Magnetic Man were far and away my favourite act to shoot on Saturday, and my second favourite over the entire weekend. It’s easy for acts like Magnetic Man to simply set up some desks with CDJs and laptops, but they really went to town on their visual and aural performance. As soon as I arrived [...]
The second day of the festival was knackering – with all the walking from stage to stage carrying 10kgs of camera gear (plus my own bulk), my feet were pretty happy to be given a break. Moments later I was actually unable to walk normally. Wonder if I can persuade Festival Republic to get some [...]
I’ve never done this before when posting about festivals, but I thought it was time to try it out. Quite often, the most exciting bands for me to photograph aren’t the headliners or necessarily even near the top of the bill or on the main stage. As much as it’s great to add a big [...]
I live only 30 minutes away from Reading, but I was given a pass to shoot Leeds Festival this year. At the time, the prospect of heading 250 miles north and then back again was a bit grim when it could have just been 20 miles every day, but as soon as the rain set [...]
If you remember the early ’00s, you’ll remember the enormous fuss made over Westlife, and how they pretty much dominated the charts for a good few years. I think there was even talk about them being more successful than The Beatles or something massive like that. Either way, I remember the early ’00s, and I [...]
The dominating feature of today has been the torrential downpour that lasted for between four and five hours. I’d been texted a ‘severe weather warning’ in the morning by a friend working on security, mentioning heavy rain from 3 to 6pm. The rain arrived 30 minutes late and outstayed its welcome, lasting well into 8pm. [...]
Despite the relatively slow day yesterday, I’m already feeling quite tired. Unlike last year, the media car park is an absolute trek from the main site. I imagine this is something to do with AC/DC bringing their own stage and needing to use the space, and while I’m fine with walking, my camera bag weighs [...]
Download seems to have taken an absolute age to come back around, but the final few days sprinted past. From the outset, the festival was dominated by a blazing sun in a cloudless sky. While the site usually opens at 10 or 11am, this year it opened at 2pm and the bands started at 3pm. [...]
Having a band name like “fun.” may seem cool when you first think of it, until it looks like anyone who writes about you can’t spell or use grammar. This was supposed to have been my first assignment for The Fly, the day before Two Door Cinema Club. As it turned out, fun.’s gig had [...]
This was my first assignment for The Fly, although originally it was supposed to have been my second, but you can read more about that in the ‘fun.’ post, as it’s not really something to write about here. The thing to write about in this post is the lighting in the venue. Heaven is probably [...]
The NME Radar Tour is typically a good place to see future household names before they garner huge acclaim. As well as presenting me with a bit of variation to shoot, I’ve never had as much fun photographing any band as much as Darwin Deez. I heard the band on the radio a couple of [...]
It’s been quite an enjoyable week. First, Bullet For My Valentine and then Story Of The Year. I’ve never shot inside The (Relentless) Garage before, but was impressed at what the venue could do, despite its modest size. Good sound, decent lighting, and kicking atmosphere. Nice one. The last few bands I’ve shot have been [...]
Around June or July last year, I was wondering to myself how I’d managed to avoid shooting Bullet For My Valentine. I’d been shooting a lot of shows in that sort of scene, from Funeral For A Friend, to the Kerrang! Tour, and Gallows to The Blackout etc, but never actually managed to get a [...]
Despite being on the tour for 49 days, covering over 11,000 miles and visiting 38 venues all over the UK, I never had both the time and permission to shoot Peter Andre’s performance, until the final date in Jersey. As anyone clued up about music photography will know, the standard rule is to shoot the [...]
Don’t worry, I haven’t fallen off the side of the Earth, I’ve just been busy! In January, I started a new job as Tour & Logistics Manager for an independent record label, and haven’t really shot very much since. At the beginning of February, the label managed to secure one of their acts, G2L, onto [...]
Just a quick update from the road on Peter Andre’s Revelation tour. This is Laura White performing as main support at the ABC in Glasgow.
The last time I saw Alice Cooper was way back in 2007, and I broke up with my girlfriend a couple of days after. Now I’m back with the same girl, who came to this show. Didn’t break up this time. Phew! The whole show was a dark pantomime than anything else (although in a [...]
Normally, I don’t give support acts a separate post from the main act. But a band made up of ex-members of Def Leppard, The Sex Pistols and Girl isn’t something you come across everyday, so I’ve made an exception. Man Raze were supporting Alice Cooper on his Theatre Of Death tour, and put simply, the [...]
Last year, this tour was due to stop at a venue I worked for, but the date got moved to a bigger city, meaning I missed out. Fortunately, I was able to shoot it this time around, at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. Good things come to those who wait, I guess. For In Flames, we were [...]
Only a few times since I started shooting live music a few years ago have I faced lighting as low as this. It was of course Hallowe’en, and Therapy? were dressed in black (grim reaper style) cloaks and hoods, with face paint. Set against a black backdrop, with hardly any front lighting and harsh backlights [...]
Wow. I’ve never seen so many arms sway in unison than during ‘Why Delilah’. Everyone knows who Tom Jones is, and his infamous womanising reputation. Judging by his show, he’s still got it. In fact, he never lost it. Despite this sort of gig not normally being my cup of tea, it was excellent (and [...]
Placing a giant ‘tick’ on my ‘really want to photograph list’, I finally got the chance to shoot Alexisonfire. I’ve been after these guys for a couple of years, but they hadn’t been on this side of the Atlantic, apart from the odd festival appearance here and there. Part of the deal included Anti-Flag, who I [...]
It’s been a while since my last gig (which was actually a festival), and I’ve moved house 250 miles since. It’s nice to be back in the swing of things, and fantastic to kick off again with Stereophonics. The last time I saw these guys was in December ’08, at the Manchester Evening News Arena. [...]
