sean rowe

the black-hatted new york statesman who supported noah on the recent uk tour. sean is a multi-talented singer-songwriter-survivor (more ray mears than bear grylls, though he did once eat a mouse’s stomach). check out a foraging video i made with sean and charlie fink here http://vimeo.com/7050699.

and here’s the man in action.

you can check him out here http://www.myspace.com/seanrowe and here http://www.seanrowe.net.

tour highs and lows

riding on the back of a whale

it’s a pleasure to be on the road with noah again. anyone who saw the band on their march ‘club silencio’ tour will remember the giant framed screen set up behind the band onto which an array of visual treats were projected before, during and after the show.

all the dates on the tour were hosted by a red suited compere who appeared on screen to introduce the varied proceedings throughout the evening. audience members were treated to a selection of short films provided by future shorts (for a taster, check out this) as well as a supporting performance by jay jay pistolet.

each of noah’s songs (with the exception of the acoustic part of the set) was accompanied by it’s own video.  some were provided by future shorts but the majority consisted of old footage sourced from the amazing prelinger archive, which consists largely of american public domain footage and where users are actively encouraged to download and reproduce content for whatever purpose they choose, commercial or otherwise. one of my first jobs for the band when I moved down to london in january was to help source and edit these videos together and i’m hoping to post a link here soon so you can check them out.

although only six months on, old father time has certainly changed his expression.  the current tour is a much leaner operation in terms of crew and gear (even before the tragic theft), the band line-up has morphed and i now hold the position of merchant. this means i now have a lot less time to photograph the band onstage but it has also led me to take a new approach… inspired by some photos a friend showed me recently i have reverted to using that nostalgic photographic device, the disposable camera.

i really enjoy the aesthetic of photos taken on a relatively good quality disposable, especially when printed on matt paper with a cheeky white border. it’s not a million miles from a polaroid, but significantly cheaper.

Tour de ciné

I recently held the novel position of tour manager for the Noah & the Whale cinema tour. A few UK dates screening The First Days of Spring (a film accompanying the band’s latest album of the same name) in some lovely venues.

Now I’m getting a bit tired of using high speed black & white film but still have a few rolls lurking about. Here are a few photos I took at the London ICA gig, which was the tour finale.

Sound checkin’.

Backstage.

It wouldn’t be an album launch without Planet Earth.

Hotel room rider.

And to finish off the film a little test of the multiple exposure function.

Welcome (part II)

Welcome to the new home of my blog, now embedded as part of my web site.

Jumping for joy

Giggin’

I recently went to The Bull and Gate in Kentish Town to take some photos for a friend (and colleague). All the photos were taken sans flash, push-processing the film at ISO 6400. I’m going to get a flash at some point but for these sorts of occasions I like to be relatively discreet anyway.

You can find Rachel and band here.

I had a spasm when I went to remove the film from my camera the next day and opened the back prematurely, exposing it to light. Luckily there wasn’t much damage done, just a few photos with cRaZy effects, like this one…

Bristol recording

Last week was spent in Bristol recording with Planet Earth. It’s a pleasure to present some colour for the first time and from the first film through my new (old) camera, a lovely nikon f3.

This is The Cube theatre where recording took place on the first day.

Possibly the biggest amp I’ll ever play through. I still can’t figure out exactly how this double image came to exist but I like it.

It wasn’t all darkened rooms. Steve, who runs Stitch-Stitch and who kindly put us up for the week, took us to visit his allotment.

It wouldn’t be the same without at least one cheeky b&w. Here’s Fránçois who joined the horn section for the final day.

Manchester Streets

So what’s a good excuse to post about old photos? Last night I went to see a tasty gig starring the ever mesmerising Francois and the melodious-cacophonous I Know I Have No Collar. First on the bill was Nat, Manchester’s Shrieking Violet, who after putting on a wonderfully original show was handing out free copies of her newly launched fanzine. Going under the name ‘The Shrieking Violet’, it is in Nat’s words ‘a fanzine about Manchester’.

I got a chance to tuck into it on the bus today and was reminded by one of the articles of a set of photos I took whilst at uni. The particular article is called ‘Up my street’ and put simply is about street names in Manchester. Some, like Balloon Street, have rather grand origins. In this case, the street marks the site where the first balloon ascent in Manchester was made (which for those of you who were too busy giggling during your balloon history modules, was made by James Sadler in 1785).

Others however have more straightforward beginnings…

Jersey Street is apparently just one of a large clothing-oriented bunch which also contains the likes of Hood Street and Loom Street.

This one does have a name (unlike Levenshulme’s ‘The Street With No Name’) but I don’t remember it.

Regeneration is another subject broached in the The Shrieking Violet. New Islington is an area in Manchester mentioned in the zine as an example of the projects underway.

My assistant.

Nat’s blog can be found here.

Walk with mother

Before I hit the hay, here’s another series of 3. This time from a New Years beach walk I took with my mum way back in ‘08 (gotta keep blogging fresh after all). I think the beach is Anderby Creek, located in my home county of Lincolnshire. The walk was something of a nostalgia trip as ‘the Creek’ was where mum took my brother and me most summers, choosing it over rival (and ‘awfully crowded’) resorts such as Skeggy and Mablethorpe, much to the dismay of her sons. For what Anderby Creek lacked in arcade machines and popularity, it more than made up for in mud. And a particular kind of super slippery clay-like mud at that.  ‘Up shit creek again’ my brother used to exclaim to me as we struggled through the slime in our jelly sandals,bucket and spade clenched in opposite hands.

Beautiful, but not for kids.

Kingston… not Jamaica

These were taken on a recent jaunt to Kingston with P.Earth. They were to be the last photos I took with this camera before idiotically leaving it behind at the venue… the source of much panic until it was safely returned a week later by the caring staff at Banquet Records.