Lindsay had never heard of the band. She helped launch one of the most vulnerable and inclusive fan communities online.
The photographer out of Yorkshire, England was asked to photograph the launch show for the band's debut studio album. Her husband and friend had seen the band before, but she wasn't familiar with their work.
She told Mashable that they changed everything for her.
It was her second year working in music photography, but she realized that the coverage they deserved wasn't being given. There were no other photographers at their shows, which are rowdy and violent. It's a concert where the audience is just as active as the band is on stage.
" Their performance has an incredible energy that doesn't hold back in intensity but remains conscious of the audience's experience," said Alexander, a 20-year-old from New York City. He's seen the band twice. I was behind the pit, but not in it. The movement and excitement of the crowd is amazing.
Joe Talbot is the vocalist for Idles.
Talbot said that the violence of the live show is a beautiful thing and that it is a thing of love and wanting to be loved. It's not possible to replicate it without pure love. That's what we have.
That kind of energy can be a photographer's dream. She started shooting as many shows as she could.
"I started to get to know the band well, and they got me on board to do some press photography and some promo shots." I began to get to know the fans. A lot of people were traveling to different cities in the UK to see the band, and I was the same.
Lindsay Melbourne Photography has a picture of the Idles during their live show.
The people got really close to each other. Everyone was going to gig together. She thought it would be helpful to start a group online that would be able to connect people to go to shows together and share her photography. She started a page on Facebook called All is Love: Afro Gang.
Talbot came up with the name because he was close with the band members.
It's like the As Fuck Gang, a group of people who are willing to put themselves out there and be enthusiastic about life. One of life's cheerleaders. Be vivid. Don't hide. It is bullshit. Talbot said that he called it the AF Gang because he thought it was important to show that he was hungry. He had nothing to do with the creation of the community. The fans made the page what it is today, after Melbourne created it on Facebook. They've supported us by coming to our shows and creating a whole network of people with the philosophy of hopefully acceptance and empathy as a tool to kill fascists.
Be vivid. Don't hide. It is bullshit.
Fans creating online communities to celebrate bands and music isn't specific to Idles. The "Jeff Rosenstock I Look Like Shitposting" page is delightful. The pages are managed by fans, which makes them friendly. The way that they talk about mental health issues is rare, and it seems to have nothing to do with the music of Idles. There were passages and posts from people talking about how to deal with the death of a beloved pet, their nervousness about going to a show alone, or the loneliness and isolation that so often comes along with the Pandemic, all among the things that came up once the group got rolling.
They were comfortable knowing that they were going to meet some members of the gang. People began to talk about their stories and their journeys.
The group started with 50 people, and stayed that way for a long time. The group grew slowly with the band as they started playing bigger shows. There are more than 31,000 people in the private group. They kept the ethos of kindness from the original page.
"I feel like there is a real family in there, four years down the line," he said. It almost says that they're brothers and sisters, and if someone goes through something, you want to be there to support them.
Everything about the community happened naturally. Talbot didn't go out looking for a group of fans who would like his music or his message, it's just what happens when people listen to the lyrics, show up to the shows, and vibe with each other.
I don't think every artist should ever feel a necessity to do anything for their audience, but the whole reason why I started music and I started art was because I was saving my life because I felt isolated and my loneliness and my vitriol towards the universe and its randomness led me to drug
He started DJing and writing music with the other members of the band. I wanted to make sure that I never felt alone again through vulnerability and openness. Our live act and rock music came with that. It's still there.
Slamming a cucumber at their live show.
When musicians show this kind of vulnerability in their music, fans will respond in kind, according to Dr. Hae Joo Kim, assistant chair of professional music at Berklee College of Music.
"When they're meeting, going on social media, and going on all these apps, and websites, and platforms, and seeing all this vulnerability, there's a certain relationship that builds there and they themselves become vulnerable to the group and with the group." The community goes across the fans. This is like triangulation.
The fan pages of the Idles are filled with the same vibe, and they communicate with vulnerability on Facebook. Alexander has been one of the moderators for the Idles subreddit for nearly four years. He says the community feels like it's an extension of the communal aspect that you experience at their shows.
Alexander said that the band's consistent message contained in the lyrics of the betterment of one's self and leading with joy and compassion creates a strong base for the fans to stand on and pick each other up. The standard for others to follow when it comes to leading with kindness regardless of background is set by the original fan group on Facebook.
It did not happen without some bumps.
It was a great place to be on the internet for about two years. And then Covid happened. There were lock downs. Everyone was using the internet more. There were people trying to cause trouble.
It's hard to love the troll, but the ethos of the gang is that all is love. We're not going to kick people out because we're all love vibes. It was difficult to manage situations where members were not comfortable.
She realized she needed more people to moderate. There was no political talk for the first two years of the group.
As the group grew, she said she couldn't play a role in it. It caused a bit of a blowback, but she found that the group settled. Every post about the U.S. elections had a story about someone's mental health journey. "There was still a lot of love that people wanted to share and support, and that ultimately brought people back together again," she said.
Lindsay Melbourne Photography has a credit for "all is love"
To help foster that community, the moderators make big decisions before listening to everyone's point of view.
There are probably reasons behind someone coming in and being angry. It's much easier than it sounds, just trying to be as open as possible and encourage everyone to listen to each other. It's been hard, but I think in the last year it has gone back to where it was.
If you're paying attention only to the aggressive sound and not to the tender lyrics of the music, it might feel like you're at odds with the music. It's the kind of music my mom would not want to hear in my room, but would love to see written as a poem. Talbot's music was described as "modern post-punk's most voracious life coach," and his music was delivering sensitive and introspective moments with the same bull-in-a-china-shop aggression and lack of subtlety as their protest-placard rockers. There is violence to their vulnerability.
Talbot said that the violence in their art is supposed to remind people of their humanity. Advertising companies convince people that everyone's ugly, everyone's too old, everyone's too fat, and you can invest in buying into a dream that will not work, which is one of the worst things that has ever happened to our society. We wanted to bring back a sense of belonging through the violence of everyday life.
They have the opposite of toxic positivity. The new album proves that.
The lyrics are really strong and the new album is incredible. It feels like a really nice place to be.
Talbot continues to see the lotus in the swamp in the closing line of the last song of the newest album. "In spite of it all, life is beautiful," he growls.
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