Brooklyn Beckham in the Pit …….

Whilst enjoying my coffee at my favourite café this morning I read an article (Daily Mail by the way) that was saying that Brooklyn Beckham is going to be shooting artists/bands from the pit area at V Festival next month. Fine, not a problem. But will he have to abide by all the same rules that the rest of us have to abide by? contracts?, first 3 songs?, no flash?, will he be able to sell them after? does he work for an agency?, will he be in the ‘scrum’ with the rest of us or will he have a minder or special access?

He is probably a really good photographer, has the best equipment that mum and dad can buy but so are many others out there who do not have the contacts that his family obviously does. But I would like to see him ‘go through the mill’ may be even use a different name to see if his photographs would sell over anybody else’s images, not just oh they are Beckham’s images we must buy/use them !!!!! If of course that is what happens, does it? I am guessing of course as I am not in that lofty world but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were the case. Level playing field and all that.

By the way if it were me and I could help my children out then I would do exactly the same as David and Victoria

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Lionel Ritchie Rocks All Night Long in Gloucester.

Sunday evening found me at Gloucester Rugby Club and the Lionel Ritchie concert. It was and he was absolutely awesome. The guy is so professional, so polished, I could not fault his performance one little bit. And even if he had made a mistake it would have been forgotten. Within seconds of him being on stage the audience were up out of their seats dancing. And of course I love Lionel Ritchie’s music ever since I first heard him in the Commodores back in the 70’s. Like I say an awesome performance.

Was there any down side. Well yes. Firstly the rain, it poured it down. So on some of the images it is not dust on the lens it is raining so hard it is captured on the image. Even that wasn’t so bad. The real downer was that all the photographers were walked off the premises once we had shot the first three songs. I would have loved to have stayed for all of the concert but the management would not let us. Why? Well at a previous L.R. concert (Cannock Chase I think) the photographers were allowed to stay. Unfortunately one idiot (and there is always one) went into the audience and continued to shoot. I wont go into what happened to him as it is not clear but the result was that management now walks photographers out the pit and out the venue. I can understand why and would do the same. It s just disappointing when you get idiot photographers who do not know how to behave ruin it for the rest of us.

That apart it was AWESOME

Wychwood Music Festival 2016

Just a very small selection from the 1000’s of images I took at this years Wychwood Music Festival in Cheltenham over the weekend.
It was a roaring success as it is every year and I really enjoyed myself. Lots of images uploaded to my agency, lots of fun and lots of interesting people.

I was also chuffed to bits as I got to meet Craig Charles and he signed one of my images of him from a previous year at Wychwood and he genuinely liked it. I also got Pauline Black from The Selector to sign a print I made of her from a previous gig.

Wychwood is a really good family friendly festival. It isn’t so big it is a problem but big enough to attract decent named acts and huge crowds, all of which were and are very well behaved.

All in all for me a very good weekend.

Jane McDonald at Oxford New Theatre That’s Entertainment

Tuesday afternoon I met Jane McDonald as part of the press photo shoot at The Oxford New Theatre where she is starring in That’s Entertainment.

She was lovely. She was so friendly and did everything we asked her to do. She is just like she is on the telly Loose Women etc.
I never got to see the show but I would advise anybody to go and see her, very engaging.

A very pleasant photo shoot.

Years and Years play to a full house at Swindon Oasis

Years and Years gave a very polished and entertaining performance to a sold out concert at The Swindon Oasis last night. Good music and good to photograph. I messed up by miss counting the first three songs and security had to ask me to leave the pit but to be honest sometimes you are so busy focused on what you are doing you don’t always notice how many songs have been played. My apologies to anybody that I affected.

Good evenings entertainment and I can understand why they are winning lots and lots of awards.

Karen Marie Orsted at Swindon Oasis

Danish Electro Pop singer and performer Karen Marie Orsted performed a stunning set as the support act for Years and Years at the Swindon Oasis venue. She was very very good and interacted with the audience really well and she was (or appeared to be) quite happy me being up close to take images.

I would definitely go and see her again.

Music Update

Today I spent a couple of hours updating my website with some Music Images from Bristol Concerts last summer. These are some of my favourites from the three days. It is really difficult to decide which are the best and which are the ones I like the most as I always take quite a few when I go to a concert.

I really enjoy music photography and working to get to many more major concerts again this year.

I hope you enjoy looking at my images.

Pete

Will Young at the Swindon Oasis 2015

Just catching up on my posts from late last year. It wasn’t that I was really busy I think it was more about I lost confidence. Not in my photographic ability, in fact I seem to be getting more and more praise for my work. I am loosing confidence in getting my images out there and more well known to a wider audience.

Photography is such a tough business. Very easy to get it wrong. Very hard to get it right. I do it because I love doing it and don’t do it for the praise or the money, but it is nice now and again when lady luck comes your way and something good happens. It isn’t all about hard work, sweat and tears.

Like all good artists, people will notice more of my work when I am dead than when I am alive !!!!!

Anyway, it is a new year, new things planned for this year so let us see what happens……

These images are from the Will Young and Lemar concert at the Oasis here in Swindon. I have met and photographed Lemar before in London and he is a really nice chap and I really like his music. Now Will Young was just great. I like his music anyway but I really really enjoyed his concert and I ended up staying for most of it which is unusual for me as I like to avoid the rush at the end plus I like to get the images processed and delivered quickly.

So for me a really enjoyable Will Young concert.

Michael Monroe Rocks The Swindon Oasis

Friday evening saw me at The Oasis in Swindon photographing Alice Cooper and the support act Michael Monroe. And I have to say I enjoyed Michael Monroe his music and his performance as much as Alice Cooper. I thought he was just as good. As you can imagine he was just as photogenic as Alice Cooper so all in all I really enjoyed the evening and really enjoyed Michael Monroe and his band.

UB40 play to a packed out audience at The Oasis Swindon

Friday evening I spent a very pleasant evening photographing UB40 at the Oasis in Swindon. There was a packed house and of course the audience sang along to all of the songs they played. They were well worth going to see and photograph and I really enjoyed it and listening to comments by others I think everybody else did as well.