2011 came and went in a blur...
Its
almost New Years eve and I've been a little neglectful of my blog.
November came and went, and before I had chance to reflect, December was
upon us.
Towards
the end of October the Night & Day Cafe asked me along to
photograph The Selecter for their website. I remembered watching Pauline
Black in my youth and never ever thought for a moment that she would
venture in front of my lens.
November
1st and I was off to Sound Control with my partner in crime Jill
Coleman (Jillcolemanphotography.co.uk) to photograph and review
my favourite band of 2011, The Chapman Family. The set was energetic and
Kingsley fell in love with the 'Transporter Bridge' blue pillar that
held up the ceiling. Kingsley rocks!
November
2nd... was an official night out. No camera. No pen. My OH and I went
off to the MEN Arena to watch the Arctic Monkeys. A fabulous performance
and I love Alex Turners new teddy boy rock look :)
November
3rd... and a trip with my OH and BF to see Author Anthony Horowitz at
Manchester Town Hall. Anthony has been commissioned by the Arthur Conan
Doyle Trust and just written the new Sherlock Holmes Novel, he red an
except and signed books afterwards.
Jenni
Murray from BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour was also there, I bought her book
'Memoirs of a Not so Dutiful Daughter' (I'm glued to it) and she signed
it for me #icollectsignedbooks
November
4th... another Night out with No Camera. No Pen. This time to the Night
and Day Cafe to watch the Stone Roses and Oasis tribute bands - and I
have to say they were excellent.
November
17th... and I find myself at the Manchester Academy and I've got the
best seat in the house for The Vaccines gig.
An unusual shoot, when I
got there I found out it was the usual first three songs, but flash for
the first song???
It totally threw me. It was my Sigma 17-35mm wide angle lens' debut - so the challenge was on.
What
was even more challenging is that the Vaccines have notoriously short
songs, so we only had just under six minutes to shoot!
November
20th and its OH's anniversary prezzie (from me) to go and see The Fall.
Luckily I'd seen Mark E. Smith rehearse with the Gorillaz, so I knew
what to expect.
He was all over the place. he twiddle with knobs on the equipment and he generally mumbled his way through the set.
Tim Burgess
(The Charlatans) was there doing an interview with City Life
Manchester. And yes... I know who the 'excited stranger' is!
November
27th... Another night out with OH, my camera and my special pen. Little
Dragon were performing at the Ruby Lounge and it was a gig I'd been
looking forward to. I first heard of Little Dragon when she collaborated
with Damon Albarn and the 'Gorillaz' and after seeing the Gorillaz
rehearse last year and reviewed Damon Albarn's Opera (Dr Dee), it was a
great to see Yukimi Nagano performing on stage, let alone have
the privilege to photograph her.
December
8th and OH and I are off into town for TWO shoots tonight. The first is
Tim Burgess from The Charlatans at Fopp, where there was a Tim Peaks
Diner listening party (those on Twitter are in the know here ) to raise
money for Treckstock (Teenage Cancer Charity).
It was fabulous, There
were official Tim Peaks diner mugs and T's on sale and huge cupcakes!
Tim was signing cartoon strips and he signed my camera bagtoo - cool :)
then we raced across town to see another of my teenage favourite stars
'Gary Numan'.
I
finally got to meet photographers Ben Bentley and the amazing Ed
Fielding (Official Photographer for Gary Numan).
Unfortunately, I didn't get chance to speak to Ed, the stage guys had
overdone the dry ice a bit and I lost him in the fog the
ensued, although I did get to see his photos online the next day.
December
9th and it's the Apollo to photograph and review the Courteeners and
what can I say?
...That crowd was the craziest I've seen so far. And I got
covered in some form of liquid.
Luckily it was cold, so I assume it was
lager?
But what a spectacular performance and a band I'll be going to
see again!
