If you know me at all, you’ll know how much I rate this band. I’ve been banging on about them ever since seeing them play at a one-off city centre festival in Leeds back in 2006. They were one of the first bands I ever shot live, and whenever they’ve played within 100 square miles I’ve been there. Admittedly by this point I’m coming over a bit ‘groupie-ish’, but they are THAT good.

This tour was more of a showcase of their new material before the work on album three gets underway, which is nudging progressively nearer to an electronic sound. After a manic two-week spell stopping off at 11 towns, things were due to wind to a close at the infamous Leeds Met – a venue thats now almost synonymous with the band, and the location where I shot my first ever TSU gig about 4 years ago.

I headed down early doors to catch some of the soundcheck and do my usual ‘reportage’ effort, before wandering into town to grab a bite to eat. It was pretty cool to get to know the guys in a relaxed atmosphere, joking about the tribulations of being a Wolves fan (NOT me), discussing the ins and outs of a good steak pie and exactly what a Mongolian Barbecue was. Good times.

The gig was as mental as could be expected, really. Plenty of piss and lager flying about, the odd tidal wave called Andy, and a lot of sweat. There was only one other photographer in the pit for the first three (shame on the rest of you!), and then I pretty much free reign of the pit for the remainder, so I could choose my shots pretty easily. There also seems to be a bit of a grey area with using Flash when it comes to AAA, too. Something I fully exploited for the remainder of the gig – only when necessary, mind – using a bit of fill-in flash bounced off whatever surface I could. Given that time wasn’t really a factor with this gig, I spent as much of their set as I could listening to the new material, which was cool. Instead of the normal three-song pressure when you’re that focused on getting ‘the shot’, I could relax and enjoy myself, and almost feel like a punter. Winner.

The night drew to a close at the aftershow party which the guys had asked me to cover – I stuck around for a couple of hours whilst Stu and Craig swapped guitars for decks. I had a go with a few second-curtain-sync shots, which came out fairly well, but I’ve still to really cut my teeth in club photography.

All in all it was a pretty cool 12hrs with TSU. Got to know the guys a bit, heard some of their awesome new material, and got some shots that I’m pretty chuffed with.

Pre-gig/Soundcheck:

Matt, pulling THAT pose. Drummers..

Scott

Craig

Matt stepping out from the kit and getting involved on synths

Stu

Craig get’s the sound-check under way

Stu’s vintage Marshall amps, genuine ‘Road Wear’..

Matt, Craig and Scott have a quick chinwag whilst Stu’s pedal board is fixed. Again.

Craig

Gig:

Craig

Stu

Craig getting involved with the Synths, too..

Probably my favourite shot of the night..

Craig

You probably know what this guy is called by now.

Stu. Only kidding! It’s Craig again.

Just want to point out that I did TRY to get some shots of Scott (bass) and Matt (drums), but the lighting was a bit turd..

Lots of happy people

Lots more happy people

Stu

Just before the guys headed back out for a belting rendition of ‘Put You In Your Place’ for the encore.

Goodnight, Leeds

Aftershow:

Matt, looking Jolly.

Stu concentrating

Kate Wellham. She writes about stuff good.

Matt and Wellham getting in on the action. Sort of.

Decided to really push for portraiture work at the back end of last year, and one of the first bands to get in touch were Leeds-based indie-rock band Wheels. I’ve been mates with their bassist (Al) since school, so I was determined to do a good job of this one. Unfortunately, things did not get off to the best of starts.

We originally pencilled in a shoot just over a month ago, and the plan was for an outdoor shoot in the Little Germany area of Bradford. However on the day the heavens opened. We did manage to pull a few strings to get access to some warehouse space, but despite our best efforts I just wasn’t happy with the shots. I’m by no means an arty person at all, but they just didn’t ‘feel’ right. So after a few weeks, plans for a second shoot were hatched, this time utilising drummer Kyle’s vintage Rover.

We planned to do the shoot in the multi-storey car park at The Leisure Exchange to get around any weather issues – we managed to find a floor that was completely empty and all-but perfect, but shortly after setting the gear up a flock of fluorescent dogs bodies rallied round and told us to clear off (not before asking to have a sit in Kyle’s car – cheeky tw*ts). We headed down the road to a more desolate car park that was completely empty, and set up on the top floor.

I knew exactly what sort of look I was after – car in the background, just enough ambient light to highlight the mood of the clouds, and a nice glowing artificial light from off camera to bring the band out. We tried a few different layouts, and I was pretty chuffed with the results:

Before packing up the gear, we had time to try a quick shot which was a little less serious – Kyle and Al ‘beating’ Ben (guitar, vocals) in the boot of the car. This was a bit more challenging to light, but the work really paid off. I set one flashgun up camera left with a brolly, and another one bare camera right (behind Al) to add some fill to what was a very dark and dingy space. Lovely.

There was one last thing to sort before we headed off – a few headshots with a brick-wall background. Kind of text book, but wanted to make the most of the textures that were available to us while we were there.

All in all, a successful days shooting. Particularly chuffed with the rooftop shots – really happy with the light, but has made my realise I could probably do with investing in some decent softboxes and a more powerful flashgun.

