A Letter From America

I'm in Texas for my fourth SXSW in a row!
South By South West is an industry based music conference / festival located in Austin Texas.
An average of 1,500 bands play over a period of four days so it's a great opportunity to watch the latest "up and coming" acts from around the world alongside more established bands playing slightly more intimate venues than they are used to.
This year I even got an extra day of entertainment as last night the British Music Embassy threw a bash for the final evening of the SXSW Interactive Festival, an event focusing on new media technology, headlined by The Proclaimers.
The event was also open to Music badge holders and members of the public who had RSVP'd online.
The show was listed as starting at 9pm so I happily sat my in hotel room watching American Idol, leaving just before 9.
Unfortunately the real kick off time was an hour earlier so the intimate Latitude 30 venue had reached capacity by the time I got there.
Numerous tickets for the event had been handed out the day before to Interactive attendees so there were two lines, one for peeps with tickets, the other RSVP's and badge holders.
You can guess which line I was in and which one was getting in first!!
I waited outside for around thirty minutes, with the people in front of me either giving up and leaving or getting handed a spare ticket from someone walking past.
Eventually the lovely girl who was handling the door conjured a ticket my way, even letting me join the front of the ticket line, getting me in the venue just in time for for Alice Russell's set.
Latitude 30 wasn't as packed inside as I imagined, making it fairly easy to to join a few of the hundreds of snappers granted an official photo pass for the musical event down the front.



I didn't know a huge amount about English singer Alice Russell before seeing her.
I had sneaked a listen to her most recent album "Pot of gold" a few days earlier, enjoying her Retro Soul sound but wasn't prepared to be blown away by her live performance as much as I was.
In a way she reminded of a female Eli "Paperboy" Reed, delivering her set with gallons of passion.

I'll try and see her live again at some point but probably not in Austin as there's too many other equally great acts to enjoy!



The crowd had thinned slightly by the time The Reid twins took the stage.
The brothers were playing as a duo and ran through a fun set, pulling a few songs from debut album "This is the story" and follow up "Sunshine on Leith" , current album "Life with you" and throwing in a curious cover of "17" by Kings Of Leon.
Although the crowd down the front were enjoying the performance, with shouts of encouragement throughout, there was a huge amount of background chatter for the set's duration.

It felt slightly strange watching an act that can pull in the punters back home play to a slighty apathetic audience at times but I had a fun time anyway, especially lovin' "Letter from America" and the band's encore "500 miles" , a song that was guaranteed to have even the chattering beer drinkers at the back singing along!

The British Music Embassy's show was a terrific way to start my SXSW this year but the whole thing kicks off in earnest today, with my band watching starting at midday and ending sometime in the early hours of Thursday morning!!

You're kidding!

Took a trip to the Borderline last night to cover "up and comers" Kid British for my agency.

Although fairly last minute I was pleased that I was offered the shoot as it gave me a chance to see support band Everlife.


Everlife are three American sisters, pumping out tuneful Disney friendly Pop Punk.

The band sounded great but played to a fairly small crowd.

There was a front row of young female fans hanging on their every word though, which was quite sweet!

You can peruse the Everlife pictures at your leisure over at Flickr .

I had only heard one Kid British track previously so wasn't sure what to expect.

I was pleasantly suprised as they were a rowdy, fun band, reminiscent of The Specials at times.

They did dip into a harder Hard Fi sound on a couple of occasions which wasn't so good but all in all they were well worth watching.

Specials member Lynval Golding joined the band onstage to celebrate the fact they were supporting The Specials on a few dates.

He seemed a bit worse of wear and the look on KB members faces in a couple of snaps is amusing!

Lynval's appearance was the cue for a stage invasion and the set headed to it's climax with a stage full of fans.

Kid British snaps can be found here

May Day!

Had a last minute agency request last week to shoot Rockabilly rebel Imelda May over at Koko.

I bought a promo of her album as an impulse buy last year, liking what I heard so was curious to see what she was like live.

I couldn't stay for the whole set as I had an early start the following day and had to process my pictures before bed but I enjoyed what I did watch, especially her cover of "Primitive" by the Cramps, so hopefully I'll get the chance to view a full set later in the year.

The show was reviewed by a couple of broadsheets but they didn't use my pictures.

Luckily they didn't use any other photographers either which was good news!

You can view the rest of Imelda pics over at Flickr

Out Of This World!

2009 has been very quiet for me gig wise so far.

It's going to change completely in a couple of weeks as I'll have shot more bands than is healthy by the end of March !

I did pop along to a show earlier this week though.

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour played at Cargo on Monday night.

