Last day

In the office for a while today... So back to sitting around in pants, I wish! Looking forward to a mellow week but I couldn't help but take a last minute job tomorrow so the complete chilling doing nothing will have to wait until the day after tomorrow.

Left the office this evening to an even more packed Oxford street than usual where there were hordes of press waiting to get a photo of Kate Moss in the Top Shop. It's nice not to have to stand around for hours for celeb's to show up to photo ops. Wait a second, that has happened before!!

Here's a shot of the Answer from Japan that's in Wednesday's Kerrang!

Sunday Office

Got up early and went to the office work on the Give It A Name review. A busy Sunday but finished loads. Last day in the office tomorrow which is worth a thumbs up! (pic: Fish)

A day off?

Spent most of the day sleeping. Well catching up on sleep, as tomorrow a small crew of us need to be in the office to do the 8 page Give It A Name review. I'll give it a name and that's there is no rest for the wicked!

A shot of Gareth from Funeral For A Friend in Cornwall. Told him before the show make sure to do a point in the camera and I'll get it in... A very good listener!!

Tired!

Need some rest but had to get a move on with the day. It was off to the Retna studios to do a shoot with the Pink Spiders. Another nice band who were up for ideas... Although they did make a good crack saying what a surprise, a pink background!?!?

Here's the latest Introducing done of The Mirimar Disaster... Pure comedy! Slo Mo (bread mask) rocks and rumor has it they now has a bread endorsement!

hello GOODBYE!

Went down to Faceparty for a shoot this evening. It was great to see Tom from Faceparty who is in for the birthday celebrations!!
The shoot was with hellogoodbye who were nice guys and very open to ideas which made for a great shoot. Can't go wrong when bands play up to the camera rather than the typical boring line-ups! Went to drop off the gear at K! towers and was transfixed with the fire across the street. It's unbelievable how much water is used and how hard it is to put out a fire and this shot was taken across the street 5 stories up!

After another day at the office went and joined everyone at the Hammersmith Apollo for the Trivium show. Made it just in time to catch two songs of Gojira who sounded great. Saw a song of Annihilator who's singer Dave was from Vancouver. Trivium were alright but I think they need to be more themselves and less like Metallica! At least they all have a go at singing...

More fun office work, but afterwards it was off to the Astoria to shoot this actor's band. Don't think I have ever seen a front man be so patronizing and insincere to a crowd before. The old 3 song no flash rule applied which I found quite confusing as strobes were going constantly the whole time...

Got hacked on the space so figured this drawing would make a great profile pic!

A pretty mellow day at the office. Just needed to sort out a few things for later on in the week. Booking studios, moving pics, sourcing props, and all that fun stuff. Headed down to Brighton to do live shots of Hatebreed for a live review. Not too bad but a little more light would have been nice to bleed through the shots! Shall see how we fair with the silly little actor band tomorrow...

To Shepherd's Bush for a session with all the lead singers on the latest Lostprophets tour. WiL from Aiden, Adam from Taking Back Sunday, and Ian from the Lostprophets. (Pic: Emma V.)

Did a little round table discussion about all things touring and a few funny pics. Gotta hand it to WiL for turning up early, reminded me of last the shoot with Aiden!! Bands before noon always impress! Back to the office for another week starting tomorrow...

Mon the Biffy!

One of my favorite bands to photograph Biffy Clyro was today. On top of being the nicest band around, they are great as they always have loads of ideas and are more than happy to hang out until everything is finished!! The idea today had to be fully credited to art director Fishy! (Hence the photo above but we can't give it away yet!)

Headed over to Koko after for a press session with the Devil Sold His Soul. Chatted with Mr.Hughes which was great and he even mentioned how Penzance (went to last week) really is a dump!!

More work...

Sorted out quite a bit for the two shoots this weekend. Still not sure but there might even be a third. Quite excited as Saturday doing a session with probably the nicest band on the planet and they usually come with a load of ideas which never happens!

Here's a shot from the last shoot I did with Biffy Clyro...

So Spiderman 3, DON'T BOTHER!! I can't believe how bad it was. First 2 films were not bad but this was a complete turkey?!?!? Why is 24 still better than most movies I see now?? But everyone will end up going to see it as the marketing machine keeps on turning...

Another 9-5 day...

If I worked in an office full time I really wouldn't have much to write about in a blog. I look at all the annoyed people on the train every morning, listening to their conversations, watching them not read their papers, and basically look completely expressionless. (Think Simon Pegg on the bus in Shaun Of The Dead)

Doing a shoot tomorrow afternoon which should be good... Need to wake up a bit!?! A little more wide eyed and bushy tailed please!!

First day back at the office! Didn't feel like the "New Kid" this time, as it was Nick Ruskell's first day as Reviews Editor at the mag. After work went to the K!3 local for Caren's going away drinks and Nick's welcoming ones.

Filling in for the next two weeks, at least there are some fun shoots coming up in that time. If the PR's agree to them that is...

Another shot from the Cornish area.

Back to the real world!

A Wheelchair that goes on sand?! Couldn't resist having a go after I saw what it was! Only disappointment was that it was hard to get it self propelled...

Ate too much Sunday roast and fell asleep for much of the travelling back to the other side of England that rains way less!!

