Thomas McEldowney Photography
Much as i would love to go into great depth about the history and traditions of Gamelan, I think that people would probably twig pretty quickly that it came from the Wikipedia page anyway. The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester had a Gamelan concert, I went along to a rehersal, to watch and photograph. Thank you very much to the organisers and musicians who allowed me to be there.
Karima (prev post) was supporting James Morrison, so i hung around to photo that gig too.
I told you about Karima Francis a while back, and i think i may have mentioned she was going to be big, well she proved it again last night, opening for James Morrison she soon won the crowd over first with her own songs then a cover of Kings of Leons ‘Use Somebody’
Karima Francis, played a fantastic gig at Academy 3 in Manchester last night. I first saw Karima at ‘in the city’ a few years ago and was amazed, i wasn’t the only one as the interest in her was huge a couple of years down the line and she has a band and a single out yesterday, 2009 could be a great year for Karima.
it should have been the dream gig, everyone has a dream gig, i think manuel did a post about this once, but i’m quite sure he never invented the concept, of the dream gig, if i remember rightly he was serving spuds to richard pryor, roy keane and morrissey… and i’m sure we all have the dream gig.
So when i get a request to photograph a line up that goes, Frank Carson, Philomena Begley, Jimmy Cricket, Brendan ‘not barry mcguigan’ O’Carroll, Henry ‘going for gold’ kelly, Gloria Hunniford amongst others… well you make damn sure that weekend is free… and you don’t let little things like Friday the 13th get in your way.
I have the small matter of a wedding later this week so i am making sure everything in my equipment list is right – 2 bodies, my relatively new d2x and my trusty but battle weary D70, i pack one flash gun, reckoning 2 will be overkill and i bring every lens i have – nothing can go wrong – oh but it does, half way through some test shots the viewfinder on my d2x goes dark – no reason, nothing just every picture coming through dark, panic.
The problem never got fixed, the camera just wouldn’t play, so it was onto the D70, running around shooting everything in sight, i take off the flash for some long lens work and decide to put the flash in my top pocket, big mistake. They never say ‘does not bounce’ anywhere on the flash, but you can take it from me that they are surprisingly unresistant to any such treatment. Now the D70 has an onboard flash, but its crap, thankfully someone lent me a flash gun.
Unfortunately for devices that are just meant to flash a light when you hit a button when you hit it they can get pretty complex. I don’t know whether i ever got it working right, looking at some of the pics, i really don’t think i did, but thanks so much to the guy who lent me the flash (these things can cost a couple of hundred quid, and you don’t go lending them to half-wits you have just met who try to bounce them off the ground.) Cheers that man, thanks to you i was at least able to save something off the night
So from a photography point of view, a nightmare, but maybe best to get these out of the way before the wedding later this week (if the groom-to-be is reading – all equipment has been shipped back to nikon this morning and replacements arranged for this week) but why oh why oh why did it have to be on this of all nights.
From an entertainment point of view? i have to say, TOP! yes, with exclamation mark – there was a few photographers and 2 camera men at the front of the stage at most points through the night, and to watch them all struggling to take pictures due to (and i assure you this is true) laughing so much at Frank Carsons jokes was an absolute joy to behold.
Off again to watch the bottom feeders – first saw them on the same line-up as Little Nemo a couple of weeks back and liked the band, got in touch and here I am photographing them again – this is only the second gig I have done but i don’t think that you’d get much better bands than Bottomfeeders for making good gig shots – great outfits, lots of energy and clearly enjoying themselves…
read more about bottomfeeders from Manchester Evening News here
The band have a myspace, but like all myspace it makes my eyes bleed – if you want to hear them then the songs are up on Kate the Cellos Myspace
There are boys in the band as well – 3 of them in fact – thing is they all hide in the dark corners where the camera can’t get them
As for the venue, its got a new name, the studio, but its the space formerly known as a few different things, but i still know it as Life Cafe… actually i still call it St Peter’s Fields.. but it has decorated the stage with artists such as Marilyn Mansun(sic) and corinne bailey ray.. is that what the kids are into these days? I feel quite out of touch.
“I had a secret meeting in the basement of my brain”
Great Gig by The National in Academy 2 last night – sold out early but definately benefitted from not being moved to a bigger venue – not heard the new album yet, but it sounded like most of the set list was from Alligator. Never Photographed a gig before but was looking the other day at the brilliant Karen McBride’s work in the green room a couple of weeks ago and decided that it is something i should look at doing…. i’m just put off by being constantly annoyed by people recording gigs on their camera phones and don’t want to become that… Anyway – pics here
