Belinda Carlisle

Boy George

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Captain Sensible

Midge Ure

The Christians

10cc

The Blockheads

Level 42

Status Quo

Young Knives

Alvin Stardust

Human League

Just Jack

NDubz

I have photographed Bloc Party 4 times now. This time it was lead singer Kele on his solo tour.

Jeremy Kyle photocall at the book signing for his new book - the local Mayor popped along as well;

Not really my kind of music but he is a good entertainer. He picked on a bored looking guy and said that he would give him $10 for ever hit he recognised. I dont know how much out of pocket he was at the end of the night.

I was lucky to see Pendulum perform at the Electric Ballroom, Camden in 2007. Now in 2010, they are stepping up to Wembley Arena.

Went over to photograph a heath fire at Chobham Ranges that has been burning for 3 days. It is a live military firing range so the fire bridage can only fight it from the edges due to the presence of live shells.

Mica Paris supporting Boyz II Men at Hammersmith Apollo;

A photocall for the Moscow State Circus in Richmond;

One from todays Independent of Amy Macdonald and an older one of Corinne Bailey Rae used on the Irish Times website;

Back at the Royal Albert Hall for the third time in a week …..

The Soldiers with support from a couple of “Britains Got Talent” stars;

Most bands give you 3 songs to photograph them. Tangerine Dream only give you 1 song but that song is twenty minutes long !!!

A couple of front covers of Property Weekly;

Peter Andre strutting his stuff at the Reading Hexagon;

Here are some more tearsheets that I have managed to get hold of;

Woking Dance Festival used on the Studio International website;

Shobna Gulati of Coronation Street in Soaplife magazine;

Vanessa White of The Saturdays in Soaplife magazine;

Time for something a bit more laid back - 2008 Mercury Prize nominated modern jazz group - the Portico Quartet;

This was a challenge - high stage and not much light - so some of the pictures have more of an ‘artistic’ quality !!!

Not the best scan in the world but one of my Woking Dance Festival pictures was used in last weeks Woking News & Mail.

Some photographs from the dress rehearsal of Experiences With A Stranger.

Lady Gaga and her Monster Ball tour roll into town at the O2

Corinne on tour in support of her new album “The Sea”

My second year of covering the XFactor live tour at Wembley. This time got see most of the show.

Attended a couple of dress rehearsals for the Woking Dance Festival. One for City Maquette and another for the Maven commission.

Catching up on some of my published pictures. Here is one of a group shot of the Body Gossip photocall in Closer magazine.

Electro pop group Owl City celebrate their recent number one with a headline show at the Electric Ballroom in Camden.

Please read http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=18599 for more information.

The advantage of this job is that you get to see bands who you might not normally listen to. In this case, its Brand New.

A couple of pictures that have been used of John Mayer;

January is always quiet so this is the first post of the new year. Henry Rollins doing his spoken word show at the Royal Festival Hall.

The last time I was at the Forum was 20 years ago for Texas - it was the Town and Country Club then. This time was for The Horrors and their ‘dark’ show.

Ace coming onstage half an hour late and a snow storm makes for an interesting evening.

Hands is one of favourite albums of 2009 so I really happy to get a pass for her London show.

I cant think of a better way to spend the evening than photographing the gorgeous Puppini Sisters and it was only 10 minutes from home. The set had been built for the local pantomine so it looked odd with a backdrop of pirate ships but it made for interesting photos.

This was a hard show to shoot as Ian spent a lot of the time at the front of the stage beyond the reach of the lights.

Quiet evening in Brixton with Skunk Anansie;

A couple of Corinne Bailey Rae pictures used on Crunk + Disorderly ;

This was her first gig in the build up to the release of her second album in February next year.

A soggy night in West London for Ocean Colour Scene at Shepherds Bush Empire.

Moving forward a decade into the 90s and its the Backstreet Boys at the O2. No jokes about them being back.

More 80s revival with a-ha at the O2. This was part of their comeback / farewell tour.

October had been renamed Bloctober by Bloc Party. This was the second last show at Readings Rivermead Leisure Centre.

First night of 3 at The O2 for the reformed Spandau Ballet. Tickets sold out in 20 mins !!

