Monday, July 13, 2009

Suzanne Vega & TV

Just back from Birmingham Town Hall where I was photographing Suzanne Vega and Eddy Morton for Brum Live. It was a charity concert for Casa Alianza and Suzanne was on fine form.
There should be a review on Brum Live in the next couple of days, with some more pictures of course.


One for the bass player collection!


It's been quite a day actually. I covered Shedman's poetry breakfast for the Ledbury Poetry Festival (below), then had a family shoot in the studio before dashing back into town to grab some more performer portraits on the Festival's last day.


While I was driving to Birmingham for the Suzanne Vega gig, the Benjamin Zephaniah interview aired on BBC West Midlands and featured... me! Well, not really featured but they filmed me photographing Benjamin after his interview and showed it on the tele. Will have to keep that one on the Sky+ box for posterity!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Poetry, Sheds & Three Bens

It's Ledbury Poetry Festival time again. I haven't managed to get to as much this year but we've had a slightly different take and gone for capturing some performer portraits around the town.
Below is Booker prize winning writer Ben Okri. He gave a brilliant performance to a packed audience in the Community Hall and then was very accommodating with his time in order for me to grab some shots up by the Heritage Centre.

Then today I was privileged to sit in on Benjamin Zephaniah's BBC interview (showing on BBC West Midlands News on Sunday 12th July) and take some portraits of him in the 16th century Painted Room next to the Festival offices.


I love this one. I can never resist a 'Please Don't Touch' sign!


Here's one from Benjamin's riveting performance this evening. Another packed audience and a show that you didn't want to end. I last saw Benjamin Zephaniah live in 1984 at Brockwell Park in Brixton at a CND rally. Makes me feel old when you think that's 25 years ago!


Just to keep the Ben theme going, here's Ben from John Masefield High School doing his beatbox thing at their show with the Anomalies and Shane Solanki today. I covered their workshops last month when they were getting ready for this so it's great to see the finished product. I'll also be catching up with them at the Big Chill so will post more from that.


Finally, it was cool to speak to Shedman John Davies again. He stayed with us last year and his shed has been even more popular this year. It was very welcome to take shelter in when it chucked it down today as well! I'll be going to his breakfast performance tomorrow (Sun) so I may post some more from that too.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Our Day Out

Friday saw another great performance from the John Masefield team. The Lower School performed Willy Russell's Our Day Out and there was some amazing acting on display. They're a very talented group.
Here's a few shots from the performance. The rest are up in the usual place on my main website.