At the end of each year I like to put together a round-up of the past 12 months as a way for friends and family to see what we’ve been up to. Quite a few read my blog regularly so will know already but for those that don’t it’s a quick catch-up. It’s also good to look back occasionally and see how things have changed, hopefully for the better.

2008 has probably been our busiest year ever! The photography business has gone from strength to strength with us shooting over 30 weddings this year, including our first overseas wedding in New York. Along the way we’ve made some fantastic new friends and had the privalege of sharing some amazing days with our clients. We love shooting weddings and every one is different. Thanks to all our couples for trusting us to capture such an important event for them.

On the music side of things it’s been an incredible year. I’ve photographed so many gigs and added some genuine legends to my portfolio… Elton John, the Sex Pistols, Liza Minelli, Bon Jovi, Kiss, Oasis, Jay Z and even Cliff Richard! I’m hoping to add AC/DC to that list in 2009. On top of that I shot my first magazine cover, featuring Napalm Death, which hits stores this month and I realised one of my ambitions by having a photo in the legendary Rolling Stone magazine.

At home, 2008 has been fun-packed and magical as Elliott continues to grow and keep us entertained. The most watched TV show in our house is now In The Night Garden and we’ve almost given up trying to keep the house tidy! CDs and records have been thrown out to make room for more and more toys and, with a new baby due to arrive next month, it’s only going to get worse! And I wouldn’t have it any other way Evelyne and I took Elliott to Barcelona in April and in July we celebrated his first birthday. We must have taken thousands of photos!!

Every year I put together a list of my fave albums from the year and below are the ones which have been on heavy rotation this year. It’s a varied mix for sure. So here they are, my top 20 albums of 2008:

1. Kathleen Edwards – Asking For Flowers
Without a doubt the album I’ve listened to more than any other and, in my opinion, one of the most underrated artists in the world. I love all Kathleen’s albums but this one is so packed full of emotion and incredible songwriting it has to be my favourite. Oh, and Kathleens’ profile picture on her MySpace page was taken by me! Check the clip below..

2. Gojira – The Way Of All Flesh
Brutally heavy yet intricate, intelligent and quite unique.

3. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
Winner of this year’s Mercury Prize and stunning from beginning to end. A thing of beauty.

4. The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound
Imagine The Clash jamming with Bruce Springsteen and you’ll be halfway there. Soulful americana meets punk rock. A fine album and a great live band.

5. Meshuggah – ObZen
Relentless, technically mindblowing and immensely heavy. Love it!

6. Rise Against – Appeal To Reason
They just keep getting better.

7. The Bronx – The Bronx III
One of the best live bands on the planet.

8. Gemma Hayes – The Hollow Of Morning
The lovely Gemma returned to form with this gorgeous record.

9. Norma Jean – The Anti Mother
Who says christians and rock & roll don’t mix? Actually, I think it was Billy Connolly. He’s wrong!

10. Unearth – The March
Rifftastic!

11. Nine Inch Nails – The Slip
Even an average NIN album is better than most other bands.

12. Sara Bareilles – Little Voice
Perfect pop music.

13. The Kills – Midnight Boom
Cool as hell.

14. Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs
Took me a while to get into this but it eventually got under my skin.

15. Cancer Bats – Hail Destroyer
Pure down n’ dirty rock n roll with riffs and grooves galore.

16. The Gutter Twins – Saturnalia
Deep, dark, brooding. Two of my favourite vocalists ever.

17. Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night
Now bonafide megastars, the Kings delivered an accomplished album this year.

18. Bleeding Through – Declaration
Brutal!

19. Mark Geary – Opium
Took me ages to even find this album but it was worth the effort.

20. Weezer – The Red Album
Elliott’s favourite. He loves dancing around to Pork & Beans.

Other albums worthy of attention – Coldplay, Metallica, Pete Murray, Killing The Dream, This Or The Apocalypse, The Stills, Whitechapel, Beneath The Massacre, Cold War Kids, The Haunted, Snow Patrol, Sigur Ros, City & Colour, Johnny Truant, Beck, Slipknot, Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Joan As Police Woman, Shawn Smith.

So there you have it, another year over and 12 months of the unknown ahead. I look forward to plenty more adventures and good times in 2009. If you have the inclination, you can keep up with our exploits on the blog or Twitter. For those on Facebook have a look at the Steve Gerrard Photography page on Facebook.

Thanks to all our friends, family and lovely clients who made 2008 such a great year for us. Best wishes for 2009.

Steve
x

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…

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..

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!

In the meantime, I’ve been meaning to blog Becky & Paul’s wedding for a while. They were married last month and had their reception at The Belfry. Their wedding was fantastic for several reasons… It was relaxed, great fun, the weather was glorious, had super-friendly guests, the staff at The Belfry could not be any better, but mostly because Becky & Paul are like our dream couple. We got on with them so well and they went out of their way to help us get great images for them. I believe we succeeded…

The night before the wedding Becky managed to cut her hand on a glass and didn’t leave hospital until 4am. Here’s the damage…

Paul sees his bride for the first time…

A few shots outside the church before heading to The Belfry…

Work it!

Becky & Paul know I’m always trying to do something different with my ring shots so when we borrowed the rings Becky said, “I can’t wait to see what you do”. No pressure then…!!

Errr… that’s dripping water…

Did I mention the weather?

After dinner it was time to escape with the couple…

Yowser!

We love rule-breakers

Becky you superstar!

First dance… and a shared moment with Dad…

And later we escaped again and used the inside of the venue, along with our video light…

Seriously guys, Evelyne and I had such a good day with you both. Thanks for having us there and we wish you every happiness for the future.

After the wedding I got a lovely email from Paul’s mother saying “A big thankyou Steve for all your time and patience throughout the day you are a true professional at what you do, I cannot wait to see the photos the day was perfect, thankyou once again Pauls mum x”

…followed shortly after from an email from the couple saying

“Just a quick email before we fly off to say thank you for all your hard work and effort on our special day. We are so grateful to you both and we have had so many people come to us saying how good you were, not just with your photography but also how you interacted with the guests. We are so impressed with the amount of time that you spent with us and cant wait to see the outcome, we know its going to be amazing. Numerous couples who get married withing the next few years have asked for your details, I hope you dont mind but I have passed them on!! Becky from the Belfry was also very impressed and informed Becky that she would be unofficially recommending you !!! result !! ”

Result indeed. Thanks guys.

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.

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…