Cornwall breeds tiredness

Ok so Cornwall was the destination this weekend and it was bigged up huge by an unnamed source... Well after pissing down almost the entire time, not being able to take the band anywhere for photos, and staying in a hotel that you could classify as G-Ma's house I thought it ain't all that! (at least it gives me something to write about!)

The company was great with Owen, Rachel, Fishy, Jo, Tom, or I might have just gone back to London!! Stayed in Penzance (which was a bit dumpy) and did some live shots of Funeral For A Friend. Hit some crazy after bar at the end of the evening that had the cheapest drinks in England! This poster was one redeeming thing about Penzance though!

Up to Northampton this evening with Emma, and Katie for the Deftones. This was one of the make-up shows that were postponed earlier this month when Chino was ill. Great show! Got to give Chino credit as most singers would normally throw the mic to the crowd for a hand with the singing but he went through every song!!

Forgot to mention that the college campus I walked through last weekend thinks quite highly of themselves!

Been told to look out for the Canucks as they have made the playoffs. Get up in the morning and they are still playing. Van-city is probably way hockey mad at the moment!?!? Well come see the way English fans get about soccer and then you'll think there is no dedication to hockey!

Another bleary eyed day at the computer... So much to do, so little time. A trip to Pleasantville would be nice, a pic of Madina Lake that ran in Kerrang! instead.

Spent most of the day at the computer. It was much needed to catch on so many different things. Sorted out a huge amount and filled up my agency with loads more images. It's always nice to see those random publications you had no idea existed with your photos in them.

Managed to get out and do some more much needed exercise... Self help note number 38: Try and drink less!!

Good name for security on a pub or perhaps it was their undercover office?

And a pic of the college... Finally saw 300 today which was very nice to look at. Acting ummm yeah...

A LONG walk!!! Finally got to go take a look at something up close I've always been curious about as a child visiting England. Went to see the Lancing College Chapel up close... And even wandered inside. Had to do it as the view from the G-Ma's house has always been pretty amazing!!

A pic tomorrow as I needed to put up part 2 of yesterday's shot.

Tried not to eat too much chocolate... That worked but the plan was foiled by a fantastic roast cooked by Fishy! Umm need to go on some sort of exercise diet very soon!!! Maybe a walk in the middle of nowhere?

To Oxford

Went up to the very interesting town of Oxford today. Did a shoot with Clutch who I haven't seen in a few years. Nice guys who were very quiet so kept the shoot quick. But it was waiting for the band to turn up that was the funny part. The characters I saw walking around town were insane! It looked like it could have been Botton!! Went and had some dinner and a Wii at Scarlet's and then back to the venue to photograph the show.

A lonely chair while waiting for the band...

A good friday,

To see a band play for the first time in 25 years! One The Juggler a band I was introduced to by Laurence (my uncle). He plays in a band (2 Ronnies) with the original bass player Jerry from 1TJ so it was off to the Amersham Arms in New Cross to see them play.

A very interesting crowd at the pub. It looked like half were there to hang out in their local pub and everyone else was there for the show. Still a fun evening...

A night off! Well...

Not so much! Met up in town and had a drink with Paul and Nick. After Fishy joined us is was off to the Ulu to see Hinder play.

Saw Scoot and Stef Twaddle (who's last name I didn't believe was real!) from Universal and Scoot mentioned an old friend was in the building. So I went on the search and found Chief who I hadn't seen since June! He was over for a couple of days to see Hinder as Nickelback are off the road at the moment. We ended up hanging with everyone after the show and going to a few different bars and finished off at the lovely Mandarin Hotel Bar.

From Manc to Sheff

Very long day of travelling today. Got up quite early and caught a train to Sheffield from Manchester where I met up with the guys in The Mirimar Disaster. Went around to a few different locations in Sheffield which involved some hiking, bread eating, and pint drinking! Nice bunch of guys who made it a very fun shoot and it's always great when a band are up for anything. The jokes kicked-off right from the beginning with Frank the guitar player being late as he forgot to put his clock ahead an hour two weeks ago!

Caught the train back to London which seemed like it took an eternity...

Here's a shot of Enter Shikari without the video game look that ran in Kerrang! this week...

Went up to Manchester for Hinder today. On the train ride up I was surrounded by 3 women who reminded me of Sex and the City. (all lawyers and yes one of them was exactly like the Kim Cattrall character.) Once two/thirds of the group left the train chatted to one remaining who told me how her and her husband were right into their music. She had even seen Pantera and Sepultura to my amazement!! It was very refreshing as most people don't even look at each other on a 2 hour train ride let alone have a conversation.

Got to the show and did the opening act Black Stone Cherry who were great. Maybe my patience level is low. But when you have done loads with a band and then someone tells you can't do something that is usually a given it makes you want to pack and go. Well, you really can't beat chilling in a nice hotel room watching the latest episode of 24!

Here's the "money" shot of Hinder that's in tomorrow's Kerrang!

The best kind of meeting...

Headed into Fulham today for a meeting with Simon at Retna. The lunch turned into a marathon mid-afternoon drinking session. But had a great chat and there could be some interesting things for the future.

Forgot to post a pic of the Eiffel tower... Japanese Style!

I am fool... WTF is it?