Wishing all my clients, past and present a Happy Christmas, have enjoyed every moment!

Amanda is from Manchester way, and popped over to Leeds to be shot by Simon at Studio 86. Amanda hopes to be touring the states soon with her brand of contemporary country.

Another shameless plug for my work. Get in touch on 07710 055318

Simon provided a fantastic photoshoot for my promo purposes… he used fantastic location and the shoot went very well. But best of all – I was completely OVER THE MOON at the photos that arrived just 4 days later. Absolute genius.. I certainly recommend and will use again.thanks Simon xx

Sahara C

Get in touch with Simon for a photo shoot. An album,track or EP needs an image to immediately get the attention it deserves. It’s the face to your music and instantly creates a brand to identify you to your audience hinting at the music below.

Get in touch and I can not only do you and/or your band amazingly eye catching images but provide a bit of consultancy pre the shoot.

Another shoot up and coming with this bunch of lads. Great guys!

Outside Asylum is a 4 piece hard rock band from Leeds. Fuelled by life threatening doses of Captain Morgan and the soundtrack of Snakepit, Sixx AM and Buckcherry, the band and their inimitable brand of sleaze pop launched onto the scene in April 2011 and can now be seen gigging around the UK with Britains finest unsigned hard rock acts.

The cover of the latest album for the Leeds band Coral Caves fronted by Christos here in the pic. Took this one cold evening near Christmas on the precint outside Harvey Nichols, Leeds.

Been a while since i used this blog, been real busy moving my work to self-hosted blogs and designing wordpress sites for others.

But enough techy talk. Did a shoot for Simon Hirst (Hirsty) – great guy – he of Capital FM fame. Simon is the main breakfast DJ there so you will have most likely heard his voice. No idea what shot to pick for this post so here’s a little strip I made.

Oh, what the heck, here’s another shot.

Fusing the most powerful genre’s of extreme metal, DREAMCATCHER form an earth-shattering amalgamation of melodic, progressive and symphonic metal unlike anything ever heard before.

Playing together since early 2008, this northern british metal band has kept and cultivated a dedicated and commited fan base, and this is reflected in both their awe-inspiring stage presence and the fan reaction to everything released by them. Melding face melting guitar, ably played by dual guitar masters Alexei Green and Ben Scott, with soaring, power house vocals from commanding frontman Lukas Jackson and balancing everything with awe-inspiring keyboards performed by one of the few female instrumentalists in metal; Adele Pease, and a stomach shaking rhythm section delivered flawlessly by Ross Lavery and bassist; Matt Hudson, this sextet of metal possess a sound which is completely unique.

Catch Dreamcatcher here

If I’m honest I would have thought that a band like Goldfrapp would have done a similar thing to other bands of this size and genre and just skipped Leeds, instead visiting Bristol, Birmingham, Milton Keynes,Sheffield and Manchester, so good on them. Leeds awaits the much needed arena so that the more succesful bands have no excuse but to visit this great city.

What was really surprising was that the O2 Academy was only half full when Goldfrapp, who I believe to be the most outstanding genre busting yet succesfull band in the land visted us.

Alison was really on form when she took to the stage with ‘Crystalline Green’ in a black metallic boa like outfit. her voice is truly outstanding, my wife who can be critical of voices (who isn’t these days with X-factor and all) was really impressed. Everyone in the band performed as if they were making a live CD, and it turns out this is what they did in Bristol and its available now in the Goldfrapp store.
Not all the favourites are there, the singles, ‘Happiness’ and ‘Rocket’ were fairly conspicuous by their absence but maybe this was something to do with the band not wanting too many singles on the live recording.

The crowd didn’t really get going till they played ‘Number 1’ – not really one of my faves, and of course ‘Ooh La La’ was there and about 6 tracks from ‘Head First’, their latest album which while a bit different from Seventh Tree (their best album), still see’s them stamp their mark and their songwriting has gone to a new level, especially with Alive and Head First. Only a pity they didn’t play ‘A&E’ and ‘Pilots’ but otherwise it was a blast of fresh air.

So thank you Goldfrapp for visiting Leeds for one night, even though you may have got a better audience in Bristol or Manchester, I for one had a fantastic night, as did everyone else, astute enough to come and see you.

Album number 5 - Head First

Got the pleasure of photographing Mark Pierce the other day, most of the time we seemed to be in a fit of giggles at the uncanny pieces of music blurting from my iPod playlist which seemed to either set the mood just right or highlight ironically some of the stuff we had been talking about earlier.

If you are a fan of James Blunt, James Morrison, or indeed any male solo artist with the name James then you are really missing something if you don’t have a listen to Mark’s latest tracks.
Pop on over here.