Mon The Biffy!
I’m a big fan of Biffy Clyro, especially their latest album “Puzzle”, so I was pleased to get a call from Rock Sound magazine asking if I could shoot their Birmingham gig on Thursday night at the Academy.
My friend Dave Musson was covering it for Birmingham Live… or so we thought. His pass had been arranged through the support band and, on the night, he was informed he couldn’t shoot the headliners. I felt awful for him but it was lucky that I was there too as it meant we still had some images of Biffy for the review.
The band were spectacularly good and came on all guns blazin’ with some of my favourite tracks played while I was down the front photographing them.
This is almost certainly my last live gig of 2008 and was a great finale. I’ll be posting about my highlights of 2008 here soon but for now here are just some of my pictures of Biffy Clyro…
Cancer Bats
Last week I got to shoot one of my favourite live bands - Canada’s Cancer Bats. This is a band who put 110% into their live shows, the whole thing becoming a huge party involving both the band and their audience. Singer, Liam Cormier, has trouble staying on the stage, preferring instead to interact with the crowd by climbing all over them!
Cancer Bats’ latest album, Hail Destroyer, has just been voted the No.3 album of 2008 by Kerrang! magazine. Here’s some pictures from last week’s gig which you can see reviewed on the Birmingham Live website.
After the gig the band were good enough to let me take a portrait of them in the car park around the back of the venue. If you like bands with energy, big riffs and plenty of punk rock attitude, make sure you check Cancer Bats out next time they visit your town.
An email from Rolling Stone…
Last night I received the following email from the New York office of Rolling Stone Magazine…
“We are in desperate need of a photo of Linkin Park from their June 29th performance. Through Flickr I see that you have a lot of great ones. So, what I need to know is, would you be interested in licensing a image to Rolling Stone and if so, how quickly I can get the hi-res. Please get back to me ASAP either way. Many many thanks!”
I emailed them back within seconds!
I’ve been a huge fan of Rolling Stone for as long as I can remember. For me, there is no magazine with a more legendary status. There’s even a song about the cover! It’s been an ambition of mine to one day make it into the magazine with one of my images and, although it’s just one picture buried somewhere inside the mag, I’m extremely honoured to have been asked to contribute with the image above.
Sir Cliff!
Ok, so this blog post is dedicated to my mom 
When I was a kid I remember saving my pocket money and going into town to buy the Cliff Richard album “Wired For Sound” for my mom’s birthday. Another time I was in Manchester with some friends and we camped out for Slayer tickets (on the Reign In Blood tour). About an hour before the box office opened we were joined by lots and lots of excited housewives. Not your typical Slayer fans! Turns out Cliff Richard tickets went on sale the same day. As we were already at the font of the queue I got my mom the best Cliff tickets in the house! My dad went with her. Sorry Dad!
Fast forward two decades and I find myself photographing Cliff’s 50th Anniversary Tour at Birmingham NIA for Birmingham Live! This time my mom was in Spain so I couldn’t sneak her in. Sorry Mom!
So here are just a few photos of Cliff for my mom…
Sir Elton John
Certain artists need no introduction.
Last night I was honoured to photograph the legend that is Elton John at the Birmingham NIA. It’s the 2nd time I’ve seen him live but the first time I’ve photographed him and I knew I had to do a great job! Who knows when I’ll get to shoot him again..
Elton brought his massive Vegas show with him and it was spectacular! And quite decadent too. I only had one song to shoot from the front of the stage and then one song to shoot from slightly further back and to the side. I wanted to get as much variety as I could considering it was all about one man sat at a piano.
After I finished shooting I stayed for the entire show and I have to say Elton was on form. He played one of my favourite songs of all time, Tiny Dancer, and it seemed like the show was made up entirely of classic tunes, with Bennie & The Jets and Rocket Man being two more personal highlights.
Here are just a few of my favourite images from the show..
Elbow Live
One of my favourite albums of the year so far is “The Seldom Seen Kid” by Elbow. I’ve always been a fan but this album, for me, has taken them to a whole new level of songwriting. There isn’t a track on the album that I don’t love, and some are just incredible. The album won this year’s Mercury Music Prize and I can’t think of an album which deserves the honour more. If you haven’t heard it yet, do yourself a favour and check it out.
I’ve photographed Elbow before but this time I was excited not only to shoot them, but also to stay and watch the whole show. Evelyne’s a fan too so I booked a babysitter and we headed out for “date night”.
You can see my review of the gig on the Birmingham Live! site by clicking HERE but below are just a few of my favourite images from the gig..
Oasis in Birmingham
Being a music photographer in Birmingham means that I get to shoot bands on a regular basis and it’s a part of my job which I absolutely love (actually I love most parts of my job). Occasionally I do get to photograph bands which could be seen as iconic and, when I do, it’s an honour to add them to my portfolio.
