Unashamedly Pop and I Love It!

I was down in London last week for the last gig of the year from unsigned pop outfit Bo Pepper.

Seemingly universally adored by the press and fans alike, Bo Pepper combine innocently catchy hooks with the kind of observant, barbed lyrics you would expect from the likes of The Beautiful South or more recently Kate Nash. This is a band that will be going places and are well worth catching as soon as you can.

Bo Pepper live at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen

photographers notes

Hoxton Bar and Kitchen isn't the easiest venue I've photographed in, on the plus side there is a distinct lack of LED lighting - they use traditional cans. However they are right above the performers so the lighting switches from brightly lit to deep shadow very quickly as the artists move backwards and forwards on the stage. Speaking of the stage, it's quite a high one - about 4 foot or so - which means if you're down the front you're shooting up at the performers, I got better results backing off a bit so I could shoot at a less severe angle.

ShredYrFace at Liverpool Academy 2, 15-10-2008

Jose Gonzalez was playing at Liverpool Academy tonight, but for me it wasn't going to be about intricate guitar playing, it was all about the shredding. Taking a round the world trip from the furious riffs pumped out by Times New Viking, a wander through the intense sounds of No Age to the dazzling fun filled Los Campesinos! everyone was pumped.

In The City 2008

Billed as "Three days of your new favourite bands, you just don't know it yet", In The City takes over Manchester city centre with the music's brightest and best debating the future of the industry during the day and fans and industry taking to the streets by night to check out the bands. The standard of the bands playing was higher than ever and I've come away with a list of bands I want to see again as long as my arm!

Ladyhawk at Roadhouse 28-09-2008

While most of the country was having a quiet Sunday night in, a small basement club in Manchester was rocking out with an transatlantic twist.

What custom modes would you like to see?

Over on the strobist.com group on Flickr a discussion has fired up about the new Nikon S550 and its features which include "smile mode". Naturally enough, the discussion soon turned to "alternative modes" that the photographers of strobist would like to see...
«December»
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
30123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031123
45678910