2006 - Looking back on a busy year.

Indeed, it's been a busy year. So as the sun begins to set on 2006, I thought I'd have a look back over what I've done this past year, before starting afresh in 2007.

I began the year by setting some goals for myself - goals I didn't think I had a cat-in-hell's chance of achieving, but I managed a fair few of them.

Special highlights from this year include:

Festivals
One of my main goals this year was to get off my fat arse and shoot a festival, not some gathering of bands in the local boozer, but a proper festival with more than one stage and some kind of open-air element to it and tents... lots of them.

Monsters of Rock, which was held at The National Bowl in Milton Keynes gave me my first taste of this kind of event. Now although it was a privilege to shoot Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Queensrÿche and a bunch of other aging rock stars, it didn't quite cut the mustard for me. I needed a proper festival with tents and more than one stage dammit!

My first 'proper' festival came later in the summer. Leicester's Summer Sundae was a real treat. A decent line-up, coupled with a great atmosphere (and the fact I was buzzing all weekend with excitement). What made me especially happy, was the fact I didn't make a complete and utter balls of it!

One week later, whilst still recovering from the excitement of Summer Sundae, freak occurrences meant I ended up shooting the final day of V2006 in Stafford. The Line-up at V was a little suspect on the whole and not really my cup of tea at all (Girls Aloud were on the bill... need I say more), but it was all more than worth it for the chance to shoot Radiohead, who were headlining. Fantastic!

Another week passed, and another festival beckoned - at short notice. This time the tent-count was much higher (the campsite looked like on of those UN refugee camps you see on the news in its entirety). I couldn't believe my luck when I received the news that I had a pass for Leeds Festival. I had no main stage access, but the fact I was there was all that mattered! In fact, the lack of main stagery was a blessing in disguise, as I'd never have shot as much in the weekend if I'd been trekking back and forth waiting to be escorted into the main stage pit. Highlights included: Maxïmo Park, ¡Forward, Russia!, Dresden Dolls, The Automatic, Adequate Seven and Send More Paramedics, who were all excellent to photograph.


Metal \m/
2006 has been the first year I've been able to get into gigs I want to for myself, (although still not easily). As I result, I've photographed more metal this year than I could shake a shitty stick at.

Damnation Festival held in Gilly's Rockworld in Manchester was fantastic! Send More Paramedics were on fine form (I even ended up contributing vocals whilst photographing at one point), it was just a shame the event ran late as I had to leave after one song of Akercocke to catch my train. They sounded awesome as well. :(

Motörhead have been on my list of 'bands I MUST shoot' ever since I first got into this band photography malarkey. Lemmy may be getting on a bit now, but that would never get in the way of what was a blistering performance.

Another band I managed to tick off my 'must shoot' list was Dragonforce. If you haven't seen this band live yet, then... erm... you're rubbish.

Other metal (or metallish) highlights of the year include ISIS, 1349, Zyklon and Enslaved.


Published stuff
This year I've managed to get more photos published here and there than ever before. Special thanks has to go to Redferns Music Picture Library for taking me on, Sandman Magazine for being so accommodating, Rockmidgets and Drowned in Sound.

Hopefully 2007 will turn out to be even busier, with more metal, more tents and a new 'must shoot' list to keep me going well into 2008!