Oasis are undoubtedly one of the most influential British bands of recent times so I was pleased to be one of only four photographers who got to shoot their gig at Birmingham NIA last night.
The atmosphere inside the venue was intense! Oasis fans are passionate about their heroes and many had indulged in a few light ales before the show and were in high spirits as Liam, Noel and the boys hit the stage. I got to shoot songs 2, 3 and 4 and came home with some great images, including one of Liam giving me his trademark snarl. Mad fer it!
V Festival 2008
This weekend has been fantastic and depressing in almost equal amounts.
I spent the weekend at the V Festival where I was photographing on behalf of the festival promoters. The first day I was there by myself, running around in the rain trying to catch as many bands as possible. Nobody was allowed to photograph Girls Aloud apart from their own photographer, which was a shame. I wonder what they have to hide?!
Here are some of my favourite images from Saturday…
Amy Winehouse, One Republic and Lenny Kravitz.
I’m used to shooting girls in white dresses but this was a little different..
Kings Of Leon (one of my fave bands of the weekend) and The Zutons.
And headliners, The Verve.
The low point on Saturday was having to walk for an hour in heavy rain to get back to my car. Thoroughly depressing! And then after I parked my car on our driveway it was broken into and my iPod and SatNav were stolen. Not good at all!
Luckily Sunday was a major improvement as the weather improved and I was joined by Evelyne and Elliott for the day. It was Elliott’s first ever concert so I made sure the first band we saw was a good one - The Hold Steady. Here he is getting into the festival spirit.
The Hold Steady, Estelle, The Kooks and Lostprophets.
As you can see, by Sunday the bad weather had left its mark…
The Script played on the day their album went to Number 1 in the charts.
And here’s the lovely Duffy on stage…
And here she is getting fondled by my son!
Elliott also hung out with Maximo Park backstage.
The Pigeon Detectives and the ladies’ favourite, Stereophonics.
Here’s a good story…. When I was still enjoying my previous life as an international DJ I played in Chamonix in France at a club called Deluded. I was in Chamonix for two days and while I was there I met a girl called Evelyne. I’m now married to her and we have a son and another baby due next year. The two guys who booked me to play the club, Livesey and Graham, were at the festival this weekend and here they are with the “fruit of Deluded”
Thanks guys. My life would be very different if you hadn’t invited me to play your club!
And finally…. mega-headliners Muse closed the festival in fine style.
Steve on the Telly… and the Download Festival
Last night I was invited onto a TV show called Ditto Music to talk about my photography. The show is on the Red Channel and is looked after by an enthusiastic team of people who are out to promote new music and educate people on the music business. It’s a chaotic and somewhat shambolic environment but that’s very much part of its charm.
They asked me about the bands I’ve shot previously and why good images should be important to bands trying to make it in the tough world of the music biz. We also held a competition for one band to win a shoot with yours truly. It was good fun and I’d like to thank Matt, Lee and the team for inviting me onto the show.
A few weeks ago I covered three days at the Download Festival and got to shoot a couple of legendary bands, including KISS. Below are a few of my favourite shots from the weekend..
KISS -
Kiss fans attempt to break the world record for face paint…
Motorhead & Judas Priest -
Rise Against, Comeback Kid & The Black Dahlia Murder -
The AMAZING Dillinger Escape Plan -
Bleeding Through & 36 Crazyfists -
Biffy Clyro, Job For A Cowboy and Bullet For My Valentine -
Incubus & Amon Amarth -
Apocalyptica and Coheed & Cambria (can you spot a theme here?!) -
Airbourne scale dizzy heights and The Offspring go for the bloke-next-door look -
The Cavalera Conspiracy and the mighty Testament -
Jimmy Eat World & In Flames -
Romance is alive and well…
Gerrard Rocks!
Time for something a little more artistic..
A great festival yet again. Roll on 2009…
June is Rockin!
This month has been a month of photographing some of the biggest bands in the world which is quite an honour. Since shooting Liza Minelli and The Sex Pistols I’ve also photographed Kiss, Bon Jovi and yesterday I got to shoot Linkin Park and Jay Z at Milton Keynes. Here are a few pics…
I have ordered a big version of this one for the studio wall
I also got to shoot my favourite singer/songwriter, Kathleen Edwards. She may not be as popular as the bands above but I urge you to check her stuff out. I reviewed the gig on the Fused Magazine site. Here are some photos of my second favourite Canadian girl…
After the show I got to chat to Kathleen for a while and her merch guy was kind enough to take a photo of us. Unfortunately, he managed to get the focus COMPLETELY WRONG!!! Gutted!
