Lil' Wayne Plays Hammersmith Apollo

I'd not knowingly heard the music of Grammy Award-winning rapper Lil' Wayne before this gig, but knew of his fame in the US, so thought it'd be a good one to cover.
Poor lighting aside, it didn't disappoint. Although really not my type of sound Lil' Wayne was hyper on stage and the fact he'd come out 30 minutes late added to the edge he and the charged-up crowd gave the night.
My best shot of the night was this first one below of him jumping. Had the light been less saturated and red I think it could have produced a crisper shot, but given the conditions I was very pleased with the frame.







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V Festival

Glorious sunshine and heavy schedule shooting big, commercial artists was the order of the weekend at V.
Artists such Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Pixie Lott and Dizzee Rascal have been getting big amounts of media attention with their antics on and off the stage, so in terms of potential photo sales this was a cracker. Add bands as huge as The Killers into the mix and it leaves little time to do much other than run around from one stage to the hour shooting, editing and knocking back the odd beer. There wasn't even time watch England winning the Ashes unfortunately, but hey, if I'm not going to be seeing that, a festival is about as good a place to be.
The downsides to the weekend were Oasis pulling out, missing out on shooting Amy Winehouse playing with The Specials (although only one photographer was present for this as she only appeared for the encore when we were all shooting someone else) and Lady Gaga ridiculous 90seconds of photographing per song rule.
Overall, for a festival I wouldn't pay to go - the commercial feel to the festival means it pales in comparison to gatherings like Glastonbury and Bestival - it was well organised and good fun.













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VV Brown's Visuals

I've spent the past couple of nights photographing the Turning Point Festival taking place at the Roundhouse. Several hot artists of the moment were involved, including Tinchy Stryde, currently at number one in the UK singles chart and The Noisettes, who are hard to escape whenever you turn the radio on.
The main act last night was VV Brown, pop's latest style queen. Now, her back drop for the most part featured her name in bright colours, like this:

That looked pretty good.
However, her visuals also featured some video footage and bizarrely that footage happened to include my good self photographing her as she performed. Those that know me will recognise me below in action behind VV as the Roundhouse audience look on.

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Chaka Khan Plays Shepherds Bush Empire

Fantastic soul diva to shoot - she put so much emotion effort into her vocals, which make for great shots.






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Seasick Steve Plays The Hammersmith Apollo

A great gig to photograph - nice lighting, interesting character, imaginative backdrop & props plus good blues music. I was really pleased with the set of photos I got, a combination between close ups capturing his expressive face and wider shots showing his stage set. Seasick Steve is also excellent with the crowd using a lot of interaction, which I always appreciate.







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Pussycat Dolls Perform at 02 Arena

I've been in Istanbul for a few days, which is why there's been a gap posting items. I'll try and add some general photos from the trip when I get a chance.
First job back was photographing The Pussycat Dolls at the 02 Arena, which went well. The lighting was all over the place - rapidly changing between being very bright and dark, which made metering tricky, but I adapted my settings where need be and was pleased at my set. Nicole Scherzinger, Lewis Hamilton's girlfriend, was the obvious source of attention and I spent a lot of our allotted time getting strong solo images of her.






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Franz Ferdinand Play Heaven

This was the opening concert of the NME Awards Shows, a series of gigs leading up to the music mag's annual ceremony in February.
Heaven was a venue I'd not shot at before, a rarity for me in London, and I have to say it's pretty poor photography wise. The stage is extremely high, so when shooting from the pit you're right under the artists noses. I actually photographed the support, US band Of Montreal, from the crowd as the angle was much better and got good photos (see below).



But for Franz's show I was down the front, so it harder to get decent frames. The light was non existent for much their opening tracks, with little pockets of blasts of colour that we had to get our shots from. I managed to get some reasonable shots in during these brief periods, but I expect I'll try and capture the band again when they play at a bigger venue in a month or two.






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Seven Pounds Premiere & The Astoria's Farewell

Another cold evening spent outside, this time photographing the 'Seven Pounds'premiere in Leicester Square. Will Smith was good with fans and photographers alike and others celebs at including Danielle Lloyd and Gok Wan.






Following this I covered the final night at the Astoria before it is knocked down to make way for the Crossrail project.
The closing night had been scheduled for tomorrow, the 15th, and was expected to feature The Who and Kasabian, but that was cancelled. Tonight's bill was a lot less low key in terms of names, but did feature some good acts like The Mystery Jets (below).
I wouldn't count the Astoria as one of my favourite venues, compared to somewhere like Brixton Academy, where I've spent far more time. However, it's sad to see it go. I just hope this isn't the way things go for other large London venues, as the capital is in my eyes, the live musical capital of the world.
Finally, the best gig I saw at the Astoria and the stand out moment? Seeing Blur in 2003.





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Doherty & Daltrey Perform One-off Gig

I was happy to make the trip to Bristol for this one-off gig between Pete Doherty of Babyshamles and Roger Daltrey of The Who, in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.
The concert was great - Pete was in good form and showed no sign of the usual shambolic nature of his live performances. His band, Babyshambles, adequately played numerous Who songs while Roger and Pete combined on the vocals. Hearing the best songs of The Who undoubtedly stuck out over Babyshambles' own work, but with the odd Libertines track thrown in, the night worked surprisingly well, the highlight being Daltrey's acoustic version of 'Behind Blue Eyes'.
I'm pleased to have got coverage of the two of them together, photos which, given the prominence of the two musicians, should pass the test of time well.




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Chris Brown Plays The 02 Arena

What a mission!
I had planned to travel to the O2 Arena via my usual route on the underground - the Northern line from Camden, changing onto the Jubilee line at London Bridge to take me to the Arena. Problem was, unbeknown to me the Jubilee line was closed and with no replacement buses and little time to get the concert I jumped in a taxi. 25 minutes later the O2 Arena was in site, but we were stuck in bad traffic as everyone was also obviously arriving by car or bus due to the Jubilee line's closure. With time running out I decided to get out and run the rest of the way with my heavy camera gear, which took a further 15 mintues. I just about made it in time, only to hear we only had 2 songs to photograph the gig and encounter perhaps the loudest screaming from fans I've heard at a concert.
But with all this in mind, I was pleased with my set of photos.







Getting back home wasn't much easier. I was told getting a boat was the best option of getting to central London. Well, if this was the best option, it didn't feel like it as I waited for 30 mins for a boat and then spent a further half an hour traveling along the Thames to London Bridge. All together my journey time came to 3 hours, using tube, boat, taxi and a knackering jog. I'm just glad I was able to leave the concert before the 14,000 strong crowd tried to make their way home.

A Celebration of The Bee Gees

A very long night, but one which in the end paid off with some good photos. The night was a charity black tie event with various artists playing Bee Gees songs. After an two hours stood outside in freezing temperatures to cover some rather dull arrivals, I gained access to the event inside.
I was given time to get pics of a pregnant Mel C, who was accommodating and friendly, Robin Gibb, who being a Bee Gee was the host of the night and Lulu, who I only learnt on the night used to be married to Maurice Gibb of The Bee Gees.





Following this there was another big wait as the audience, who'd paid big money to be here, sat down to a meal and auction. Being a charity event there weren't any free drinks - usually one of the upsides of covering events like this for photographers - so myself and the other photographer covering the acts, music photographer Awais Butt, took to taking photos of wine glasses. Here was my best effort.



Anyway, three hours later we got to shoot the artists performing. Mel C was in good form.



But the best photos came at the finale when all the artists took to the stage and I got some nice shots of Lulu with Mel C and Robin Gibb amongst others.