Dizzee Rascal @ Leeds O2 Academy

Music Photographer of the Year 2008

I recently found out the rather exciting news that Liverpool Academy have appointed me as music photographer of the 2008 as part of the Liverpool On Song Festival! You can see the photograph if you go to www.liverpool-academy.com (no longer visible see below)

Its fantastic news and off of the back of that I am now one of 3 official house photographers for the brand spanking new Leeds Carling Academy which is an absolutely amazing opportunity for me!!! I can't wait to get stuck in and photograph more bands more frequently. The first band I photographed was the Kaiser Chiefs on the grand opening night, by far the biggest band i've officially photographed before I will be adding the photos to this site as soon as I can but i've left you with a taster of things to come for now!!

Delirious @ Leeds O2 Academy

Kaiser Chiefs @ Leeds O2 Academy

Spring Has Nearly Sprung

It took its bloody time but i'm reasonably confident that the worst is over and it will soon be summer! i've not posted a blog since september which shows you how much i hate the winter!! so here are some photos to prove i've not lost my camera.

Starting off with some photos from the first nice day this year some time back in jan/feb walking through hyde park.







A lovely sunny day in golden acre park with guitars, frisbees and a rather spiffing old game of rounders.






A fun but windy trip to roundhay park and tropical world including a terrapin orgy and some attention seeking geese.









So there you are don't give up hope the summer will be here soon bringing with it much more fun and frolics!

Kid Id @ Trash, Leeds and Passing Clouds, London

Yet more Kid iD gigs, the first being a rather rammed set at Trash. It was sweaty and loud and energetic and awesome! Lots of dancing, lots of drinking (on the house due to the innebriated indie kid barmen who always seem to forget to ask for money). A couple of diversions from the norm for the band as ickle joe was suffering from a sprained wrist so had to make do with a tambourine instead of the huge array of percussion he usually abuses...



Another rare and strange sight was seeing Ralph play an electric guitar onstage for possibly the first time ever after his guitar string broke without a replacement to hand, rock n roll....



Then for another one of the famous kid id road trips and guess who's in the driving seat again?! yup! but i was armed with sat nav and feeling positive and managed not to make a prat of myself with my poor driving skills for the whole journey (just about). We arrived at the passing clouds venue in Dalston which was pretty fantastic, we were greeted by some lovely people who became even lovelier in our minds when they provided us with huge plates of free veggi chilli (yum thank you!) . The venue itself is like a hippy paradise, a huge warehouse type building with a stage and 'bar' downstairs and a big lounge type chill out space upstairs crammed with sofas and god knows what else! downstairs there are soft toys stapled to the ceiling, and more props then you could shake a rubber chicken at.







And then the crowd came in, The Human Zoo was an apt title for the night as the costumes ranged from the glamorous to the downright weird!





From a review of the Human Zoo Night 'There was some awesome acts on Musically The Gentle Mystics brought a powerfully psychedelic dose of Gyp-Hop- imagine circus freak show era Tom Waits on ecstasy and peyote. The Bohemianauts demonstrated new standards and squeezebox revivalism with gypsy jazz, songs about vodka and daring stunts. In addition to this Ophelia Blitz performed alongside the band, playing the washboard and divulging in sick cabaret, setting herself on fire!







Kid iD rocked the place with their original and upbeat performance, playing music from folk to funk and ska to drum'n'bass A highlight for me was the point where Ian had to get his trousers gaffer taped up onstage as they were falling down- excellent!'





Oh and many thanks to the lovely Olivia who put us up in her lovely house in lovely highgate with her lovely doggies!!! =D

Connect Festival Scotland 2007

So this is it the last festival of the summer and one i've been banging on about since April.

We set off on the Thursday and after a knackering 7 hour drive to the middle of nowhere we found we couldn't get into the festival site until the following morning! so we tried to set up camp in the carpark where we were rudely moved along. Fish and Chips, several pints and a few tequilas later in the weirdest little town ever (really pretty but weird, what town still has an apothecary??!!) we had no choice but to sleep in our cars in the pay and display car park! 7 tired people, 7 tired peoples worth of camping equipment, 2 cars, pouring with rain outside. It was a pretty miserable night!!! but we thought at least we'll beat the queue for the festival which in fairness we did.

A mile hike through several inches of mud later (carrying all our stuff i should add) we finally got our tents pitched in the least swamp like area we could find. We then bought a gazebo which proved to be the best purchase ever! Because of the weirdy organisedness of the festival the music had started by the time we'd set up our tents (no time for a well earned nap and beer!)

Despite this rocky of starts the festival turned out to be awesomely good fun, the mud got progressively worse over the weekend but we got used to the constant drizzle, put aside any ridiculous notions that our hair might look ok, and got to enjoy all the awesome bands that were on offer.

Highlights for me were Regina Spektor, Idlewild, Bjork, Rilo Kiley, Bat For Lashes, Modest Mouse, Beastie Boys, Jarvis Cocker and Tilly and the Wall.

The festival setting was beautiful, in the grounds of Inverary castle (the castle looked out over the main stage) and the food stalls were not your usual festival shite, There was fresh seafood from Loch Fyne (the mussels were AWESOME!, a Scottish Porridge Stall, Haggis, Neeps and Tatties and other local produce. The Red Bull Enchanted Forest was also a well fun place to hang out in between bands and chill out.

It was a glorious end to the festival season (although i never EVER want to drive for 7 and a half hours after a festival ever again!) but its all over now until next year, hopefull i'll find something else to amuse myself with so there will be some more news here one day!