It was my first time viewing the band and I enjoyed what I heard (and saw)

Cargo is a terrible place for picture taking with hideous lights making flash the only option.

My pictures from the evening are up on Flickr if you want to view them.

The Only Ones I know

Popped along on Friday to Shepherds Bush Empire to shoot Cult Rockers The Only Ones for my agency.

The band were sounding good but I only stayed for the first three songs, missing the classic "Another girl another planet".

You can see the pictures over at Flickr 

The band were supported by Strangefruit, a group featuring two of Only Ones frontman Peter Perret's sons.

I quite enjoyed them and got some decent pictures too....





You can see the rest of the set over at Flickr  and check out their music at My Space.
The band are better live than their My Space tracks suggest though so catch them soon.

Finnish fun!

After my atrocious Akon evening I needed to get out and take a few more pictures so decided to spend my Saturday evening snapping away.

I was in two minds whether to go to the Social to see LCMDF or head along to the Macbeth to watch Micachu.

In the end the Social won as it was easier to get to and free to get in!!

Finnish band Le Corps Mince De Francoise are a female three piece playing shouty Electro music. Their live output reminded of CSS and Bonde Do Role at times and they were just as much fun.

I was really happy with the pictures I took so it was worth going out!

You can see the rest of the pictures over at Flickr

Akon to bring you some news!

I shot my first gig of the year this week, covering Akon at London's Indigo venue.

I last photographed a show at the beginning of December so felt a bit rusty.

I knew it would take me a few minutes to get into the groove again so despaired when the photographers were pulled out of the pit a few seconds into Akon's second track.

We should have had three songs so I spent the first just getting to grips with things again, hoping to focus on the job at hand during songs two and three.

I was well pissed off that I didn't have the opportunity to get anything decent as I didn't have many "keepers" during song one.

It was my own fault though as I'm normally able to get what I need in around 60 seconds if required so I can't moan too much!

Luckily the Daily Star liked one of the shots, printing it today.

I've had some of my pictures used as album artwork recently.

The ever lovely Tilly And The Wall plucked five shots from the hundreds I've taken of them for their (currently) online only remix album "That remix sucks" and Scottish Indie Popsters - The Hussy's also used five pictures from their Purple Turtle show for the inlay sleeve of the Japanese version of their album "Super Pro".

The sound of a strangled cat!

I took an afternoon trip to London's Southbank yesterday to photograph the soundcheck of German Free Jazz saxophonist Peter Brotzmann.



Peter was playing the Purcell Rooms later in the evening and allowed a trio of photographers to cover his soundcheck as the Sunday Times is reviewing the show next week.
My name wasn't on the photo pass list when I got there so it took about twenty minutes to sort things out.
However it wasn't a problem as I had to sit through drum and bass checks before Mr Brotzmann took to the stage.
Free Jazz is certainly not my thing!
Peter and his gang are obviously accomplished musicians but the whole thing sounded like an animal in pain!!
Luckily I was finished by 5.30 so I get home for some "proper" music , spending the night watching X Factor!!!

Little Noise, Big Fun!

I hadn't been out for a couple of weeks covering bands so jumped at the chance to photograph Adele and Damien Rice at London's Union Chapel for my agency.
The show was part of the Little Noise Sessions, an event put together by Radio 1's Jo Whiley in aid of the charity MENCAP.



Although a fan of his album "O" I had only seen Damien Rice play once before.
It was a headline set at Latitude Festival last year and I didn't really enjoy it as I was tired and cold!
This was a completely different experience as Damien played solo, delivering exquisite renditions of the likes of "Amy" and "The blowers daughter" to a captivated crowd.
Damien finished his set with a gorgeous performance of "Cannonball" with the PA turned off, creating a magical moment!



I hadn't seen Adele perform live before so was blown away by how strong her voice was.
The set was pulled from her "19" album, alongside a couple of covers, creating an excellent headline performance with a few amusing moments inbetween songs as Adele has a great personality, though she's perhaps a little too close to her Katy Brand parody for comfort! 

Tilly's back in town!

Omaha's Tilly And The Wall are my favourite live band.

I've managed to catch them live around 40 times in the three years as they're tremendous fun live  and extremely nice people too!

Due to being skint I couldn't go to as many Tilly shows as I desired this time round but I still managed to see them perform at an instore at London's Pure Groove, a late night show at Matter out at the O2, Birmingham Barfly and the ULU in London.

I got a few nice shots at the numerous shows but my ULU pictures were a bit shit as I wasn't in a decent spot and there's no pit.

I'm not a fan of the venue anyway so I probably wont be heading back there in the near future.