Zombie

Wolverhampton yesterday for The Pretty Reckless. Long trek, but got a shot on the Sun's homepage today, so may turn out to have been worth it. I thought they were a lot better than the songs I shot a V.





Ten out of ten for JLS tonight - my last gig of 2010, I suspect - both for the lighting and for quite an extraordinary entrance in a flying car...





For those keeping score, that was 96 shows this year, counting festivals as 1, so probably 120-150 acts shot overall.

I Try

Delighted to see Macy Gray last night as support for Simply Red. Loads of fun to shoot.



And the Courteeners on Friday night.


Looks like I'm persona non grata this week, as I've had no answer on tonight or tomorrow's shows, and a refusal on another show tomorrow. Back in action on Thursday for possibly my last show of 2010.

Meat Loaf last week one of my least favourite shows to shoot of the year, unfortunately. We hadn't been warned it was soundboard, although I'd come prepared. The desk was at the back and not raised, meaning that even though I had the range, the hands in the air from the seated crowd immediately standing made the prospects of anything worthwhile very slim indeed.

Propane Nightmares

(Missed blogging Janelle Monae - great show, no light)

Pendulum tonight at Manchester Central. Lights were challenging and they certainly kept us on our toes movement wise!

Wake Up The Nation

The Rifles and Paul Weller tonight at the arena for The Music Fix. Review isn't 'til next week at Wembley, but I thought I'd share these early.




And support, The Rifles

Our House

Loads of fun to shoot Madness at Manchester Apollo this evening. Would have liked to have stayed to watch the show, really. Crowd seemed really up for it.

A Night At The Opera

Andrea Bocelli last night at the MEN Arena - had expected it to be sound-desk, but instead was a fixed position at the foot of the stage. All my photos look like this one, but honestly that's preferable to shooting from the back!

Crazy Cat

Two weeks holiday, and back in the fray as of last night - Pixie Lott at Preston Guild Hall. A delight to shoot, to be honest.

What's the 411?

Mary J Blige at the MEN Arena tonight. Nice to be in the pit for a big name, although I wish we'd had slightly longer to shoot. Still, no complaints, lighting was good and she was fun to capture.

In The End

Awkward one shooting Linkin Park last night, really. The lighting was a bit awkward and it's a strange shaped stage, coming out to a point in the middle of the pit.

Starry Eyed

Been trying to get access to shoot Ellie Goulding for pretty much the whole year and had almost given up, but finally got in for her show at Manchester Academy tonight. Great line-up.

Bright Light, Bright Light


Sunday Girl


Ellie Goulding

Skinny Genes

Had been looking forward to tonight all week, but had a pretty unpleasant experience. Without going into details, it made me want to never shoot at one of my favourite venues again.

Anyway, here's the ghoulish Eliza Doolittle


And the batty (sorry, couldn't resist) Paloma Faith

Fun to see both artists in the Hallowe'en spirit!

Please Rewind

Nice little in-store at Urban Outfitters last night with I Blame Coco. Not sure if she'd thank me for this, but there were definitely moments in that acoustic set where you could hear a hint of her father in her voice.

Dead

Lousy night at the Apollo for My Chemical Romance. Just wasn't on my game. Onwards and upwards, though.

The Loner

Only just made it to Preston tonight in time for Nils Lofgren. He came on at 7:45 in order to do a two hour set, but that's not very compatible with the Friday night rush hour traffic from Manchester!

Friendly shooting restrictions - basically don't be an idiot - and I hope that I was respectful of the audience and stayed out of their way for my three. From what I heard they were in for a treat.

Suddenly I See

Lighting slightly better than usual at the Ritz for KT Tunstall last night. Turned down for a show Monday, so shooting tonight and Sunday, then we'll see what next week throws up.

Aside from that, I'm looking for some new outlets for my photos. Watch this space.

Paradise City

For those keeping score, I missed blogging about Kate Nash on Saturday at Leeds. Looking very goth these days, gig sounded better than the show I saw in Manchester earlier in the year. Support act still isn't Regina Spektor no matter how much she'd like to be. Lighting better than expected.

Anyway, Guns 'n' Roses at the MEN tonight. Shooting for the mighty Music Fix, it irritates me to have to write a bad review of a band I'm secretly quite fond of, but once again he shows an astounding disrespect for a paying audience. It made me genuinely furious to watch a teenage girl being screamed at by her father for wasting his money, as they left at 10:20 - no sign of the band.

Shooting notes - sound desk, no access to any raised area, surprisingly no contract.

Hard To Make A Stand

Last minute call to shoot Sheryl Crow tonight at Manchester Apollo. Was going to the show anyway, so was glad to be able to get some shots. Decent light, but Apollo seated shooting position again - although felt like we were further forward than usual!

Motorycle Emptiness

Not so great lights again for the Manic Street Preachers at Leeds Academy. Some nice shots marred by the evil red light o'doom. Hey ho. Band sounded terrific, though.

Oxygene

Jean Michel Jarre at the MEN Arena tonight. Wasn't sure what to expect, really, but was quite fun to shoot. It's always hard to shoot discretely when you're six foot at the MEN Arena with a seated audience. Feel bad, but it's only three songs and most people are understanding.

Put Your Records On

I made the mistake of thinking tonight's Corinne Bailey Rae show was at Manchester Academy, not Academy 2, or The Dread Land Of No Light as it's better known. So ambled along late, and found it not only to be next door, but no pit to boot.

Lighting was patchy as usual, but I got some shots I quite like.

Mack The Knife

Michael Buble isn't my thing, musically, but thought he was pretty funny between songs tonight at the MEN Arena. Less funny was shooting from the sond-desk, but that's increasingly the way these days.

Don't Stand So Close To Me

Shot Sting's Symphonicity tour last night at Manchester Apollo, 2 songs and out, unfortunately and from the back of the venue. No complaints about the lighting, or indeed the performance - you usually get a ticket at the Apollo, and based on the songs we heard, I've had liked to have stayed.



Anyway, the gigging week's not over yet - at least 2 more this week, possibly 3.

Stop Me

Nice to be back in the swing of things with October's gigs kicking off in earnest tonight. Headed to the MEN Arena first, to shoot Santana, then onwards to the Academy for the Mark Ronson shows.

Here's a quick shot of ex-Pipette Rose Dougall, one of Mark Ronson's vocalists tonight.

One Week

To be honest, I wasn't happy with my shots of Barenaked Ladies at Leeds on Friday (microphone casting a shadow on Ed's face was pretty unhelpful) so in lieu of that, here's one of the support acts, Joel Plaskett.

Uprising

My fourth consecutive Saturday stood in a field! Shot Muse at Lancashire Cricket Club on Saturday evening. Shooting conditions weren't the greatest in any sense, which was a shame. So view this while keeping in mind that it was shot at 400mm from the end of a catwalk from which we couldn't move!



More shots at XFM

The Outsider

Leeds Festival, and indeed festival season in general is done. So here's my last act of this year's campaign, Marina & The Diamonds. Worth waiting 2 hours for after the previous act I was shooting!

Brand New Eyes

Another weekend, another field. This time in Leeds. Here's Paramore from last night.

Shoot The Runner

So, I didn't shoot either of the headliners yesterday following an incident in which I fell over and hurt my knee, so made a break for it after Florence - agency guys weren't allowed to shoot Kings Of Leon anyway.

In lieu of that, here's a quick shot of Saturday's headliner, Kasabian.



No rest for the wicked, shooting Jason Derulo tonight...

Weak

So, I'm writing this in a field. I'm at V Festival for day 2. Here's my personal highlight of Day 1, Skunk Anansie.

Tender

Had a look through my shots from last weekend and came upon this of Frankie & The Heartstrings which I'm quite fond of.

Time for one of the big fish tomorrow - off to shoot V Festival for the first time. I consider it one of the UK's "Big 3" really (the others being Glastonbury and Reading/Leeds) so I'm a bit daunted. Weather looks a bit shaky too...

Once

Back in the saddle this weekend. Shot Summer Sundae weekender down in Leicester for Friday and Saturday then headed back up north for Sunday to shoot the Rock FM Live show in Blackpool.

Customer Service Is Dead

Given that I'm not shooting shows for a few days, let's have a quick moan.

Firstly. Debenhams.
Ordered item on Monday, delivery to store within 4 days. No word, called them. Turns out that's "from despatch" which could be from now to kingdom come. Email them, and get told it's shipped. Went to store - store has item - but not the one that was sent for me - so I can't have it.

Where's the joined-up thinking there? Replace the one from stock with the one that's in transit to you. Don't make your customer make two trips. Insane. It shouldn't matter to the end user that you're "not the same company". Because you're replacing object a with object b and the two are identical.

Oh, and the item advertises a £40 rebate on the page I ordered from. Lovely. Except it expired months ago and they couldn't be bothered to update their site.

Secondly, Digitalrev.
Took a risk in ordering a camera from HK. Paid my money. "Ships within 24 hours" it says. Order arriving 12th August the order says. Their online support say "It'll be with you by the end of next week if you order now." Shooting a festival Friday, so that's perfect.

Hasn't shipped. Can't tell me when it'll ship. In the interim I've been approved for V next weekend, and will be furious if it's not here by then.

