took my book and looked at the photos, then asked me very specific questions about the material I used and the software for post-processing. Obviously he was an avid photographer himself. He then closed the book, looked at me and said: “I like your photos. I want you to shoot the whole show tonight”, and with this, he handed me an artist pass. I never expected this and I was really stunned.

The artist pass granted me a completely new photographic experience of a show. Instead of the usual hectic three song limit I had to work within before, I now had the whole two hours to take my photos.

The results of my work that night, the majority of which have never been published before, are presented here; I hope you enjoy them seeing them as much as I did taking them.

Ueli Frey, http://www.drjazz.ch, Switzerland

Simon adds : having taken photos at rock and pop shows for many years, and very interested in the work of others, I was extremely impressed with Ueli’s images. Digital cameras and auto focus make everyone a photographer these days and it takes a real eye to go beyond the usual imagery and come up with something a bit special. But I’m sure you’ll agree Ueli more than managed this. We’ll have a chat with him and see if he’s up for a book! Thanks also to Stephen Clare for sorting out the images for this gallery. Click on the first image and then each smaller image to view.