Girl Guide Big Gig at Wembley Arena to celebrate 100 years of the Guides. Lots of acts including JLS, Tinchy Stryder, Saturdays, Scouting For Girls, Pixie Lott, Chipmunk, Alphabeat and Alexandra Burke;

It has been reported this morning that Boyzone singer Stephen Gately has died. I was lucky enough to photograph Boyzone at Wembley back in May.

Richard Hawley (with special guest Lisa-Marie Presley) - unfortunately I wasnt there when she took to the stage.

I love a challenge and the lighting for this show was a challenge. The first picture gives you an idea of how little light there was.

This was a challenge - there was no pit and not much light. Paloma is a colourful dresser so at least that makes for more interesting pictures.

“Thank You For The Music” was a BBC Radio 2 tribute to Abba at Hyde Park in front of 36,000. It was hosted by Chris Evans and broadcast live on Radio 2. The ‘headlining’ act was Kylie along with other acts such as Lulu, Chaka Khan, The Feeling, Nerina Pallot and many more.

Kylie and Benny Anderson

Kylie

Chaka Khan

Jamie Cullum

VV Brown

The Feeling

Nerina Pallot

Lulu

Quite a few of the Pussycat Dolls pictures have been used on Zimbio.com

The last time I photographed Rodrigo Y Gabriela was at Guilfest 3 years. They are now promoting their new album.

Quick trip up the M40 to the Oxford Academy to photograph Ian Brown on a small warm-up tour before his Reading Festival appearance. Nice small venue with a large pit. Hopefully photograph Ian again on his full tour later in the year.

Bit quiet this month so catching up on admin. I have been going through some of my published pictures. Recently had pictures published in The Telegraph, Sun and Sunday Star. One of my Boyzone pictures has been used in Closer magazine.

A couple of the pictures of the Pussycat Dolls at Sandown have been used on the London Paper website;

The weather forecast for this gig was heavy showers and it seemed that the Met Office were wrong. That was until the Pussycat Dolls appeared on stage and the heavens opened. Good show though.

Day two of the Betfair Weekend at Ascot Racecourse and its Supergrass.

As part of the Betfair Weekend of racing at Ascot Racecourse, there are holding a concert after each days racing. Friday night was classical night. Support was from Blake and Natasha Marsh - the main act was Britains Got Talent act Escala.

Tasya Hodges;

Chantal Leverton;

Izzy Johnston;

Victoria Lyon;

And now for something completely different, again. Rapper The Game at Hammersmith Apollo;

Spent the weekend working at Guilfest. Great family friendly festival. The same photographers seem to cover the festival so it always great to catch up with old friends.

The headliners were Motorhead, Brian Wilson and The Happy Mondays. My favourite act was The Lightning Seeds - set full of simple pop songs. It was the only time over the weekend where I had chance to stop and watch the band.

I wont bore you with all of the 3000+ photographs I took of 25+ bands, so here are a couple of my favourites.

Ironik;

September;

A music photographers normal attire is jeans and a t-shirt. For the Henley Festival, the dress code is Black Tie but you can get away with a suit as long as you wear a tie !!

Another gig with a slightly unusual shooting position. We had to shoot crouched down to one side of the stage. I always seem to get cramp !!

Yes and we did get to hear him do “Oh Carol”.

One of the main challenges when photographing bands is the position from where we take photographers. Normally we have access to a pit at the front. For Seal, as it was a seated concert, we were told that we were to shoot from the mixing desk at the back.

When we get there we are escorted to the front, told to pick a spot and to stay there. Some of the audience werent to impressed with the idea of a bunch of photographers standing in there way. I left the main group and went over to the other side and crouched in the aisle about 4 rows back. This wasnt too bad apart from the late comers trying to get to their seats.

Seal performed Killer as the second song and everyone stood up which made it a bit easier to get pictures.

Despite only being a two-piece, the Ting Tings pack a punch. Fantastic live show and a great sound.

Picture of Natalie Cassidy in this weeks Heat magazine;

Something new for me; a photocall for Body Gossip which is a charity about body image. It is supported by a number of celebrities including Natalie Cassidy, Nikki Grahame and Anne Diamond.

