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Saturday 23 July 2011

Tramlines Friday–the photos!

So as I mentioned in my last blog post, photographing Tramlines yesterday was a great experience.  The music, the atmosphere and the other really friendly and rather lovely photographers made for a fab time.  And the best news?  I’m doing it all over again today and tomorrow – can’t wait!

Thanks to knowing the right person I’d managed to blag a press pass to the event which allows me to queue jump, force my way to the front if I want and, if the venue has one, get into the press pit right at the front of the stage.  The Unannounced Stage at Barker’s Pool last night had a press pit and it was lovely to be so close to the bands – I had the perfect view.  Unfortunately we were only allowed to take photos for the 1st two songs of each band which was a shame so I had to be quick off the mark for each one.

Anyway, enough of me gushing about how lucky I am.  I think you’ll probably want to see some photos what I took….

First up were the rather fantastic Steve Edwards and the Big Strong Love at the Unannounced Stage at Barker’s Pool.  It was a shame that they opened at 7PM when there weren’t that many people there because they were fab and deserved a much bigger audience.  Steve himself is a fantastic showman and in my eyes was easily the coolest man at Tramlines…

Steve Edwards and the Big Strong Love (1 of 11).jpgSteve Edwards and the Big Strong Love (2 of 11).jpgSteve Edwards and the Big Strong Love (3 of 11).jpgSteve Edwards and the Big Strong Love (4 of 11).jpgSteve Edwards and the Big Strong Love (5 of 11).jpgSteve Edwards and the Big Strong Love (6 of 11).jpgSteve Edwards and the Big Strong Love (7 of 11).jpgSteve Edwards and the Big Strong Love (8 of 11).jpgSteve Edwards and the Big Strong Love (9 of 11).jpgSteve Edwards and the Big Strong Love (10 of 11).jpgSteve Edwards and the Big Strong Love (11 of 11).jpg

Next up on the Unannounced Stage were The Kate Jackson Band.  Ms Jackson was the ex-lead singer of the Long Blondes, was stunning and also had a great stage presence but I wasn’t as impressed with the music as the first band.  Still great to photograph her and her band though!

The Kate Jackson Group (1 of 11).jpgThe Kate Jackson Group (2 of 11).jpgThe Kate Jackson Group (3 of 11).jpgThe Kate Jackson Group (4 of 11).jpgThe Kate Jackson Group (5 of 11).jpgThe Kate Jackson Group (6 of 11).jpgThe Kate Jackson Group (7 of 11).jpgThe Kate Jackson Group (8 of 11).jpgThe Kate Jackson Group (9 of 11).jpgThe Kate Jackson Group (10 of 11).jpgThe Kate Jackson Group (11 of 11).jpg

The Headliners for this stage were a complete blast from the past, 80s synthpop legends – and stars of that Plus Net advertHeaven 17!  The crowd in Barker’s Pool was probably about 4000 strong by the time they played and unfortunately, it also started to rain.  Heaven 17 were OK I thought although I wasn’t able to stay for their whole set as I needed to be elsewhere, so I missed Temptation.  I was in two minds whether to stay for Temptation or not but when they started padding out their set with cover versions of Terrance Trent D’Arby songs (!) I decided getting a good spot at my next gig would be a much better bet!

Heaven 17 (1 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (2 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (3 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (4 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (5 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (6 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (7 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (8 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (9 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (10 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (11 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (12 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (13 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (14 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (15 of 16).jpgHeaven 17 (16 of 16).jpg

The reason why I left Heaven 17 so early was because I wanted to see (and cover) The Crookes, the latest indie darlings.  And I am so pleased that I did.  The gig was amazing!  They played in a *tiny* top room of The Shakespeare pub and it was rammed.  I haven’t been in such a hot and sweaty venue for years – sweat was dripping off every surface, including me and my camera gear!  It almost seemed like all 4000 people who were watching Heaven 17 were crammed into the room.  As there was no press pit I was pressed right up to the stage which made getting wide shots of the band almost impossible as the stage was so small.  I was also stood right next to the speaker so my ears are ringing this morning!

The Crookes themselves were great, a really tight unit with some great, catchy indie-pop songs.  They reminded me of The Smiths crossed with The Housemartins and I enjoyed them immensely.  I felt very old though, they looked about 12 to me (as did most of the audience!).

The lighting was pretty terrible so I decided to do some Cummins-esque moody black and white shots.

The Crookes (12 of 12).jpgThe Crookes (11 of 12).jpgThe Crookes (10 of 12).jpgThe Crookes (9 of 12).jpgThe Crookes (8 of 12).jpgThe Crookes (7 of 12).jpgThe Crookes (6 of 12).jpgThe Crookes (5 of 12).jpg

The Crookes (4 of 12).jpgThe Crookes (3 of 12).jpgThe Crookes (2 of 12).jpgThe Crookes (1 of 12).jpg

So that’s it for Friday, stay tuned for my shots from Saturday!

2 comments:

  1. You really have an eye for this Simon, there are some great photos here

    Chris

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Chris, glad you liked them!

    ReplyDelete