August 25, 2014

Milwaukee IndyFest 2014 at the Milwaukee Mile is history and the IRL crews are about to race in California as I write this blog. Early Sunday morning they had earthquakes just a few miles away from the California racetrack.  I hope all are all right and ready to race again.

The Milwaukee race was a good fight for Will Power and Juan Pablo Montoya. I was pulling for Montoya as my other favorite, Helio Castroneves, just wasn't in the picture much during the race.  I think Helio's championship title fight might be over.  There are just not enough races left to gain points for Helio. Milwaukee, once again, isn't good for Helio come race time.

I was very happy to see Matthew Brabham running well in the Indy Lights and I see big things for this young man. His father Geoff, who was at the race, is a great driver coach for his son. Geoff raced Indy cars a bit, but really is famous for racing the Nissan IMSA GTP cars in the 1980's and winning a lot of races.

Matthew Brabham would have won his Indy Lights race if not for a late crash and then a bad restart. He finished P2 and was just heart broken sitting on the wall after the race with his Dad. He is learning quickly what racing is all about.

I hope you enjoy a look at Matthew Brabham, Rick Mears and the rest of the guys.

Have a great week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

August 18, 2014

This past weekend was Milwaukee Indyfest 2014! I am writing this on Friday before the weekend that I will be photographing one of my favorite things in life, Indy Cars!!

So, here is a look back at 2013. One of these guys should win, except, of course, for Dario Franchitti who is now retired due to injuries sustained last year at the Houston race. I miss seeing him race. He will be coaching for Chip Ganassi's team and will still be on pit lane. Also, Simona DeSilvestro won't be back because she is now pursuing a Formula One career. Good luck to her with that adventure.

Enjoy a look at Helio, Will Power and the guys from last year. I'm pulling for Helio to get 'er done. Then he could win the championship this year. Good luck to Helio Castroneves. He needs it! He has never won in Milwaukee and The Mile has not been kind to him when it comes to race day.

Next week, we will give you the results blog with some great photos of the guys. Hope to see you at the track.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

August 11, 2014

Today's blog is about the band Emerson, Lake and Palmer. These photographs are from a show I covered for the Bugle American on December 4, 1973 at the Chicago International Amphitheater.

As I look at my records, it was a busy week for me back then. On the following evening, I was in Madison, Wisconsin for The Beach Boys and The New Riders of the Purple Sage.

In 1973, there was a war among rock'n'roll fans as to who was the best rock keyboard player. Was it Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer or was it Rick Wakeman of the band Yes? I was always a Keith Emerson fan, even to this day.

I heard of Greg Lake playing on a cruise ship a while back! Interesting what old rockers do these days. I haven't heard much about Keith Emerson other than that he is a licensed jet airplane pilot! Carl Palmer was a terrific drummer and I hope he is still playing somewhere.

The photographs here show Keith Emerson's massive keyboards! Today of course everything is smaller but the synthesizers he used were huge and full of lots of cables. It's kind of cool stuff!

Carl Palmer always had a massive drum arrangement as you can see here.

Enjoy the photos and have a great week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

ELP at the Chicago International Amphitheater on December 4, 1973.

August 4, 2014

Today's blog looks at one of my all time favorite bands, The New Riders of the Purple Sage. When I was in college, NRPS, was my favorite band.

I became a lover of the pedal steel guitar because of Buddy Cage. He is the amazing pedal steel player of the NRPS band.

This show was on December 5, 1973. They opened the show for The Beach Boys that night at the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin.

Enjoy a look back at a great band that I hear is back together again!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The New Riders of the Purple Sage at the Dane County Coliseum on December 12, 1973.

July 28, 2014

Rory Gallagher's Facebook page and I have been talking lately and they have featured some of my photographs.

Today, we look back at both of Rory's shows that I covered.

October 20, 1971 at the Milwaukee Arena with Frank Zappa and Fleetwood Mac was the first show and the second one was on

November 8, 1972 at The East Village, a local club here in Milwaukee.

Enjoy looking back at Rory. All photographs are available to purchase as limited edition archival prints.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

July 21, 2014

This past week we lost a couple of good rock people.

Johnny Winter and JC Hartsfield left us for the big great rock band forming in heaven.

JC Hartsfield was a good friend of mine for many years when the band Heartsfield was playing a lot in the 1970's and 80's here in the midwest.

Heartsfield, was a country rock band.  If you never heard them, please do yourself a favor and look them up.

The attached photos cover many years in the 1980's and it seems a few of the photos are of a birthday party for JC.  It looks like the good old shaving cream pie in the face.

I have a lot of Heartsfield photos and more will be coming soon but I had to scan a few today because of JC's passing.

Miss you JC, we had some good times together.

Thanks for the memories JC.

Rich Zimmermann

J C Hartsfield and the band Heartsfield having fun on J C's birthday!

July 14, 2014

Last weeks blog, was on the Babe Ruth Band at Summerfest on June 28th, 2014.

After looking at all the photos that I took, I had to share some more with you. So, enjoy 12 more images of a very fun night and let's hope they come back soon to do it all again!

I didn't mention that the Babe Ruth song, "The Mexican", has been sampled and enjoyed by the break dancing community. One of my photos last week, showed one of the break dancers on stage with Alan Shacklock's son playing DJ behind him.  Very cool stuff!

Have a great week and please join my Facebook page Rich Zimmermann Photography if you haven't already.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann