I realise I’ve been neglecting this blog, and the internet in general lately, truth be told It’s a real struggle, shooting gigs, updating websites, moving house, and studying, all while trying to eat three meals a day, I’m mostly on top of things now so hopefully there will be more frequent updates here, and on Flickr. Last night I went to day eight of iTunes Live at KOKO, which in the last week has played host to N*E*R*D, Paul Weller, Hadouken!, The Feeling, Roots Manuva, Elliot Minor and Black Kids. Last night was Lightspeed Champion, who I’ve shot three or four times now, Lightspeed Champion have become rather popular in recent months, a year ago almost to the day I saw them support Bright Eyes at Shepherds Bush Empire, a few more months and I reckon they’ll be ready to headline there themselves, unfortunately whoever was in control of the lights seemed bent on making life Hell for me, so I didn’t get too many good pictures. Anyway, iTunes Live is on for another eighteen days, CSS, Death Cab For Cutie, Dizzee Rascal, James Blunt, McFly, there’s bound to be something for you, you can win tickets with Evening Standard, or if you can’t afford to buy a 50p newspaper, head over to www.ituneslive.co.uk.

Lightspeed Champion

Yesterday I headed to Coventry (yes, Coventry) for the annual Godiva Festival, unfortunately I didn’t get to use my camera much for various reasons, fussy security guards, camera shy bands, you name it, combine that with the fact that it pissed with rain all day (thanks Coventry), and I guess you could say I had one of the most horrible days ever, I blame Coventry. However, all is not lost, I got to see The Displacements, who are apparently going to be massive, and the incredible Art Brut, who are definitely one of the best British bands around at the moment, in fact probably the THE best British band at the moment, they have two full lengths out, buy at least one or prepare to fail at life.

The Displacements

Art Brut

So perhaps it wasn’t a completely shit day. Thanks for looking!

Right, a week ago today I was offered a place on the list for the Hadouken! show at Carling Academy Birmingham, I wasn’t in a position to turn it down because, a) I hadn’t been to a show for ages, and b) Hadouken! are well on their way to becoming one of the biggest bands in the UK. I’m not the biggest Hadouken! fan in the world, as someone who would rather spend their time reading a good book than going out and getting drunk, songs like Get Smashed Gate Crash hardly ring true with my life, but they put on a pretty good show, so I can respect that while they may not be my cup of tea, they are in fact, a pretty good band who obviously take a lot of inspiration from UK hip hop, not my favourite hip hop, but it’s still hip hop. Hadouken! played through new material from their recently released Music For An Accelerated Culture, along with the more familiar songs such as Liquid Lives and Declaration Of War, what really got me was when they came back on for an encore and played The Prodigy’s Breath (!?), again, I’m not a fan of The Prodigy, or especially that song, but the rendition was faithful to the original, but not a complete rip off, so they pulled it off pretty well, the audience loved it, and I guess they know best. Overall it was a great gig for fans of the band.

Truth be told I don’t have the time to write an in depth analysis of the gig, so if you want to know more, check out one of their shows, you will be pleasantly surprised, you could also check out the video below, which also includes footage from the very show you’ve just been reading about, along with some of the HMV instore on the same day. No, I’m not in the video, I did my best to get in the shot, but they obviously didn’t want to use anything with me in it…I wonder why.

Last night I got to shoot Hadouken! at Carling Academy Birmingham, Hadouken! have been around for some time now, but have only just started to really succeed. I got to the venue just in time to shoot The Clik Clik’s first three songs, followed by some Danish electro from MIT.

The Clik Clik

MIT

I didn’t want to post these, simply because they’re not particularly good photos, but I’m going to anyway, if you don’t like them, well, I’m sorry, but neither do I. Noah And The Whale on the other hand, I do like, and you should too.

The last time I was at Scala, there was a very distinct lack of photo pit, so I was forced to use the balconies to shoot from, this time around I had better luck, there was a photo pit, a rather small one though, if you sit on the barrier steps your knees touch the stage, if you stand up you run the risk of falling over as there is not enough room to keep your balance. Thankfully I got in there as soon as Future Of The Left finished their set, I needed to get a good spot since moving around was going to be impossible, I managed to get a place centre right, perfect. By the time the lights went down there were ten photographers all crammed in next to each other. Be Your Own Pet’s first three songs were rather short, luckily we were blessed with some nice white spotlights coming down from above, which made shooting this hyperactive lot rather easy. I was happy until the beginning of the third song, when the guitarist decided it was a good idea to pour a bottle of beer all over me, thanks a lot mate.

On Tuesday night I headed to Scala in King’s Cross, London to photograph Be Your Own Pet, Scala was a cinema until 1993 when it was forced to close after illegally screening A Clockwork Orange, however, six years later it was refurbished and reopened as a live music venue. It’s a massive building, though not perfectly suited to it’s purpose, the first time I visited Scala I spent about twenty minutes trying to navigate the venue before I actually got to see a band play, there are so many corridors, staircases, bars, toilets and smoking areas there that the main room where the music goes down only takes up about 10% of the property. Charming in it’s own little way I suppose. I missed Be Your Own Pet’s first support act, but the next band on was Wales’ Future Of The Left, who were bloody good, but bloody hard to shoot, Be Your Own Pet photos coming very soon!

Last night I went to shoot Finland’s Nightwish at their sold out show at Carling Academy Birmingham, anyone who is familiar with Nightwish or their fanbase will know exactly why I felt extremely out of place when I walked into the venue wearing a nice white shirt, straight jeans and my prettiest Adidas trainers, very awkward indeed. The gig was packed out, after the support act finished their set I made my way through the audience – many of whom did not seem to take kindly to my outfit – towards the left hand side of the stage, and spoke to the security guard who told me that I wasn’t allowed to come into the photo pit this way, and that I’d have to go to the right hand side of the stage instead, that’s a new one on me, I always come in from the left. So I headed to the other side of the venue and spoke to the security guard there, bad news awaits, apparently I’m only allowed to shoot for the third and fourth songs, I asked if I could wait around in the area next to the photo pit, “you’ll be alright where you are” – he replied, I was officially a member of the audience, a terrified one at that. After waiting around for what seemed like weeks, the lights went out, and Nightwish took the stage, I’ve never heard an audience that loud at a venue of this size, now I’m really scared, as I contemplated whether or not it would be a good idea to piss myself I looked towards the mixing desk, “I want to be there” – I muttered under my breath, I then noticed Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath fame standing up there, okay now I really wish I was there. Nightwish eventually played through the first two songs, both of which clocked in at around six or seven minutes each, as soon as they were over I threw my bag into a corner and ran into the photo pit, it seems than God was on my team last night, as the lights were fantastic, a little changeable, but many of my photos were taken at f8, a few at f11! Nightwish like to move around a lot when they play, but the bright light made up for it, at times it was even too bright, lots of ice blue and pink colours. These are my first photos in a while, so I hope you like them! Thanks for reading and I’ll be back soon.