15 March 2010

“What have you done to feel proud today?” I have to confess that the song ‘Proud’ was a bit patronising, but know what? I feel proud today. It’s the first anniversary of the Calon FM Shakenstir Sessions radio show, and I reckon last we topped a special year with the best show of all. We’ve always tended to be rule maker than follower, and last night culminated in a show that broke all the BBC rules. And I reckon it sounded great and really summed up what we are all about at Shakenstir.

We played brand new albums from brand new bands and soloists (almost a couple of tracks from each act - they probably wouldn’t get one on UK mainstream radio stations). We played four songs from Beth Nielsen Chapman, including a live song recorded in St Pauls Cathedral with the London Oriana Choir which almost moved me tears (and my producer JJ); it was so beautiful. We played great jazz, pop, folk, blues, metal, indie, alternative and country. We played a major proportion of the Rounder 40th Anniversay Live Concert, without breaks. And when I was finished my playlist at midnight, JJ scored a slam dunk by playing the whole of DARK SIDE OF THE MOON to celebrate the band’s recent victory legal victory over EMI. Then in the final fourth hour JJ came back with some contemporary classics by the Beatles and others. It was four hours of the best music known to man; it was music played with passion and love; succinctly presented and produced to perfection. I’m so thankful to the musicians, record and PR companies who help us do what we do best, and today I am the proudest man on earth.

14 March 2010

Now life wasn’t meant to be easy for the most of us. I’m well aware of it as a music photojournalist; one learns to take the rough with the smooth to get the story or picture. But last night I was faced with a particlularly rare scenario, and a most difficult one. I was covering the Tiesto show at LIverpool’s Echo Arena and was told that Mr T would be on stage at 11pm. Fine, no problemo, I’d taken my sleeping bag and my little Fiesta was wrapped up nice and warm in an expensive car park across the road. The support act come on at 10pm and are still playing at 11pm, beat-ing me to death. Then an official guy, sporting earphones and regulation walky-talky, tells us that Mr T is on stage at midnight and we cannot enter the photo pit for 30 minutes, at which point we will be directed in… Hell! Okay, I can live with that.

Then at 11.45 a printed notice is handed out with a small and unexpected para: Point 3) No hanging out in the pit - 3 mins max. Bloody hell! I’ve been hanging around since 9pm to enter a pit at 12.30am, and only have 3 minutes! The standard permitted stay in a photo pit is 3 songs, give or take 15 minutes. Resigned, (and comforted by the thought, ’well, there’s actually quite a lot you can do in 3 minutes…’) we wait to be ushered in by the friendly security man and sure enough, on the dot, we’re in. And precisely when the friggin’ lights dim, and Mr T goes walkabout, making it virtually impossible to take pictures. And guess what, at the 3-minute point, as we are politely ushered out, ‘let there be light.’  I was going to stay till 4am to cover the whole show, but given the calculated and unfair way we had been treated I went for a leak and home. Now I don’t know what Mr T’s problem is, perhaps he’s annoyed that few likes his new album - the main theme of the tour (KALEIDOSCOPE WORLD TOUR). But I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and provide fair coverage of a show that I thought would at least have a couple of the album guest performers appearing. Then I wondered why 8,000 punters would want to attend a show of a guy playing his own record, albeit with a few fancy lights, poor videos of the guest performers, and punctuated by multi-puffs of smoke. Mr T says that he is there for the people, shame then they can’t go to our site and download free, fine quality images of himself, like they can with every act we cover. Needless to say there is no review… but the gallery pics are sort of okay, all things considered.