The Charlatans Play The Hard Rock Cafe

I photographed the arrivals and gig of The Charlatons performing at the Hard Rock Cafe in front of a crowd of a couple of hundred. Tim Burgess (top photo) and the band (posed together in bottom photo) seemed very relaxed and performed most of their best hits from down the years.

Buster Martin Feature

I had a very enjoyable few hours today spent in the company of the remarkable Buster Martin, who, it is claimed, is 101-years-old and who this year, incredibly, completed the London marathon.
Because of lack of a proof, The Guiness Book of Records has refused to count Buster as the eldest man to ever complete a marathon, suggesting he could be as young as 94 - which still make his efforts remarkable in anyone's book.
Buster is a great character - you may remember him from the band The Zimmers, a group of elderly people who recorded a hit version of 'My Generation' - he's both quick and witty and evidently still very fit. I took pictures of him at work at Pimlico Plumbers, where he cleans their vans each morning (incidentally this also makes him Britain's oldest employee), before capturing him in training running. Lastly we went to his local pub and shared a few pints, as he does on a daily basis.

Eric Burdon And War Perform At The Royal Albert Hall

A big turn out of photographers for Eric Burdon's first performance with WAR for almost 40 years. We had to wait 5 tracks before Burdon joined WAR onstage, and were told to neel down at the front of stage so as not to obstruct the view of the audience behind us.
This was not only very uncomfortable, but also meant we couldn't move from the spot we were in to shoot. Luckily Burdon moved around the stage to some degree, but it was still difficult from the angle I was in to get anything other than tight shots of him. Still, with this considered, overall I was quite happy with the results and was really impressed by Burdon's singing voice and WAR's funky and soulful sound. It was definitely one of the finest performances I've seen from an old band, best known for their 70s material.

Sam Sparro Usage

Sam Sparro, who I photographed at the Camden Crawl over the weekend, seems to be taking off, with his singe 'Black and Gold' running high in the charts. I've seem my image of him used in a few places, with an example here from the Guardian website.

The Camden Crawl - Day 2

Another busy day moving all over Camden, but again, very good fun. Following the enjoyable Los Campesinos (second top photo), one of the NME photographers got a tip off that Alex Turner or the Artic Monkeys was playing a secret gig at The Dublin Castle, however after hanging around for an hour, it soon became apparent he had pulled out, leaving eager fans, who'd heard the rumours disappointed.
I caught the impressive Ida Maria (second bottom photo) and later The Wombats (top photo) before heading to the official after party where comdian Paul Kaye (bottom photo) of Dennis Pennis fame was performing a skit set with his band.

The Camden Crawl - Day 1

My day started with an email from the PR at the Camden Crawl asking if I could come and cover a secret lunchtime Enter Shikari MySpace gig. The band have a reputation for staging some of the craziest live gigs around, and it's through this and MySpace that they have build such a large, mainly teenage, following.
Their show, played in front of around 150 people in the Bull n Gate in Kentish Town, didn't disappoint. The lead singer started the gig by saying: "I'm going to be careful not to stage dive today - there's too many expensive cameras in the front row." Within 30 seconds of the band getting going however, he'd hurled himself into the crowd to jump around madly.
Enter Shikari's music is too heavy for my liking, but they certainly put on an exhilarating live show (bottom photo). I was so close to the stage for most of the gig, that it become tricky to capture the movement and action, even with a wide angle lens. I got some better results though, when I moved to the side and back of the excitable crowd.
The rest of the Camden Crawl was an enjoyable migration from one venue to another to catch the huge choice of live acts on show. With an obvious eye on selling my photos, I tended to stick to the more established and breaking names such as Sam Sparro (second bottom photo), Robyn (second top photo) and Does It Offend You, Yeah? (top photo). Having a pass allowing me to skip all queues was massively handy and meant I had time to duck into venues to check out bands I wasn't shooting around to catch up with friends around Camden.

Portishead Play Brixton Academy

It was great to sample Portishead live, after 11 years out of action for the group. They're far from great to photograph - singer Beth Gibbons has only once stance when singing, which consists of holding the mike close to her face with both hands (see photos below), and when she's not, she tends to turn her back to the crowd to face the rest of the band.
I stayed to watch the whole gig with a friend after I'd got my all-to-similar shots of the Beth and have to say the their new material sounded impressive live. Old tracks, such as 'Wondering Stars', 'Glory Box' and 'Roads' were stunning.

Elbow Play Brixton Academy

My first job back after a trip to Dallas, Texas was shooting Elbow; a band critically acclaimed and adored by their fans, but whom have never really taken off in the public eye as much of bands with a comparable sound, such as Coldplay.
Maybe it's because singer Guy Garvey isn't your typical rock star front man - he's in his early 30s, but is a little tubby and looks much older - and chooses to remain humble and shun the spotlight. He does front an excellent radio show on BBC 6Music every Sunday night, which is always free of plugs for his own band, instead giving listeners a really varied and informed choice of calming Sunday night music.
Personally, I'm not hugely keen on Elbow's sound, and find them a little dull to photograph, but don't doubt their music deserves to be heard by a bigger audience, given some other, less talented, bands out there reaping the rewards of big sales.

Leatherheads Premiere

George Clooney and Renee Zellweger were the only stars of note at the 'Leatherheads' film premiere. This didn't prevent them from taking an age to reach the photographers, after wooing the crowds and undergoing TV interviews. When George did make it over to pose, our shots were nearly ruined as a group of girls from a reality TV show - I have no idea which - proceeded to try and pose in awe alongside of George. Thankfully they were soon cleared out of the way and we got the shots of George posing with Renee.
A busy night followed, trying to juggle filling the photos, enjoying a Birthday meal with my cousin, watching the Liverpool v Arsenal Champions League game and packing for a trip to Dallas, Texas tomorrow morning.

The Beach Boys Play the Hammersmith Apollo

I'm not a fan of witnessing once great bands in performance, simply to see say you've seen them. The Beach Boys fall into this catergory, what with being minus Brian Wilson, in their later years and being very sedate on stage.
Their back catalog is incredible and they turned out hit after hit tonight, but as is the case with groups such as The Who, you can't help but feel this is no more than a pale imitation of what they would have been like to see live in the 60s when they built their reputation. The band and the harmonies sounded tight enough, but there was precious little other excitement, both from a photography or audience point of view, despite the amazing songs they had on offer.

Cocktails, Proud Gallery And Ali Campbell

A really busy day, and one in which I should have called upon one of the numerous offers I get to assist me with my photography. It started with lugging two incredibly heavy tungsten lights into central London to do some shots of cocktails for Barcadi. There's no way one person should be carrying those any great distance, let alone through a busy Oxford Circus and Regent's Street. I had to stop every 10 meters to rest, but just about made it to the bar on time, before shooting four different cocktails, all with contained single barrel Jack Daniels (bottom photo).
I resisted the temptation to drink all four cocktails because I knew I had to get back up to Camden for the opening night of the new Proud Gallery. Celebs showed up later than expected, including Sadie Frost (middle photo), so I didn't have the chance to hang around and check out the gallery as I had to dash down to the Royal Albert Hall for a one-off concert from lead singer of UB40, Ali Campbell.
Despite us only being there for three songs, the middle-aged seated crowd didn't take kindly to photographers photographing in front of the stage, so in order to get a better view a few of them leaped up and came up to stand beside us. Before Ali Campbell had finished his first song, I was surrounded by a crowd of around a hundred people grooving away as if we weren't there. I found it quite amusing, as it didn't really impact on my being able to shoot - this was a long way from heavy moshing. He bought 80s pop star Kim Wilde on to stage for a version of 'I Got You, (top photo) which was a bit bizarre as people continued to dance away beside me. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKemHWOtfgY

Shine A Light Film Premiere and Gogol Bordello Gig

We were treated to a Stones soundtrack as we waited for their arrival at one of the busiest premieres I'd been to in London. Keith Richards looked predictably out of it, as the Stones disjointedly posed together for a group shot, while Mick Jagger seemed a characture of himself as he strutted around Leicester square.
I've decided that for a venue of its size Brixton Academy actually has terrible light for photographing concerts. As a place of similar size, the Hammersmith Apollo seems to be constantly better. Gogol Bordello certainly showed this to be the case at Brixton tonight. They're one of most fun groups to photograph, especially with their wacky lead singer moving all over the place and pulling comical poses all the time, but there was not enough light on him to capture this without using flash, something they were very strict on not using.
So I came away from the concert a little disapointed, thinking of the shots that were there to be had. I'll certainly be trying to catch them again, probably at one of the festivals.
One of the PA photographers, Yui, caught me in action (bottom picture), as he tried to shoot wide angle shot of the band.

Youssou N'Dour Plays The Indig0 2

The gig I nearly missed, despite arriving two hours early. I'd come down to the O2 Arena in good time to catch Manchester United playing Roma in the Champions League in a bar, knowing that Youssou N'Dour was due to come on stage a good 30 minutes after the game had finished.
Photographers had given a start time of 10pm by the PR, and I was casually chatting with two other snappers when I collected my pass around 9.40pm. Our relaxed demeanor soon changed however as we were given our pass and told Youssou had already started, forcing us to run into the venue, make our way to front of stage, quickly set up our cameras and start taking pictures instantly.
Thankfully, we still had a couple of songs left of our allotted time, which proved enough time to get some good shots, not least because of Senegalese legend Youssou being so into his music, dancing around and pulling some photogenic poses.
Other photographers were not so lucky, arriving just before 10pm, and having half a song to shoot the concert.

President Sarkozy Makes A State Visit

Upon returning from my trip to Slovakia it became apparent that the talk of the press was of the arrival of Carla Bruni on a state visit, and whose imminent appearance was overshadowing the trip of her new husband, Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, no less.
I went to Windsor to cover Sarkozy and his wife arrive in state carriages to Windsor Castle, beside the Queen and the Prince Philip. My position turned out to be very frustrating however, as first Sarkozy turned to look the other way as he went past before Carla did the same in the following carriage. The photographers situated on the other side of the road got the shots and I, along with others my side, had no meaningful photographs from the event. That's the problem with shooting carriages at Royal events - if they look your way as they go past you get can get a decent shot, but if they don't then you don't get a second chance as the carriages move at a surprising speed.
At any rate the shot of the day had been taken earlier in the day when the French couple arrived at Heathrow and were greeted by Prince Charles was gave Carla a kiss on the hand.

Supergrass Play The Roundhouse

It was back down to the Roundhouse to cover Supergrass, who were in great form for their first gig together since bassist Mick Quinn broke his back. Their set consisted of a lot of new material, but unfortunately I was unable to hang around for the whole gig as I had to rush back home to pack for a ski trip to Slovakia extremely early in the morning.

Model Alice Dellal Launches Little Black Dress Collection

I was at Selfridges today as MANGO launnced their "little black dress" collection, designed by Osman Yousefzada. Model Alice Dellal was showing off the dresses.

The Newspaper House

I was back in Dalston today to photograph artist Sumer Erek and his newly completed newspaper house as it was unveiled to the public.
It's a great idea to make use of discarded newspapers to highlight the need for recycling through art. It really gets on my nerves the amount of free papers thrust down our throats every day throughout London. You see so many discarded free newspapers all over the city, so much must get wasted.

Duffy Plays The Bush Hall

I arrived early on to find the photgraphers had to shoot from the crowd, and with the first row already filled with eager Duffy fans - which seemed to feature many gig goers in their 30s and 40s - I had to make do with shooting behind some punters. Thankfully I managed to find a central position behind a smallish lady. I'd done a bit of homework, watching Duffy perform on You Tube and found she took up a central position, with no mike stand, so I knew I was reasonably placed compared to other photographers dotted throughout the crowd.
For such a small venue the light was fantastic, and I got some really pleasing shots. Like Mr Faulkner last night, shooting concerts with light like this makes the job so much more fulfilling.

Artwork and Newton Faulkner

I spent the day going to photograph an art piece of a house in the progress of being made from recycled newspapers. I then stopped by to get some photographs of Banksy's lastest work, again picking up on the recycling theme, showing children playing with a plastic bag.
It was then onto the Roundhouse to shoot Newton Faulkenr. Near perfect light for this one and I got some excellent, varied shots.