Glass Animals in Q Magazine

A shoot for Q is always good news and a quirky location makes the experience all the more interesting. My session with Oxford indie rock band Glass Animals was spent exploring the back rooms of Manchester’s Albert Hall which offered plenty of scope in terms of backdrops, perspectives and textures. First in the corner lead Dave […]

Hello Operator, Hello Olly.

Q magazine introduced me to Hello Operator and I photographed the York band at last year’s Leeds Festival. At the time, I mentioned my studio at Sunny Bank Mill and finally, they’ve been over to have a look. I’d done a test shoot the week before and really liked the effect so this was a […]

All American – no idiots..

Green Day at the First Direct Arena – always a sellout and always worthy of it…I could tell, even from the two songs we were allowed in for. It would have been useful to stick around for number three to get some variation in shots and clearly I would have loved to be there all […]

Courteeners and Slaves – 2 for Q

  Towards the end of last year two commissions from Q came through in quick succession. One was for the Courteeners who I’ve shot for the magazine before and we’d really got on well so I was looking forward to it. They were playing the First Direct Arena in Leeds which gave us a lovely […]

Home Town Sheffield

  A couple of weeks ago, I was photographing Courteeners (check my next blog!), and Sheffield-band Milburn were supporting. It’s always good to catch up with old friends and when I asked for a couple of pictures they obligingly gave me three minutes to get something in the can. Here’s the result, which the band tweeted […]

At Blueprint with Elbow

Q asked me to nip over to Manchester to photograph Elbow in the studio as they prepare to launch their seventh album. Blueprint is the band’s home in Salford and where the whole thing has come together although they did also have a couple of writing and recording sessions in Gargunnock Scotland. It was my first […]

Northern stars

I was in Manchester again this month photographing Elbow for Q magazine. Well spotted – this isn’t them…I can’t share those pictures yet sadly but fortunately I do have this bonus shoot to share. I’ve been over the Pennines a lot over the last year or so and a bonus of being on the periphery […]

A Brilliant Day All Round, OnRoundhay

Huge glittery letters greeted me as I wandered into Roundhay Park this weekend for the first ever northern ‘On’ festival. It’s been ten years since the park hosted a live music event, and so it was with much anticipation that I came along to see if the Leeds leg could prove as much of a success as its London counterpart, OnBlackheath. OnRoundhay […]

Leeds Festival 2016

Festival season is all but done now, and what a way to end it with another visit to one of my favourite’s, Leeds Festival. This year, I spent my time between the Main Stage and the Jack Rock Stage next-door, which was showcasing up and coming bands. First up, The Virgin Marys and The Vaccines. […]

September issues of Q and Drummer magazine

This month’s shoot with the Stone Roses was a Q commission. Live performance at the Etihad stadium in Manchester but no back-stage requirements. Still I did make the front cover…that’s right small image top right but still, it’s on the cover!!… …and then six pages of images inside..plus one on the contents page..not that I’m […]