I don't understand why either of these transactions is difficult, given that they involve having an item and putting in in a box and shipping it. Or if you can't, communicating with the customer.

So what should have been two fairly nice 'luxury' purchases are tarnished by the sheer ball-ache of trying to get a company to fulfil it's part of the bargain.

Tell you what, though. They were both very efficient at one thing - taking the payment.

Turn It Up

I shot over 40 bands in 3 days between Friday and Monday... this was borderline insane, but as I haven't got a shoot for three weeks (and that's if I get festivals I've requested), I figured what the heck.

Public Image Limited in Leeds was all kinds of hopeless. Just no light, a complete wasted trip. They even gave us 4 songs - but it was apparent that they just weren't going to turn the lights on...

Splendour in Nottingham was nice - smaller than I'd expected.

Party in The Park in Leeds was chaos. Good chaos, but chaos. Running back and forward between the stage and backstage - I covered 30 artists that day alone. Here's just one shot from the weekend - Vanessa Amorosi from Leeds.

Better

For those keeping track, I've missed blogging about Earth Wind & Fire... but I was in Leeds tonight for Regina Spektor. Sounding terrific, wish I'd stayed for the show.

Bells For Her

Got the opportunity to shoot Tori Amos again last night. Originally we were slated to shoot soundcheck, but that didn't happen - this time though we weren't on the balcony, we were in an aisle near the front, which worked out a lot better.



As those of you who have kept up with this blog might remember, I once had a photo taken with Tori Amos - about 12 years ago, which I commented on here - well, I finally got an up to date one.

Murder On The Dancefloor

Last minute nod yesterday to shoot Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Pet Shop Boys... was one of those "Surprise! You're not in the pit!" moments, but I'd planned ahead and brought the 400mm. Wish the light had been better for Sophie, though.

Outside

A heavy old week last week! Made the papers three times (that I know of) with Alesha Dixon, N-Dubz and Snoop Dogg.

Things will be significantly quieter now until at least September, as festival season approaches. I've got my name down for a few but nothing confirmed just yet.

In lieu of something from everyone, he's a quick sounddesk shot of Katherine Jenkins on Wednesday night.

Sound of silence

Apparently I was the only person in the country who didn't shoot Slash last night (or so my Flickr friends seem to indicate) but I'm not bitter (much!).

This week holds Alesha Dixon, N-Dubz, Katherine Jenkins, Ronan Keating, Vampire Weekend, Tinie Tempah, Mr Hudson, and - fo' shizzle - Mr Snoop Dogg.

Filthy Gorgeous

Anyway, yes, still not dead, still busy.

Scissor Sisters last night at the Apollo were unsurprisingly tremendous.



Stevie Wonder tonight, was 60 seconds - surprisingly, it was enough. UK and US PR guys made it run like clockwork.

Come Away With Me

Not dead, just busy.

Here's some one-line shooting notes

Norah Jones - miles away.
NERD - purple light o'doom
Michael McDonald - doesn't open his eyes
Al Green - legend. Hands out roses to the ladies.

Time Of Your Life

Christ, behind again and it's only been a couple of shows. Anyway, long story short:

Green Day


Joan Jett


Richard Ashcroft


No more now this week. At least a couple of shows next week...

Small Blue Thing

Nice to get to shoot the Suzanne Vega show tonight, and also to do my first interview with a singer in a very long time.



The interview will be on The Music Fix soon.

Ivyrise

I'd never heard of Ivyrise a month or two ago, but I'd just like to take a moment to acknowledge them as the hardest working band in rock. Pretty much every show I seem to go to at the moment, there they are - working the queue.

They've got a brilliant plan - essentially, find a captive audience, send a couple of band members out and then walk the entire queue with an ipod, playing them songs and trying to sell them a ticket for a gig. Proper grass-roots stuff. I'm not quite sure what the hygiene implications of an iPod earphone that's been in 300 ears is, and I get a little queasy just thinking about it, but fair play to them - if they make it, they've earned it.

I haven't actually heard of their music - they have corectly evalutated that a bloke in his thirties who first owned a Bon Jovi album before they were born might not be their target audience. (Having supported Bon Jovi is one of their conversational gambits. I fear many of the people they're talking to have wouldn't know Bad Medicine from a hole in the ground, though...)

Seriously though, good luck to them. You don't see much of this kind of "You've got to hear our music" grass-roots marketing. They're playing Moho on the 27th of June. You should probably go.

F.E.A.R

Parklife Festival tonight at Platt Fields. Managed to severely hinder myself by leaving my one working CF card at home, relegating myself to the 450D. It's nice to be challenged once in a while, but not in a festival setting and by accident. I am an idiot, and it won't happen again.

Unkle


Mike Pickering


Ian Brown


Peter Hook