She Wants Revenge return...

Good news!  There's new music on the way on 23 May from American rockers She Wants Revenge as they release their third full-length album Valleyheart.  The band look set to continue their creativity with this new album and are embracing their links to the SoCal skateboard scene with the first single's video for "Must Be The One". There's some interesting background on this over at the Valleyheart blog.

No doubt they'll be playing their new material when they hit the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival on April 17 and I would love to see them head back over to UK shores soon.  I'd love the chance to photograph these guys, they have a real atmosphere and mood to them that would be an intense experience to capture.

I love the way that the band are embracing the wider concept of "the album" too with Adam Bravin taking photos of San Fernando Valley landmarks that are important to him and the band. It's always fascinating to see photos that are important to people and to hear the reasons why they mean so much.   The band are also shooting short films for each of the songs on the album to visually represent the stories in the songs.

The full tracklisting is as follows:

1)      Take The World

2)      Kiss Me

3)      Up In Flames

4)      Must Be The One

5)      Not Just A Girl

6)      Reasons

7)      Little Stars

8)      Suck It Up

9)      Holiday Song

10)  Maybe She’s Right

Back to the front...

Every now and again I like to get back to basics and go shoot smaller bands in smaller venues.  It's always nice remembering where I started when it comes to photography and I feel that it's important to always remember where it all started.

So, I popped into The Crown in Birmingham on Thursday to see a friend's band.  Got a pleasant surprise from the support band Vault of Eagles with their mix of grungey dirty groovy rock.  Once they had actually sorted out the sound so that we could hear the singer I realised that I actually quite liked them with some of their slow songs really REALLY hitting the spot.  Check 'em out here at their Facebook page.  I just wish I could afford all the guitars the singer had!

Stranger In Death were up next with their mix of guitar heavy metal.  With a stage so small that the lead guitarist had to stand on the floor (gave him more room to pose though :) ) the band were limited in their visual performance but still played a set of Metallica/Crue inspired metal.  They put on quite a good show for only their 2nd ever show and they're playing LOADS of gigs in the next few months... check their Facebook page for more.

As for the photography side of things, it was refreshing to be able to walk around and shoot what I liked, where I liked and when I liked.  I actually found myself a little confused at times because it's been sooooo long since I was able to do this.  I also realised that I need more practice using flash when shooting live music, looks like I'll just have to go and see more bands to sort that skill out.  Got a few funny looks from people too, almost like they didn't know who I was... the audacity of some!

Shooting Snobs

Me and Snobs have a long history, a very VERY good one.  Snobs might now know it but I do :)

Snobs has been, and always will be, THE place to be in Birmingham on a Wednesday night.  Queues stretch round the block from opening time.  I remember standing in that queue when I was younger, now I'm older and get to stroll straight in.  Makes me feel like a big man :)

Shooting Snobs is tricky.  It's a small place and doesn't have a massive lighting rig with lasers and strobes and fog and all that stuff that is standard in most places.  It does, however, have an atmosphere that is unrivalled.  From my experience it has the friendliest atmosphere of anywhere in Birmingham.  People love each other when in Snobs, everyone hugs everyone and dances with everyone like it's some kind of paradise world where everything in the universe is hunky dorey!

Because of all the above, I absolutely love shooting there.  It's a real challenge but there is nothing more fun than shooting Snobs with a 50mm f/1.8 (damn, now I sound like a photo geek!).Maybe it's because that was one of my first nightclub photography experiences or maybe because the shots you can get with it really capture the mayhem of Snobs, whatever it is I know that I end up walking round Snobs with a stupid grin on my face every time I shoot there.

My latest set of photos are from a Friday night.  Snobs on a Friday is competing with the big boys of Propaganda at the O2 Academy and Supersonic Vague at Gatecrasher.  Saying that though, it still pulls in a crowd and is a guaranteed awesome night out.  I also had the pleasure of sitting back and letting a guest photographer, Sammy Cole, take some shots.  She did a mighty fine job!

Dear Snobs, do not change, I love you too much!

Get more Snobs at their official website, http://www.snobsnightclub.co.uk/

Birmingham's Bieber Fever!

I will not lie to you. I am not a fan of Justin Bieber.  That's not to say I didn't enjoy photographing his show in Birmingham at the NIA on Saturday 5th March 2011 though.

In fact, it was one of the most enjoyable shoots I've ever done.  Justin is arguably the biggest pop star and one of, if not the, biggest celebrity in the world right now. The fact that I got to go photograph him, stand at the foot of the stage and watch him do his thing was, honestly, quite awe-inspiring.  Then, when you turn around and see 13000 people losing it, and I mean losing it, that's pretty awesome.  The fans were CRAZY, screaming, jumping, crying... and that was when the 10 minute countdown clock started!  (Now I know what I look like at a Metallica concert!)

I only got to see the first 3 songs and it was everything I expected, other than the crowd who were louder than anything (in a very high-pitched kinda way :) )  Bit of dry ice fog effect, bit of dancing and then BOOOOOOM! The roof disappears as Justin emerges through the fog.

