Burt Bacharach Plays The Roundhouse

Burt Bacharach's performance at the Roundhouse marked the start of this year's BBC Electric Proms, an event which over 5 days draws a host of top artists to play across Camden's music venues. The idea is to make the concert a different to your typical gig and as a result the performances at the Roundhouse tend to be accompanied by a live orchestra, as was the case tonight. Also heavy on the agenda is guest appearances and Bacharach's concert saw songs sang by Jamie Cullum, Beth Rowley and Adele (all below).
Bacharach was in tremendous form for a man in his 80s; conducting the BBC orchestra, playing his piano and encouraging his guest singers as songs throughout his six-decade career were played. The setting and feel to the night made it special, not least because we were all witnessing most of the most successful and prolific songwriters ever.
It was also great to photograph Cullum, and old school friend, who, up until now, had always missed out on covering.

Tony Curtis Book Signing & Nokia Party

I began the today photographing Hollywood legend Tony Curtis, who was doing a book signing at Harrods. Curtis looked old and frail, understandable for a man well in his 80s, but still seemed to have a good sense of humor about him



Later that night I popped down to Bloomsbury Ballroom for a Nokia party. Plenty of guests arrived, including Martine McCutcheon and model Keeley Hazell (below), but the main name on the guest list was Paris Hilton. The PR assured us she'd be arriving, so we hung around as the party drew out, only to get regular messages saying she'd been held up. Three hours passed before the PR conceded she'd rang to say she couldn't make it. What a wasted evening. I can't stand Paris anyway and it really grated that I'd hung around for someone I have no appreciation for. Undoubtedly one of the downsides to my job is having to photograph celebs, who have little or no talent and who masquerade around as if they're some incredible person, because they're likely to fill magazine pages and newspapers pages.

Kaiser Chiefs Play The Forum

I talk a lot about light when I speak of live music photography - where flash is rarely permitted - and it has to be said, given it was a major band this was probably the worst light I've ever had to shoot a gig. It was terrible, with barely any light on lead singer Ricky Wilson. When there was it was a harsh red or blue light, where there's nothing that can be done to alter it - even in Photoshop. The result was a set of photos which will never be used. A shame because, as the two photos below show, there are nice photos to be had from such an energetic band.

Franklyn Gala Sceening

Having missed the opening gala of the BFI London Film Festival to cover the MOBOs last night I went along for red carpet arrivals of 'Frankyln', the first major gala screening of the festival.
The films stars Eva Green and Ryan Phillippe and kick starts two weeks of film premieres, which will bring A-listers such as Penelope Cruz and Gwyneth Paltrow to the red carpet, before the big one, the James Bond premiere in a couple of weeks.

The Sun Usage

My photo of Colin Powell dancing on stage at the Africa Rising concert was today used in The Sun.

MOBO Awards

I got a late call today asking if I could cover both arrivals and inside coverage of the winners with their awards for this year's MOBO Awards.
It was all fairly straight forward as I was the only photographer shooting the artists at the winner's boards. Estelle (top photo) scooped two awards and other notable attendees included Mel B, Billy Ocean, Grace Jones and John Legend.

Arise Magazine Usage

I was very pleased to see that at the Africa Rising event they supplied everyone with a free, glossy style and music magazine named 'Arise' containing several of my photos. This was issue one - The Africa Issue - of the magazine, produced by the organizers of the event and documented much of the Africa Rising event as well as featuring leading artists linked with the continent. The people behind it start it as a monthly in January, and given how well it's produced it's one to look for.
Below is the front cover, followed by two of my photos of Jay Z (full page) and Youssou N'Dour (double page spread!), both of which I took at Africa Rising in Washington DC.

Africa Rising At The Royal Albert Hall

Having travelled to Nigeria and Washington DC to cover the other Africa Rising music and fashion shows it was great to be able to photograph the event relatively calmly so close to home. As things turned out, this event was the best of the lot - the organizers obviously pulled out all stops for this show, which is run to portray the positive side of Africa.
Nigerian media mogul Nduka is the man behind the event and having got Jay Z, Rihanna and Naomi Campbell, amongst others, to take part in Nigeria he was able to secure Christina Aguilera and Seal to perform at the Royal Albert Hall.
The music and fashion shows were a lot of fun to photograph and I was especially pleased with my live Seal pictures. However, the all the acts were upstaged by Colin Powell being dragged up on stage to dance for 10 minutes (second from bottom photo).

