This week I finally sent off two films from my fisheye to be developed. I got them back today and was quite pleased with some of the results! They are from various nights out, Scotland, Reading Festival and Offset.
You can see the rest at the flickr set.
This week I received what I would describe as my personal holy grail of photopasses; Placebo at Brixton Academy. To say I was excited for this would be an understatement.
The first night I was just attending as a normal fan with my fellow Placebo enthusiast, Nikki, and my brother, so we got quite drunk and enjoyed ourselves. We made friends with randomers and danced around and probably annoyed the hell out of everyone around us, but it was great fun. I’m glad I still had the second night to go to as I didn’t remember it much!
The setlist was pretty standard, but they played All Apologies, Post Blue and new Teenage Angst so that was awesome. Not sure on starting with Nancy Boy, but it’s all good really. There were balloons with ‘Death and Fear’ printed on them, fuck tons of confetti, clowns firing tshirts from guns and all sorts of weird stuff. It was all filmed for a dvd and I can’t wait to see it! It’s been too long since the last one.
I was so nervous in the photopit, but I managed to get some good shots and not freak out too much. Security were ace and didn’t make us stow our cameras away, so I didn’t have to waste time inbetween acts.
You can read my official review and see the rest of the photos on my gig blog.
I had a friend from France staying with me over the weekend for the Muse gigs at Wembley Stadium. I indulged in some shopping at Tatty Devine and Forbidden Planet, and we had fun at Hamleys before actually making our way to Wembley.
The first gig was pretty run of the mill and in my opinion had the worst of the support acts (White Rabbits, The Big Pink, Lily Allen). We got good seats on left side of the stage because we are lazy, and although the visuals and theatrics were nice, I had seen it all before in Paris. The setlist was predictable and I did not enjoy the inclusion of Neutron Star Collision and I Belong To You, so needless to say I came home feeling rather blah about it all.
The next day however, totally blew it out of the water. We attempted to queue for a bit, but when we got inside we decided to sit down anyway. This time on the right of the stage so we got a different view. The support acts were miles better (I Am Arrows, White Lies and Biffy Clyro) with Biffy getting such a good reception you could have believed it was their own gig. Muse seemed a lot happier and even said something along the lines of “We know you are the real fans tonight”, but it was the setlist that made it amazing. Oh the setlist <3. Not only did they play MK Ultra and Bliss, but they rolled out Map of the Problematique, Citizen Erased and Ruled by Secrecy! A whole bunch of rarely played fan favourites. It really made the night so much better, and sort of restored my faith in them.
To end, here are some photos of the treats I bought myself on Friday!
Lego minifigures series 2, Design-A-Qee Gimpy, Bearbrick series 19 Jellybean
Dunny 2010 Esther Kim, Boom, Huck Gee
Tatty Devine Fallen Leaves Charm Bracelet
I was originally going to go to Offset Festival, as a few of my favourite bands were playing (like Kap Bambino and Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster) but I decided against it in the end due to money and having been to two festivals the month previously.
So imagine my joy when I got an email from GigJunkie asking if I wanted to photograph and review it! I said yes straight away, and on the Saturday morning I got a bus with a friend to Hainault Forest Country Park.
Offset is a wonderful small festival, with a main stage set in the middle and a number of smaller tent stages around in a circle. The bands are mostly up and coming acts, with a few bigger name headliners, and there are other activities going on including a vintage market and sports day races.
We had a great time drinking cider in the sunshine, wandering from stage to stage, dancing in the Trailer Trash tent and watching a drunken space hopper race!
I saw far too many bands to go through them all, but favourites were:
Athens Polytechnic – Not so great punk music, but a very enigmatic frontman who ran around in the audience and had his own dance routines.
Kap Bambino – 35 minutes of non-stop bouncing on the barrier, with Caroline pulling grotesque faces and sitting on photographers shoulders.
Art Brut – Singing along to songs I felt I had known forever.
Monotonix – They play in the audience, and after each song they pick the drumkit up and move forwards a bit. So chaotic and brilliant.
Atari Teenage Riot – Eighties Matchbox were a bit of a disappointment, but ATR made up for it with their infectious digital hardcore and political screechings.
See the rest of my photos at Flickr
I say this every year, but I’ll say it again. This year was the best Reading Festival ever! There was a wonderful combination of great company, great bands and great weather. It only actually really rained on the Thursday when we arrived so the campsite was muddy, but the arena was nice and dry. I already have my ticket for next year! It’s been too long now to do a mini review on every band I saw (34 this year), but I will list my favourites instead.