Hip Hop at its best! The Science of Speech Tour

Manchester has seen a lot of great hip hop gigs recently, and many of my favourite MCs have rolled through our city. The crowning glory to this occured on Wednesday May 11th when the 'Science of Speech Tour' came to the Academy.

Originally billed as Black Star, De La Soul and Rakim- when I first read about this gig I couldn't believe it- unfortunately, on the night we discovered the De La Soul had been dropped from the bill. I was a bit gutted, but then I still got to see Rakim, Talib Kweli and Mos Def, so to complain would be a bit rich!

Local collective Murkage kicked things off, raising the energy levels from 0 to Party in a full on set. Although they have just started out I see a lot of promise in these guys- watch this space!

Rakim was next up, and, as expected, did not fail to deliver! Dropping classic hits, new material, a story about his boat trip to the UK and a huge crowd participation bit which overran his set (but no-one cared).

Finally, after what seemed like forever- the icing on the cake. I have seen both Mos Def & Talib Kweli separately but together they become an unstoppable force and a massive crowd pleaser. The way they bounce off each other is perfect and hearing all those collab tracks live was something special. We're even treated so a couple of solo efforts from both guys.

 This gig should have been attended by anyone with an interest in hip hop- a clear demonstration of what this genre is all about. The only downer was that it pointed out how much American hip hop has lost its way recently. I'm still praying for a return to form, but for now I'll stick with my old Mos, Kweli, The Roots & Common albums.

Check out more pictures & full review soon at Example Magazine

Super Saturday- Warpaint & Drum Clinic

Saturday 14th May was the climax of Manchester's FutureEverything festival, the final day, and also the day of the Festivals best gigs. Warpaint are a girl band (in the loosest use of the term) from L.A. who play ethereal, ambient indie rock. Highly recommended- just don't expect to be rocking out too hard to them!

After watching Warpaint bring the house down at the last live gig the Ritz will see all summer. I made my way over to Jabez Clegg for Drum Clinic & Selective Hearing, who had joined forces to put on a fantastic showcase of electronic music, featuring Martyn, Daedalus, Kyle Hall. To top this all off, room 2 featured a Planet Mu showcase featuring DJ Spinn & DJ Rashad.

 It was an awesome night played out to a packed Jabez and a fitting finish to the festival. Drum Clinic has been putting on some of the most forward thinking nights & line-ups this year and I'm hoping they get continued support because they really deserve it!

 

For more shots and a full review on FutureEverything festival, keep an eye on Example Magazine.

Unlucky for some? Das Racist & Just Skank w/ DMZ - 13/5/11

I'm not really one for superstition, in fact, I completely forgot about the unlucky connotations of the day the 13th May fell on, an it took until the following week for me to think back and decide that, I had an awesome Friday 13th!

I got to watch Das Racist at the Roadhouse- an American hip-hop collective who, through one Youtube video viral, have carved themselves a niche in the comedy-hip-hop market, which isn't easy to do well! They also had the inspired idea of playing their first UK gig in Manchester, so I could take pictures- nice one!

After the gig I rolled over to Moho's for another Just Skank epic. This time it was their 1st Birthday Bash and they pulled out all the stops- booking Mala & Coki, b2b for what seemed like forever.

With SGT Pokes rocking the mic, the DMZ crew were in full force and absolutely smashed it! The night was finished off by some other guy named Pinch- he's alright too (please read into the intended sarcasm there if you don't know Pinch- incredible artist & DJ!). Nice work and if thats what all Friday 13ths are like, I'll continue not to worry.







Das Racist played as part of Future Everything Festival- my full review of that, along with more shots from both these gigs, will be online soon on Example Magazine

Me & Yu - Summer 2011 Shoot

Following on from my shoot for Me&Yu in February. We decided another collaboration was in order. This time we were shooting their Summer collection, and so we needed a suitable bright, outdoor location to suit the vibes of the collection. Luckily, theres a wonderful area of greenery near where I live called 'Fletcher Moss Gardens'. If you live in South Manchester and haven't been, go and catch a chill on the next free, sunny day.




So, with the location sorted we needed a team. Luckily for me, the makeup artist from our first shoot, Bev Crawford (http://www.facebook.com/beverleycrawfordmakeup) was free, willing and more than able. I can't recommend her enough to anyone after make up for photoshoots, weddings or special events. Not only is she extremely talented at her calling, she is also brilliant to get on with and full of enthusiasm and ideas on a shoot- which is the ideal type of person to have around.

Styling duties were taken up by the good friend of Me&Yu Roxanne, who turned up with a big bag of clothes for us to play with. Finally the two lucky models were Elora B (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elora-B-Model/192234484147136), who's vibrant hair matched the plum and purple tones of some of the new garments perfectly, and Andrew, who some of you may recognise from my previous Me & Yu shoot.

So, onto the shoot, which mainly entailed running around a dry storm drain, playing with dandelions and the odd can of cider- not a bad way to spend a sunny afternoon! I was happy with the resulting shots and gave them all a warm, vintagey colour treatment, which I felt reflected the clothes and the summer theme of the shoot perfectly.

...and now for something completely different (2)

So following on from my previous post about trying something different with gig/music photography I thought I'd share some of the shots from the recent massive freeparty put on just outside of Manchester. This was an epic night, where an alleged 5000 people turned up to dance through the night.

I had a camera on me but it wasn't mine. Bearing in mind the sometimes dodgy goings on at events like these, and the value of my usual equipment, I borrowed my mate's Nikon D40- the same camera I started out with- as it was much cheaper to replace if anything unfortunate were to happen.




 So with the fairly basic kit involved I decided to shoot the whole night in B&W. It lent itself better to the quality you can get from that camera in really low light. One I was going through the pics they were pretty grainy- this reminded me of bad CCTV stills. Combined with the attention the police ended up paying to the event, I decided to make up the pics as if they were taken from police surveillance. I stuck a time/date stamp in the corner and some branding in the others.

As a final touch I decided to 'anonymize' everybody in the pictures with the classic black-bars-over-the-eyes look. I was a bit unsure whether to do it & whether everyone would get it, but it went down pretty well in the end- and I think about half of the people that went are tagged in the big group shot now!

Cool Tee!

I'm really digging this new T-shirt from the great guys at Me & Yu. Neitzsche had some great quotes about music- this is very to-the-point, but my favourite is, "We hear music with our whole body, and we are within the music when we enjoy a great performance".

Either way- buy one of these- or something else from their store. Its all good stuff!

http://www.meandyu.com/

...and now for something completely different (1)

After shooting in clubs for about 2 1/2 years, its safe to say i have tried and taken, most of the styles of shots I can dream up. Theres only so many ways of shooting a person and 2 turntables (and about 1 way of shooting someone on a laptop, but don't get me started on them!). So I do try, when given an opportunity, to mix things up a bit with the processing/post production. At the very least somebody flicking through my albums may not get bored quite so soon...

With this in mind, I recently shot a Japanese fundraiser clubnight in Manchester- it was a very hastily arranged affair with some of the biggest DJs and Promoters banding together for the cause- and some 40 or 50 people wanting a go on the decks! I decided to shoot the night in black and white, but to also stick a large red circle over each picture, mimicking a japanese flag. I thought this would be a good idea to help raise more awareness and for anyone flicking through the pictures to have a constant reminder of the cause we were supporting.

The night raised the best part of £3000 for the Japanese Red Cross. A fantastic sum, and I have all the love in the world for those who came to support and help organise the event. x