For the past few years I’ve covered the V Festival at Weston Park in Staffordshire for SJM, the promoters of the event.

It’s only 25 minutes from where we live so I can get there quickly and come home at night to my bed and a hot shower in the morning. No camping for me with thousands of pounds worth of camera gear!

This year I was joined by my good friend Bianca Barrett and we aimed to cover as much as possible between us. When Bianca was shooting Kasabian, I was shooting The Prodigy. When I was shooting Kings Of Leon, she went over to photograph The Charlatans.

In between bands we did our best to capture pictures of the crowd and get some of the vibe of the festival. The line-up wasn’t amazing this year if I’m honest, but there were a few gems along the way.

I started Saturday with Example on one of the smaller stages…

We bumped into Seasick Steve backstage just before he went onstage. Here’s his number 1 fan, Bianca!

Shed Seven

Madness

Paolo Nutini – the man who never opens his eyes!

La Roux

The Kooks

Faithless

One of the best bands of the weekend, Frightened Rabbit…

Doves

Saturday night saw a quite spectacular sunset

One of me taken by Bianca

Imogen Heap

The Prodigy

Sunday saw the sun come out. Finally!

Feeder

Passion Pit

Another of my highlights – Joshua Radin. I had to shoot from the crowd though!

Paloma Faith

Apparently the ladies LOVE Liam from The Courteeners…

One for the girls then:

Newton Faulkner

So, if you want to video the gig, all you need is a Canon DSLR. And a few gadgets!

Editors

Trying to cover a festival properly means it’s almost impossible to see a whole set of one band but I managed to stay for the entire set when it came to one lady – Lissie.

I knew nothing much about her before seeing her at V Fest but I’m now a total convert. Amazing voice and fantastic tunes. Even better live than on record too.

Paul Weller

Bumped into Passion Pit in the backstage bar

Errrr….

The brilliant White Lies

Stereophonics

The enigmatic Mark Lanegan

Florence & The Machine

Tricky smokes a funny cigarette!

And finally…. Kings Of Leon

Thanks a lot to Wayne Larner and Kara from SJM, all the people from Cake and Evelyne for letting me escape for the weekend while she looked after 3 kids!

Here’s to V 2011.

At the end of June I was lucky enough to finally photograph my favourite band. Twice!

You may have already seen the photos from Belfast Odyssey Arena and, since then, I’ve had a few messages from people waiting to see the Hyde Park photos. So here they are

It’s always a bonus when you get great support acts on the bill, and I was delighted to see another of my fave bands added to the bill… The Gaslight Anthem

Always fun and entertaining… The Hives

The main support was Ben Harper, who was joined on stage by Eddie Vedder for a cover of Queen’s Under Pressure.

And then it was time for the main event… And this setlist..

It was good to meet up with a few friends at the gig too. All in all, not a bad way to spend a Friday

And here’s a photo of me doing my thing, taken by Kerrang! photographer, Chris Casey.

Many thanks to Jen at Rock Sound and Ali at LD Communications.

OK, let’s not kid ourselves here… These aren’t the best live shots I’ve ever taken!

Unfortunately, despite having a photo pass for the Eric Clapton gig, we were only allowed to shoot from half way back in the LG Arena, and only for the first 2 songs! That’s a good few hundred feet from the stage. Not great!

Still, this is Clapton we’re talking about here. I was still honoured to be there. And he had his mate Steve Winwood along for the ride.

Most of my shots were, predictably, very similar, so here are just a few from the gig.

Chances are most people reading this blog have never heard of Parkway Drive or Despised Icon.

More than likely, most of you won’t like them either! They’re both very, very heavy bands. They’re also, in my opinion at least, both amazing!

They’re also great to photograph.

Here are a few from their Manchester show a couple of weeks ago…

See my photos with a gig review on the Birmingham Live site.

Some bands are a bit dull to photograph in concert. They stand there in subdued lighting, staring at their instruments and hardly communicate with the crowd.

KISS are not one of those bands!

Earlier tonight I was at the LG Arena in Birmingham to photograph KISS for the second time and the self-proclaimed “hottest band in the world” are possibly the most fun band you could ever want to have in front of you when you have a camera in hand.

Here are just a few of my fave photos from the gig…

Occasionally in my job I get to photograph true musical legends.

Glen Campbell is one such artist. I was the only photographer accredited to shoot Glen at his Symphony Hall gig and it was an honour to be there to do so.

Since then, I’ve been a little concerned to speak to several people who have never heard of him!

This is the man that made Wichita Lineman & Rhinestone Cowboy the classics they are.

This is the man who has played on records for such artists as Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Merle Haggard, Elvis Presley, Jan & Dean and the Righteous Brothers.

He’s now 74 years old and still performing like a true star.

Here are a few photos from Friday night.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day in the UK and the weather was glorious so we took the family down to the Cotswolds where we had dinner and enjoyed the spring sunshine. We were also down there to shoot an engagement session which I’ll be posting on the blog soon. It was a great day.

By complete contrast, the evening was spent with 3000 metal fans at Birmingham Academy where Florida’s A Day To Remember were playing. I was much more interested in the two support bands, Your Demise and Architects.

Unfortunately, I got there just too late to shoot Your Demise but they put on a great show. Architects were on great form and, although the lighting was tricky, I was pleased with the images I captured.

We only got to shoot the first two songs for each band so the pressure was on! Here are a few pictures from last night…

Firstly, Architects

A packed house at the Academy

and headliners, A Day To Remember

Ok, so let’s get one thing straight…

My music taste is extremely varied. I love my punk & metal. I love mellow singer-songwriters. I used to be a house DJ and I listen to some pop music too. I’ve seen Michael Jackson, Madonna, Kylie & Prince live but my musical tastes do not reach as far as Peter Andre! Sorry Pete.

I do think he’s a genuinely nice guy though and he’s obviously a major celebrity, at least in the UK. So when I got the chance to photograph his Birmingham gig this week, I was happy to do so. I only got 2 songs to do my thing but managed to get a few good shots…

This is Pete’s brother, Michael Andre who acted as warm-up DJ and did a good job too.

And then the screams were deafening as Pete appeared… The audience was predictably 98% female!

Last night one of Birmingham’s most popular bands, Ocean Colour Scene, played an intimate gig in the back room of The Rainbow pub, around the corner from our studio. It’s always great to see big bands in small venues and I was surprised to find out I was the only photographer to be issued a pass for the gig.

Here are a few photos from the gig. You can see a full review on the Birmingham Live website.

It’s been a week of photographing musical legends this week. Not just a Sex Pistol and Depeche Mode but also a super group featuring Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters), Josh Homme (Queens Of The Sone Age) and John Paul Jones from LED ZEPPELIN!

For those that don’t know, the band is Them Crooked Vultures. They played Birmingham on Monday night and here are a few photos from the gig…

This man played on “Stairway To Heaven“! Nuff said.

This man played on “Smells Like Teen Spirit“. Nuff said.