Natalie Cassidy;

Nikki Grahame;

The News of the World have a nice cutout of one of my pictures from McFly on Friday night;

Original picture;

I love photographing McFly. They are full of energy and put some of the ’serious’ bands to shame in terms of performance - and they do play live.

This was one gig I was looking forward to. Basement Jaxx were in town for 2 sell-out gigs at the Roundhouse. The start was delayed as everyone seemed to turn up late. The band were full of energy; different singers for each song along with a change of costume.

My local Tesco is one of only two in the country not to open on a Sunday which means it is often used to film commercials. The latest one stars Fay Ripley (Cold Feet) and Mark Addy (The Full Monty). I am not sure what the plot was but there was an hot air balloon basket suspended from a crane.

Down with Dappy and the Dubz tonight at the Shepherds Bush Empire - does that make me sound old ?

I now have a Twitter account - www.twitter.com/andrewspiers. All of the new posts here will be automatically tweeted - I think that is the correct term.

If I am honest, I dont know much of David Byrnes solo work - only his Talking Head work. Also, I have never been to the Royal Festival Hall. Put the two together and you get tonights job. Very simple lighting and David was dressed in white so no colour cast to worry about. The show started at 7:30pm meant a welcome early finish.

This is the second time that I have photographed Bloc Party - the first time was at Ally Pally. This time at Olympia. They seem to have a preference for large standing venues. The band were good and some good lighting enabled me to get some nice shots. Not sure about the venue though, it did sound a bit echoy.

I got to the O2 for Simply Red and met up with the rest of the photographers. Our escort turns up and promptly announces that we will be taking pictures from the stage - thats a new experience for me. We were split into two groups and took our positions on the front corners of the stage. The first picture below is the view from the stage.

Something different. Red Jackson busking in Windsor.

The last time I photographed The Rifles was in Reading back in May 2006 - the BBC used my photographs here. The crowd was lively then - this time there was beer being thrown around !!

I had a phonecall on Friday from my agency asking if I wanted to go and photograph the XFactor live show at Wembley Arena. No problems, until I realised shortly afterwards that there was a small matter of the Carling Cup final next door at Wembley Stadium.

I got there early to take some pictures of the crowds along Wembley Way. The two sets of fans started to get a bit too close to each other so the police decided to take some action to prevent trouble. The resulting photo was published in The Guardian.

Coming home covered in fake blood, it can mean only one thing - Lordi is in town.

The fantastically named Emmy The Great (real name Emma Lee-Moss) played Reading last night. She has been hotly tipped for 2009 and you can read a review of the album at The Times.

Pictures used in this weeks Ascot News;

Russ Abbot turning on the Christmas Lights in Sunningdale;

Katy Perry picture used on the Swedish news website nyheter24.se;

Katy was in London for a sell-out show at the Scala, Kings Cross. You know someone is the talk of the town when there are over a dozen photographers in the photo pit !!!

Went over to Woolworths in Staines to photograph Sir Cliff at a book signing. It was not the easiest job I have ever done - lots of people and not a lot of time or space.

Spent yesterday evening at Twickenham photographing REM. Michael Stipe is a great front man, lots of energy and throwing plenty of shapes.

Went over to Newport to photograph the Manic Street Preachers. Who said music photography was easy; overs 4 hours driving 250 miles for 15 minutes of photography. Anyway, had some fun with these pictures and created a couple of black and white version - brings back memories of being in the darkroom at college.

Kid Creole

Paul Young

Toyah

Picture from the Fat Face Night Jump used on the Surrey Herald website.

Seth Lakeman

Cerys Matthews

Kula Shaker

Bowling For Soup

Brian JonesTown Massacre

System 7

Def Leppard was the first gig I ever went to. It was the Hysteria tour back in 1988. Twenty years later, I got the opportunity to photograph them at the same venue;

Emma watson pictures also used on the Daily Mail website.

Picture used in the Bracknell and Ascot Times;

Photos from the Manic Street Preachers at the Reading Hexagon used on BBC Berkshire.

Photos from McFly at the Reading Hexagon published on BBC Berkshire.

Maps photographed at the ICA, London for Supersweet magazine.