It was great fun to photograph, although the 10ft stage and 2ft deep pit meant I was shooting vertical at times, as the lights were gorgeous and made for some truly nice shots.  It was bizarre to realise how much people do love him and there's lil' ol' me, getting looked at, waved at and danced at, all a few feet away from me.  I imagine a lot of people would have given up anything for that experience.  I do feel very fortunate and humbled sometimes.

I also reckon I got some nice shots considering my favourite lens broke in half about 2 minutes before the show and I had to go with the back-up. Still, turned out alright though I reckon :)

Some people really hate Justin Bieber.  At least 50% of the comments on our Facebook page have been requesting we do very, very bad things to him. If you don't like him, just ignore him and listen to different music. He's a 17 year old with almost everything people dream of having, I'm sure there's no jealousy... yeah right!

Some people are comparing Justin Bieber to The Beatles with Bieber Fever being the new Beatle Mania.  Not being around in the 60s I can't really comment but I can say this: the passion and hysteria from the crowd was like nothing I have ever seen.  Justin said barely a few words to the audience and they were in tears.  I don't know how long Bieber Fever will last for, I personally don't think he'll still be headlining stadiums like Sir Paul McCartney does in 50 years time.  But for the time being he is the biggest star on the planet and he has power and influence that is hard to fathom for us mere mortals.  Forget politicians, football players, company leaders and in some cases even parents.  Justin Bieber is in charge, you better listen up...

As always, you can get ALL our photos at ConcertsCaptured.co.uk, you can follow us on Twitter @concertscaught and find us at Facebook.com/ConcertsCaptured

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Is Nikki Sixx after my job?!

I was never one for looking at photo books until I got gifted one at Christmas.  Now I'm addicted to them! I had forgotten how much fun it was to look at photos AND physically hold them at the same time.


I've always been a rock n' roller at heart.  I've always been a photographer at heart, too, so it was a pleasure to hear that other people like the same thing, let alone that other person being Nikki Sixx.  Now, I don't know if he is actually after my job or not (I wonder if he'd like to come and shoot for us?!) but I am intrigued to see his work.


In his upcoming book, "This Is Gonna Hurt" we will get to see his take, in photographs, prose and music, on what he does for a living.  I've always been a big fan of "behind-the-scenes" shooting of rock bands, e.g. the work of Ross Halfin shooting Metallica, so it'll be great to get a perspective from someone actually in the band rather than just around the band.


Us photographers are an interesting bunch and we all see things in different ways.  It would seem that Nikki is no different, saying “I’ve always had an eye for the oddities in life. Even as a kid I saw the world in my own way and thought most things that were different were beautiful and magical. Even things that other people thought were horrifying and disgusting and weird. . . . People say I have a distorted lens. I think I see things as they really are,”.  He continues, “I felt the need to bring my visions to life.  This project is raw, it’s what I see and feel through writing, through photos, through video and through music.”


I'm always up for a bit of new music but have never really put music to slideshows or tried to capture a photographic moment with a musical score.  Nikki, on the other hand, has created a soundtrack for this project with SIXX: A.M., which consists of Sixx, Dj Ashba and James Michael.  I can't wait to hear this and try something new.  If it works, I may have to borrow the idea (although I don't think I could assemble such a cast of musicians so I may just give it a miss!)


There's gonna be singles, videos and all the usual crazyness surrounding this so go get some sneak previews now at SixxSense.com


Plus, this little teaser reminds me of Alton Towers adverts, which is a good thing :)

What?! You need Facebook and Twitter links as well?!

Nothing like those hometown Streets

In all fairness, I was never a massive fan of The Streets.  I probably won't listen to them by choice either.  However, their show at the O2 Academy on Friday 25th February was one of the most electric performances I have ever seen.

This was the first time I ever believed a singer who said "you guys are the best crowd on the tour, no-one will ever beat this"!  We hear that at every gig from every band in every city.  Tonight, I actually believed it.  I have never seen or heard a crowd like it.

Mike Skinner was on top form and openly admitted that this'll be the last time he does the "old stuff".  Well, that "old stuff" went down better than anything I have seen in a LONG time.  The crowd were wild from start to finish.

My photographing started off with a pint of cider thrown in my general direction.  It's a good job Canon make cider-proof cameras!  1 and a half songs later a fight kicked off in the mosh-pit, another interesting event to photograph.  As the night wore on the crowd actually got more energetic and even louder, with choruses to the last few songs being belted out by thousands of crazy Brummies loving their hometown heroes.

I was a bit annoyed at the people who didn't know how to mosh.  I guess if you don't go to rock and metal gigs you don't know mosh-pit etiquette (keep the punches low, look-out for your fellow mosher and help people up when they go down).  A few people obviously got confused and started fights instead.  One of the funniest concert moments I have ever seen occurred when Mike stopped the second song and offered to fight the guy who, moments earlier, had decided to start his own fight.  I will never forget the look on that guy's face when he realised that the whole Academy was watching him get called out... and then watched him humbly apologise and shrink off into the crowd, tail firmly between legs and without the friends he'd been trying to impress!

When the reunion tour hits, I'm there! (But not in the mosh-pit...)

As always, higher quality photos are over at ConcertsCaptured and on our Facebook page