Queen with Paul Rogers Play The O2 Arena

If I were to asked which band or artist I'd like to go back in time to photograph, Queen would certainly feature very high on my list. Freddie Mercury was one of the most iconic and spellbinding singers to photograph of all time, but sadly the Queen of the new millennium, with former Free lead man Paul Rogers fronting the band, cannot match the band in their pomp of the 70s and 80s (apart from Brian May's hair which remains the same as it has since the 70s).
Sure, Rogers can certainly belt out a tune, but he is a long way from matching Freddie in terms of exuberance and individuality. Perhaps that was the point when they handpicked Rogers, knowing that no-one could match Freddie. Some of the reviews suggested this seemed like a glamours tribute band to Queen and it's not far from the truth.
Of course the fans loved hearing some of their favourite songs again and I did really enjoyed shooting the show. I got some cracking photos, with the light being up to the standard you'd expect of the O2 Arena, and it was good to get some strong images of such a recognisable guitarist as Brian May.

Stock Market Trader

I was called out late this Saturday evening to shoot a prominent French Stock market trader in a London house for Paris Match magazine.
The problem was, he was being interviewed by a French journalist and didn't know he was to be photographed, so after getting clearance through the journalist, who kindly asked him if I could shoot him, I turned up and got what shots I could as a two hour interview took place. Unfortunately, with the interview going on so long the trader, whose name never found out, was in a rush to leave with his business partner and family so could only pose very briefly. Hardly the situation I'd hoped for, given it was for a high profile magazine, but in these situations you just have to get what you can.

Financial Crisis

With the stock markets crashing and today was labelled 'Black Friday' because of the financial world in ruin I was sent out to get stock photos of the banks in trouble and of traders leaving the London stock exchange.
Unfortunately, unlike many years ago when they wore bowler hats, the traders wear normal clothes and the London Stock Exchange has moved from Bank in the heart of the city to a rather generic-looking building at St Paul's meaning photos of them tend to look like any others workers in London leaving their office, rather than images with a stronger context of the financial disaster taking place.

Amy MacDonald Plays The Roundhouse

Amy MacDonald is another name who has built her success through a growing fan base on MySpace. I'd not photographed her before so I thought I'd pop down to a local venue of mine, the Roundhouse in Camden.
The lighting on Amy was the harshest white light imaginable - I really don't know what the lighting people were thinking. Amy is quite a pale girl anyway, so having this light on her made her face totally bleached out and that's before trying to capture her through a lens. This meant I had to turn my camera settings almost as if I was shooting in day light to capture her without over exposing her. In the end I got away with making the exposure look OK, but why such a harsh white light I don't understand.

Shane Warne Book Signing

I was the only photographer here for this cricketing legend signing copies of his new book 'Shane Warne's Century: My Top 100 Test Cricketers' at Waterstone's. As I was waiting for him I kept hearing an Aussie voice in my head saying, "bowling Warney" as was so often heard from his teammates during his career.
I resisted the temptation to say it when he arrived though and as the only photographer he was friendly enough to me.

High School Musical 3 Premiere

Not being from the target audience, I don't think I realised just how popular the High School Musical brand was before this premiere. But on hearing more two hours of hysterical screaming (the loudest and most persistent I've heard at a premiere), largely caused by the appearance of actor Zac Efron (top photo) I soon learnt the impact the films has had on the younger generation. It's been suggested that it's the Greece for a new generation and that Efron is the new John Travolta, which seems like a fair comparison.
Photography wise it was a bit messy as there were so many families with children milling and gawping on the red carpet on their way into the cinema, meaning a lot of the time we unable to get clean shots of the stars. However, Vanessa Hudgens (bottom photo) posed for long enough to get the required shots of her and, to be fair, they at least made an effort with the group shot of the main stars.

Q Awards

With Q magazine probably being the best established monthly music magazine in Britain, it goes without saying that their awards bash is one of the most anticipated of the year. They're able to bring in (from top photo downwards) classic stars (Roger Daltery), huge selling bands (Kaiser Chiefs), colourful guests (Grace Jones), bands of the moment (Vampire Weekend) and daughters of famous rock stars (Kimberley Stewart), which shows the kind of influence the magazine has.
I was doing the red carpet arrivals, so didn't get in to see proceedings inside, but the awards, much like the magazine, seemed to follow a mainly mainstream line. For instance, Coldplay, despite deteriorating in quality with every album they bring out, walked away with a couple of awards.

Michael Parkinson Book Signing

This was quick little job photographing Michael Parkinson - or "the man who's met everyone" as they kept announcing over the loud speaker in Borders - during a book signing session for his new autobiography.
Parky is hugely respected and a national treasure, having seemingly interviewed all the great figures over his long-spanning TV career, but it looked for a while as if there wouldn't be too many people turning up to get their book signed. However, ten minutes before he turned up, the queue quickly expanded giving him the crowd he deserved.