Wheels have just started gigging in and around Yorkshire, so keep an eye out – there’s a lot of musical talent crammed into this three piece, so be prepared to be impressed.

Seems like Miles has been round for years now. Heck, it’s nearly 5 years since he joined Arctic Monkeys onstage at Glasto. It’s safe to say that his rise to eventual stardom is certainly taking it’s time, but has come some way in the last 18 months. To put it in perspective, last January I photographed him at a sold out Brudenell Social Club. After a year of hard work which included major festival appearances and support slots with Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian, he’s now playing to nearly 10x the punters at a sold out Leeds Academy. Whatever he’s been doing this year, it’s clearly paying off.

Wasn’t really sure how to approaching shooting this gig – it’d been a while since I’d shot at the Academy, to the point where it almost felt unfamiliar. The subject, on the other hand, I was more than familiar with. I’d shot Miles twice since that night at the Brud last year, and it should have been three times had the security not dropped a bollock at Kasabian’s date at the MEN. Safe to say I had plenty of frames of Liverpool’s golden boy prior to this gig, and was in a tricky position of having to try to get something different. Thankfully, Kelly Jones he ain’t – Miles stage presence has really developed and he’s quite an animated character, making my job a lot easier. If you can imagine the swagger of Liam Gallagher, but with some talent and an actually ability to sing/play the guitar/write joined up, you wouldn’t be far wrong.

Turned out to be a bit of an arse to shoot – lots of backlight, not much happening at the front, and mainly bright magenta and blue lights making live a bit tricky. There was quite an impressive backdrop on stage, but unfortunately the lighting did little to highlight it. Nemind. Got a handful of half decent shots, nothing groundbreaking but nothing too similar to what I’ve already got, too.

These guys have been building a lot of hype recently – very similar brand of heavy-ish melodic rock to the likes of You Me at Six but a bit more intelligent in composition. There’s bits of them that are a bit Biffy Clyro (apart from singing in a Scottish accent) which I liked, and they seem like the sort of band who’s early stuff was probably really really good. Just an assumption mind.

Anyways, the band were causing a stir and they’d been on my ‘worth snapping’ list for a while. I’d avoided the previous Leeds date as it would have been a shoot-from-crowd job at the Cockpit, which are a bit hap-hazard for the more animated of bands. So this date at The Ritz in Manchester was perfect. On paper.

This was going to turn out to be ‘one of those’ gigs. Got to the venue to find my name wasn’t down on the photopass list. Now as I’d not shot the Ritz before I got down there with plenty of time to spare – partly because I was keen to shoot support act ‘Lower Than Atlantis’, too – so I had time to sort it out. However ’sorting it out’ was far more tricky than you may expect.

To summarise, the system basically works like this: The record label pay a PR company to get their bands in the press. We arrange our photo-passes through these PR companies (usually based in London) who then give our names to the Tour Manager of the band, who in turn give our names to the venue. So, as you can imagine, there is every possibility that, at some point in the process, someone somewhere might forget to write your name on a piece of paper. It does happen. The only problem is rectifying it – Ringing PR companies in the hope they answer their phone outside of office hours, or badgering the people at the venue to let you speak with the Tour Manager to try and sort it out. Basically, it can be a fair bit of hassle. Thankfully though, on this occasion the badgering paid off, and I finally got handed a pass shortly before the main act hit the stage.

As for shooting the gig, well – what can i say? it was pretty abysmal. Entirely backlit, resulting in silhouettes and not much else. There was the odd flutter of strobe lights that I was lucky to catch on a couple of occasions, but that was about it. Shame, really, as their guitarist (Barry McKenna) Was quite animated at times. Ne’mind.

Ah well, at least I can say I’ve finally shot at The Ritz now. Hopefully next time I’m there they’ll be expecting me. And they’ll switch some lights on. C’est la vie.

LOWER THAN ATLANTIS:

TWIN ATLANTIC:

Photographing for a magazine that focuses on new music, I often get sent to shoot bands I’d never heard of (this can mainly be put down to my own ignorance and the fact I still have a 9-5). As it happens, the past few I’ve been sent to had turned out to be total gems, so I was optimistic that this was going to be a good night.

Trying to maintain a degree of professionalism I did do some research beforehand, but as is often the case when shooting new music a lot of ‘new’ bands don’t have Wikipedia entries yet, and the majority of facebook, myspace and twitter pages don’t provide particularly insightful information into a bands background, instead presenting whimsical and pretentious snippets, like “We’re an electro-shoegaze-bassline unit influenced by Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground and herbal tea” doesn’t actually tell me the facts – that you’re two sixth-formers from Swindon who rarely shave, wear baggy tshirts, wonky trucker caps, loafers without socks, and are both grade 6 in Macbook. You see my point. What google/Youtube did tell me, however, was that 2:54 were two sisters (Hannah and Colette) who produced some beautifully dirty music – lots of stoner-rock-esque reverbs and delays going on, strong fluctuating vocals, it sounded pretty impressive.

