Why 'First Three Songs'?
firstthreesongs.com is a nod to the three-song 'rule' that concert photographers regularly face when shooting live music, particularly at larger gigs: you only get to photograph the band on stage during the first three songs of their set before the security guys turf you out.
It's a challenge for every photographer in the pit as there's no real warm-up time to get the feel for the lighting set-up or to let the band get into their stride. You've got around 15 minutes (if you're lucky) to get your shots and that's it.
Blame The Boss
There are several versions of how the rule came about though the most widely accepted version has none other than Bruce Springsteen getting fingered for having kicked it all off.
As the story goes, during the mid '80s, he got increasingly narked with photographers' bad behaviour in the pits of his New York concerts particularly - dozens of them all popping flashes up at him for the whole of the gig. So he started limiting them to the first
fifteen minutes of his shows, which roughly equated to the first three numbers in his set. And flashes were banned.
Since it was good enough for The Boss, other bands were quick to follow suit and 'first three songs only - and no flash' soon became the mantra of tour managers and pr execs everywhere.