INXS @ Hammersmith

Last night I went to the lovely Hammersmith Apollo to shoot INXS. I must say that I was quite impressed with what I saw. J.D.Fortune certainly knows how to get the crowd moving along with the music, and it was nice that during the first three they played three songs that I know from back in the day. It's a long drive to Hammersmith with traffic at every junction, but when the show is good it does make it worth.
Other than that, this week I have begun work for a bit of a non musical related photographic competition I've decided to enter. I will post the shots in my gallery at the end of the competition, so you'll have to be patient for now. I must say that I have definately had a great time shooting things without ego's for the last week.

Polo Final with The Queen

Well people, for those of you who thought that I only shot music, you are mistaken. I recently asked my agent to fix me up with some different challenges. He this weekend sorted me out the relevant paperwork for me to shoot the Cup Final of Polo! I must say that I didn't know what to expect and seriously wasn't expecting to enjoy myself, but went anyway.

I must say that although it was a long day, with a lot of work, it was good. I knew what I wanted, and set about achieving my goals from the moment I arrived.

The day reminded me a lot of the festival circuit in the music scene. Shoot, upload and wire... shoot upload and wire... constantly. Tiresome, stressfull and non stop.

My day was somewhat lightened, however, when her majesty the Queen arrived with Prince Phillip in tow. I've never photographed the Queen although I have photographed the Prince of Wales, Camilla Parker Bowles and the two Princes, William and Harry. It's a bit strange photographing the woman on the stamps and money in the UK.

So on with my night. I finished off at Winsor, said my farewells to the people I'd met throughout my day and made my way back to mine in kent. I finished editing the final bunch of images and attempted to wire them over to the desk... Only to find that the blasted FTP had gone up the proverbial duff! What is it with me and trying to put my work online eh? It's like the greater force has other ideas! Never trust modern day technology!!

Anyway that's it for today. I kind of feel that a few gigs are required. I like the other side of photography, but I love the music!

George Michael @ Wembley Stadium

Good Lord! OK, OK I know I should feel lucky about being at the 1st show in the new sparkly Wembley Stadium, I also know that I should feel lucky to be shooting George, whom I personally think is great. However I can't quite work out how the PR companies, or whoever makes the decisions, come up with the idea of having the worlds press photographers so very far away. These photo's are set to be in the news the next day, and it's difficult to make anyone look good from 500 miles away!

Also I had one song to take these photo's (which is not uncommon with the bigger artists) but to make matters worse still, I had a mentalist fan bouncing around in front of me waving in front of my lens.

I'm not angry with anyone here, especially the fan, just a bit puzzled. If these people don't want photographers, why not just tell us not to bother.

It was a good 1 song though...

If that wasn't enough, when I got home after the dull drive home, I found that the cable had gone down. This included the telephone and most importantly the Internet! Oooooh, me thinks this was a bad day!

Maybe I should've gone to the Isle of Wight Festival after all....

Velvet Revolver @ Hammersmith

Well, it's nearly 1:30am, I've just finished editing the last of the Velvet Revolver shots to upload to Filmmagic. I'm tired, it's been a bloody long day including attacks from the evil traffic wardens (although I must add that this specific traffic warden was a great fellow having NOT giving me one of those expensive pieces of paper!!!!), sleepless previous nights and a bank account that's not looking well after an expensive weekend of entertainment.

However all was definitely saved when tonight I shot these guys. What a great show! I know that I only see 3 songs and some may argue that this isn't enough to judge, but at this point I'll point out that I'm not judging, meerly expressing the excitement one gets from a guitar legend as big as Slash, as well as some great music that one definitely enjoys. Scott Weiland is one of the best front men I've shot so far, and the lighting was ace!
Needless to say I had a grand time...
I must admit at this point that at some points during these 1st three songs I found myself bopping my head, which isn't really something I tend to do as I'm usually way too busy thinking about the shot, or setting or bucket of piss that has just landed on my head from those loving people who paid to see the gig!


It was also good to see Slash and Duff Mckagen playing up close. I remember watching them on my G'n'R videos when I were a tad younger and when they are right above your head it's quite a thing.


It's not always that I actually get excited like this about a gig, as usually I only treat it as work, but there are some occasions when it kicks ass and tonight was one of them nights. The last time I got excited was last year when I shot Bon Jovi at Milton Keynes Bowl. I were a bit of a fan as I grew up and to shoot them hit the spot. Another guitar legend in Richie Sambora as well, slowly I'm ticking them off the list, eh... I'll have to start putting up some of the shots from the last few years, I've got quite a list of legends forming.