Got to the Cockpit in plenty of time to shoot both supports – firstly Leeds lads Atlas who adequately warmed the crowd with their own brand of lo-fi rock, followed by Deaf Club who were equally as impressive but a little more sinister. Things were going fairly well – the venue was reasonably lit, so I was just relying on flash for a bit of fill here and there, and it wasn’t too packed so I could move around to mix my angles up a bit. This all changed when the headline act appeared.

All previous great light vanished, being replaced with minimal red blue and green backlight. Then the smoke machine powered through the gears, making shooting with flash that bit more haphazard. Wonderful. More of a crowd did gather, but thankfully I could still negate the masses sufficiently without pissing too many people off.

As for 2:54 (it’s pronounced two fifty four) they were an odd yet powerful bunch. The main attention was spent on said sisters, with I presume a session/touring bassist and drummer filling the roster. The two girls painted a harsh contrast to each other – Hannah (vocals/guitar) had an almost Kate Bush-like stage presence, floating around in a white dress-cum-dustsheet, and repeatedly giving the crowd a mixture of sultry ‘come-to-bed’ eyes and/or the daggers. Colette, on the other hand, was far more reserved, timidly sitting in the shadows, with a stern look of concentration on her face as she riffed away on her BEAUTIFUL Fender Jaguar.

Although these guys didn’t wow me as much as some of the other bands I’ve shot so far this year, I left with a huge amount of respect for what these guys do – they really got into their performance and, even though it wasn’t really my bag – the craft that has gone into some of their material and the rawness of the set meant I wasn’t leaving disappoint either. That was, of course, until I went to pay for my car parking. £10.80 for the NCP by the Cockpit for 2 and a half hours! Robbing bastards! Next time, I catch train.

PICTURES:

I’m going to keep this post fairly short. I was up at the Brudenell for a promo shoot which I will cover when the pics are out, but while I was there I thought I’d take the chance to get a few shots of the band hotly tipped to follow in the footsteps of Pulled Apart By Horses and Hawk Eyes in their rise to stardom.

See. told you it was gonna be short. PICTURES!

I’d not shot the Wardrobe before. If I’m honest, I’d not even been before. It’s one of those places I’ve always fancied going to on a night out, but being the big lazy bastard I am I’ve never had the motivation to actually make the short trek to the bottom of town. I digress..

I’ve always held a great deal of respect for The Futureheads. Everytime I’ve seen them they’ve always but on a really entertaining show – They’ve a natural charisma on stage that most other bands struggle to master, and everything comes across without a drop of pretense. It’s always been about performing, rather than just whizzing through a dozen tracks and saying ‘ta’ after every second number.

They’re not just northern clowns, mind – they’re extremely talented musicians. their ever-popular reworking of the Kate Bush track ‘Hounds of Love’ was a perfect example of this, and the composition of their own tracks is equally as impressive. Similarly their ability to vocally harmonize is more than evident in a lot of their material. If anything, the ‘A Capella and Acoustic Tour’ was a means to showcase just how talented they are.

I’d had a few warnings from my peers about the Wardrobe. Essentially, it was dark. Very dark. There’s not much in the way of lighting, and all the walls and ceiling are painted black so there isn’t much to bounce a flash off. Hmm.

As I arrived the support were just taking to the stage, so I had enough time to do a quick recce of the venue – it was a bit weird. a fairly large sized dancefloor/standing area, with fenced off seating areas on three sides. It was clear that when the main act were on I was going to be stuck in a position, so I had to make a call fairly early on and opted to get down the front, instead of loitering in the wings.

The show was far more impressive than I’d anticipated – the a capella songs had the crowd silently mesmerised, whilst the acoustic songs featured an ever changing array of instruments – drums, bass, cello, mandolin, guitar, piano, and more. I honestly think, if you took a lot of bands out of their comfort zones and stripped everything back in a similar way, they’ve struggle. The Futureheads, on the other hand, flourished.

To shoot it was a bit of a mare – I had to really shoot it from front of the crowd to get anything half decent from the lights, but then I had to avoid mic stands ruining every shot. Also, considering the tiny nature of the venue, it was difficult to get everything in the frame – even with my widest lens. Still, it was a great night and managed to get a few ok shots. Why aye!

Been working with the WLP* boys for a few years now. Things seem to finally be falling into place for these boys, with their latest single being featured on a series of high profile TV shows on both sides of the Atlantic. I’ve done quite a few promo shoots with them but I’d not seen that much of them live, so I was chomping at the bit when this gig was announced.

I arranged to go down fairly early to get some shots of the guys setting up and soundchecking, which was pretty cool. It was good to catch up with the boys to find out how things were progressing with the album. WLP have reinvented themselves a couple of times over the last few years, originally starting out as a british indie-rock band and progressing to a more heavy, punk influenced outfit with additional guitars and experimental sounds. Now the guys have settled back to a four piece and targeting a more melodic, natural sound.

The gig itself was blinding – to say it was their first big local gig in what seems like years, they pulled it off with as much confidence as ever. The set seemed to fly by really quickly, and there ever-faithful fanbase were really getting into it – especially some of the older numbers.

Keep an eye out for their next single ‘Want You To Know’ in the coming months, and fingers crossed I’ll be working with these guys some more in the future…

Here’s the best of what I got: