W.A.S.P at Leeds O2 Academy

So on the Friday evening of the 28th of September I caught a train down to Leeds in West Yorkshire to see the almighty W.A.S.P on their "30 Years of Thunder" tour that they had been doing the rest of the year and it had finally come to Europe... I just had to be at it!

As the time drew closer to the gig I must admit I got more and more excited... having listened to this band for about 8 years now and never had a chance to see them I was so anxious to start shooting. I had never been to the O2 academy in Leeds either so had no idea really what the shooting conditions would be like or what sort of lighting was usually used there (I was hoping it wasn’t the dreaded ‘red light’ or else I would be in trouble, unfortunately I'm not rich enough to get a fixed 2.8 or even 1.8 lens so I had my trusty 3.5 wide angle and zoom lens on hand).

Me and my mate arrived at the academy with plenty of time to spare, I always like to arrive early to get a clear picture of the equipment setup I might need and also to take a look round the venue and have some chats with the other toggers there. At the Leeds show there were only 6 toggers including me so I knew the pit wouldn’t be that cramped and I would have plenty of space to shoot without getting in anyone’s way. Arriving at the guest box office we were told that we were not down for any passes which gave me a slight heart attack but then they found our names and I had my pass for the night which let me shoot the first 3 songs from the pit with no flash... and even better there was NO photo release form to sign which for any photographer out there is a serious benefit!

The band before W.A.S.P I didn’t really pay attention to just waited for the main act to come on so I could get my pictures and then venture out into the crowd to watch the show. When the time came I started with my wide angle lens (14-42mm) as I had already done a shot test with the zoom lens and I found it to be a little too zoomed in... W.A.S.P was a band that I knew would be better off with full body shots rather than close up face shots. The band entered to an uproar of applause and kicked into their first song which then the toggers in the pit started shooting. It was difficult at first because they played a high tempo song and were moving around constantly and not even stopping to pose for the camera. Never the less I got my shots and left the pit to take a look at them... I a few hundred shots and managed to narrow them down to about 25 that really stood out for me... any lens blur just wouldn’t do for me.

I managed to have a chat to another photographer that I knew in name but never had met in person... Tracey Welch, who also blogs as well and is friends with some other people I know so it wasn’t too awkward introducing myself to her. Having shot for the likes of NME she knows what she’s doing in the business of photography!

Overall it was a cracking night and a review will be posted soon on the music website The Sheffield Scenester, you can also check out my site where you can drop me a message or view more of my photos on my Facebook page.

Finally a new post!!

Well sorry about the delay in my posts and thank you for giving me over 1600 page views on my Download review featuring Slash on the Zippo stage! Means a lot to me! I have been very busy these last few months both with my education and also photographing bands and a festival for the Olympics (not as exciting as it sounds). Anyway I was a photographer at the Sheftival festival in Sheffield at the Don Valley stadium and it was a fantastic weekend for two reasons; the first being our Jess won gold and the second there was a great selection of bands across two stages. I won’t be posting a review on the festival on here but if you go over to The Sheffield Scenester you can see my review on there plus loads of my photos that I took for them.

So I am thinking of getting a new SLR camera as mine is really outdated for what I need it for (live music photography) so I was thinking of upgrading to the Canon 6D or the canon 5D mark 3 by Christmas time and hopefully a good 2.8 F/ lens by next summer in time to shoot Download festival or Sonisphere festival if they get their act together...

On to the next thing and that is my experience I had with shooting The Cult a few weeks ago (again the review and photos can be seen on The Sheffield Scenester website). It was horrendous, I had to sign a photo release which stated they owned all the photos and then to also find out that it was BS as they went against what they said in the release. Shooting from the crowd and fighting for the best shoot position isn’t fair on their photographers or on the crowd who have paid for the ticket! No pit access was allowed and we eventually had to shoot from the back... good job I had my handy 200mm lens with me with an F/4. Killing Joke had already backed out so it was just the right grabbers and The Mission to shoot who, by the way, posted on their site an apology about the shooting situation stating it was all The Cult’s managements fault for the whole matter.... unreal.

Well coming up this week I’ll be shooting W.A.S.P at the Leeds O2 and then on Saturday I’ll be shooting a new and upcoming band Swiss Lips at Sheffield’s own Leadmill, and I wa requested to cover the night by the PR company Hall or Nothing... I felt chuffed when they asked me to.

Until then...

Don’t forget to check out my Facebook, my Twitter @myleswright90 and TheSheffield Scenester for my reviews and photos!!

Slash, Download 2012

After being with the hugely successful rock band Guns n’ Roses, song writer and guitarist Slash appeared with his new band at the 2012 Download festival headlining the Zippo encore stage on the Friday night. He and Axl Rose both worked together throughout the 80’s and 90’s in Guns n’ Roses and collectively released hugely successful songs and albums the most well known and received album being the 1987 album titled “Appetite For Destruction” which featured hits such as ‘Night Train’ ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘Paradise City’ all which have peaked in the top 100 and even got to number 1. After the band split up, and left front man Axl Rose on his own, he formed the ‘new’ Guns n’ Roses and Slash teamed up with various artists to bring out his first self tiled album “Slash” which was released in 2010 and which features artists such as Fergie, Lemmy and Iggy Pop. After this album went down well with critics and the fans slash joined up with Alter Bridge’s lead man Myles Kennedy to record a second album, just released a few months back. Slash and Myles started their musical relationship while recording the song ‘Starlight’ which was featured on the “Slash” album, said Myles at Download festival and they have taken it from there.

After having bands on the Zippo stage all day the crowd were getting restless and wanted to see what they had stood all day for... and in the rain! Bands that also featured on the Zippo stage were The Quire Boys, the reunited Little Angels, Nightwish and, if they had turned up on time Europe, but a delayed flight into Donington meant that their set got cut from the whole festival. The crowd had expectations from Slash and he certainly delivered to them playing all of his greatest hits and even putting in some new material from his latest album, as he should. He opened with ‘One Last Thrill’ and then proceeding onto the Guns n’ Roses song ‘Night Train’ to wish Myles had put his own mark on the vocals and which left Axl’s version in the dust! There was no comparison, Myles was just an overall better man for the job he even comes with the added bonus of actually turning up on time and sober! His voice has an edge to it that makes him perfect to sing the new material he has wrote with slash to singing some early Guns n’ Roses stuff that he didn’t sing on. 

I had never seen Slash live before but listen to him constantly on both my music player and his live stuff that shown on TV and I was really excited about hearing these flaming solos I have only ever heard but never witnessed. I have to hand it to him; he knows how to work that guitar! Every note he played had electric running through it and even while dancing around on stage like a headless chicken, still managed to pull off some amazing stuff on his famous Les Paul axe. All the other band members turned their instruments down when he was soloing which was good as we heard them clearly (which is what we were there for, after the entire act is called Slash). You could say that’s harder for him as with his guitar being the centre of attention he has NO room for error and there wasn’t any. All the solos were just how they sounded on the studio albums if not better as they had that input of some improve on Slashes part. 

After about an hour of pleasing the crowd with some fast hits and wild solos the band on stage slowed the pace down a bit and played the song that brought Myles and Slash together ‘Starlight’ to which lighters were brought out and hands were swung in the air. It was a magical moment to watch and even more to see the Download crowd sing their hearts out and to watch Slash play some soft riffs, a well needed break for the band... and the crowd for that matter!! After that they soared through more hits of both Slash’s and Guns n’ Roses including ‘Mr Brownstone’ and ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ before ending on a killer ‘Paradise City’. I never thought I would get to hear this played by Slash as I didn’t know that he still played this, and from the crowd’s reaction neither did they! The crowd were once again warmed up to go crazy and Myles had them under his control telling them to sing and they did. If you ever get to hear 20,000 people singing at the same time it is a wonderful moment. The final solo that Slash pulled off was crazy, I'm surprised that the band could keep up. He was on FIRE! He ripped through the solo going crazy all over the stage before finally thanking Donington for being there to support him and his band and finally walked off.

Every band that day played amazingly and pleased the crowd, the only downside was not to see Europe play put instead having to hear the fans in the crowd sing ‘The Final Countdown’ which I have to admit was pretty funny. Till next year Donington... 

Please checkout my site for my work and contact details here

Or for my FaceBook page which is has up to date reviews click here

Soundclash sheffield featuring the 48K's

 What do you get when you cross blues legend Gary Moore and his partner in crime BB King? What you get is The Black Hands, a local blues/rock band from Sheffield. The band was the first act on at sound clash hosted by Plug and they certainly did get the crowd going. There was a disappointing amount of people there for their set because you could have seen that with a full house and the same energy that the band put in they could have blown the place apart with these guitar riffs. Harmonica and natural born blues singer, Andy Gannon, is the front man of the band and definitely live up to the standard that a blues singer should have. He tore through songs better than Brian Johnson on steroids, including “Don’t steal my blues” and “The devils way. As they surged through each of their songs it was clear to me that one of lead guitarist “Daniel Riley’s” idols had to be the legend that is angus young as most of his solos had that rhythm and crunchy tone that angus always has, everyone he played sounded like his fingers had electric running through them. As the band got about half way through their set people who were over by the bar had slowly started to come and watch the band and once their they didn’t move a muscle, the lads played their last few songs only to be egged on to play more afterwards. These 6 lads gave the audience something that no other band that night managed to give which was the integrity to go and play some old blues which is what their generation and mine are missing!!

When Resonate came on stage I thought it was two guys coming on to set up the next bands gear but then as one of them sat at the drum kit and the other put his guitar on I realised they were the next band. Resonate was in fact a two man band, one which was on the drums tapping away at the hi-hat and the other armed with an Epiphone ES355 the guitar that rock n’ roll legend chuck berry plays. I wish I could have said the same for him but no their music was far from rock n’ roll as the first thing that came through the PA system was some sort of heavy sub-bass track that the drummer was in control of. The guitarist was more like the new generation of the arctic monkeys the same sounding voice and if the sub-bass weren’t in there the same sounding songs. The mood of the place was great and many people was cheering this guy on and he was definitely giving it his all pulling out some solos here and there. In between songs the guys announced that they had a new EP out and they handing out CD’s at the end which listening to sounded great and certainly offered me something fresh that I hadn’t ever heard before. I think what would help these two is if they brought into the band a synth player and let the drummer pump some beats in on the drum kit instead of the simulator that he controlled do all the work. I would definitely recommend that you go and see these two as they have something completely new to offer and I guarantee you to be entertained.

Up next on the stage at plug were the highly anticipated Little Crazy who in fact were a little crazy as at first a women walked out wearing a see-through netted top and leather pants. I was expecting something like you would used to find in the Limit back in the 80’s but instead got a more rock Joan Jett feel. These guys were certainly the “fluff” up band for the 48K’s and in fact had the entire crowd’s attention. I wasn’t too keen on them after hearing the first song but they actually grew on me and now I have a real soft spot for them as they have brought back what is so hard to bring back and that is old rock. This women was in fact front “girl” Sofire who had the voice of a true rocker, she had that edge that is difficult to find now with a girl as mostly girls want to be the next Katy Perry or Rhianna but not this one. From watching her Sofia she lived up to the expectation that I had previously heard of her.  These guys meant business and started as they meant to go on by playing some good hits of theirs and both bassist and guitarist let loose sweat and blood in everything they played and you could see them in years to come playing arenas round the world. This band gave something from the moment that they started playing to when they joined the crowd to watch and that was the determination to put on a good rock show which they were there to do and I can say with no regret that they did that!

The headline act at Sound clash was a 5 piece Brit-pop band called the 48k’s, now days every new band out there is setting out to be the next arctic monkeys or pulp. These guys take it to the next level and make themselves their own. While waiting for the group to come on stage I noticed that one their crew came on and tied a rubber chicken to the mic stand, maybe this was for the humour or for the luck. For these guys they needed luck because all the other bands had really set the level of performance and it was high. At last the band emerged onto the stage and kicked into their first track, their sound was unique and was like a mixture of the monkeys crossed with the Beatles, they had the harmonies spot on and the great crunch that Brit-pop needs. About half way through the set the rubber chicken was (ab)used when lead guitarist Steve kicked the chicken and swung it round his mic stand, I was still thinking what was the point of the chicken... Along with Steve was Kato on rhythm guitar, Ryan on vocals, Karl on drums and Adam on bass guitar. Now when I said about this band having some Beatles elements in them well this certainly fits Adam as was playing the old style violin bass that the famous Paul McCartney played so it is quite possible that he was an influence on this band. This was the first time I saw these guys and I would love to see them perform again some time, they gave the crowd some good entertainment and great laughs (you never saw Ryan without a pint in his hands!).

Click here to view more reviews from around Sheffield including pictures provided by professional photographers!