'Live As F*ck': The Southern River Band's UK/Euro Tour Immortalised In Print

The visceral disappointment of missing out on a live show is a feeling music fans are well accustomed to. Seeing blurry videos online, choppy audio posted haphazardly to Instagram stories by a friend of a friend - this content rarely captures the true essence of being at a gig.

But if you missed out on seeing Perth (Boorloo) based The Southern River Band ricochet across the UK and Europe on tour, Alex Miller is giving you a second chance to experience it, with his immersive debut photo book The Southern River Band Live As Fuck Across Europe And The United Kingdom For The First Time By Alex Miller.

Previously working as the group’s manager, Miller was invited to document The Southern River Band on their debut international Stan Qualen Tour earlier this year, which spanned eight weeks, across 24 dates.

Miller describes the tour as “a pivotal moment, for not only us but Australian music”.

“I’ve done countless tours around Australia with these idiots,” Miller reflects, “but it’s wild to be on the other side of the planet and see them exceed their goal of being the biggest band in Thornlie.”

Miller says the attitude of the band is unchanged: “It’s literally the same gig for them; they’re unstoppable.” No matter that they’re no longer playing in Perth’s southeast at Thornlie Tavern, and instead selling out shows at medieval English castles.

The gig at Warwick Castle in the UK’s Midlands was the most memorable for Miller.

“It was the most fun but challenging venue to shoot. The placement of stage/crowd/castle seemed like it would work but trying to include all the architecture in the background was tricky.”

This location also produced “the most powerful moment” Miller documented on the tour.

It was a shot of the band’s drummer “Tyler ‘The Hawk’ Ray Michie rocking up to, and sound checking at Warwick Castle in his flag shirt,” Miller says.

“He is of Arrernte descent and it was so badass walking through the gates of a 1000 year old castle with him proudly repping the flag. That needed a whole double page spread alone in the book.”

All the photos featured in the book were shot on Miller’s Canon 5D Mark III, which he describes as being “old as hell, but an absolute workhorse”.

“It’s been dropped from great heights and had beer poured all over it multiple times but is still kicking. I haven’t fully gone to the small mirrorless cameras yet because holding a brick is more comfortable for some reason.”

Regardless of the tour antics the camera has been through, it proved itself invaluable, capturing over 30,000 photos across the two months.

“It took a few long nights of culling down to the good stuff,” Miller says of the book’s creative process.

“I then cleared out the garage, printed off about 800 A4 sheets of photos at Officeworks and threw them all on the floor to put together like a big jigsaw puzzle.”

Getting the visuals right for the book was crucial to Miller, who “wanted to make it look like a travel document instead of a shiny coffee table book”.

“When I was in Copenhagen airport I started making a made up passport stamp with SRB’s logo on my laptop, probably not the best place to be photoshopping the UK/European customs stamps,” Miller admits.

“Over the next couple of weeks I made the cover design and got a big wood block stamp made which I'll use on all of the book covers and numbering for each edition.”

The physical book is not the only slice of the tour fans can get their hands on, with Miller collecting assorted ephemera from across the UK and Europe.

Miller says memorabilia on offer includes “the horse head that Cal rode out on stage at Warwick Castle, one of the Darkness boys’ guitar picks, red confetti from when Patty and I watched Avril Lavigne front row at Rock Werchter, Sweden Rock lanyards, all sorts of shit”.

He does confess that his Berghain wristband will be tricky to part with.

“I might have to hold onto that one!”

And after providing such expansive documentation of the tour, fans should be okay with letting him keep at least one memento.

Preorders for ‘The Southern River Band Live As Fuck Across Europe And The United Kingdom For The First Time By Alex Miller’ open on 3 October, and can be ordered through Alex Miller’s website here.