/// Circo Loco all day boat party in Southampton, with afterparty @ Junk.

/// Photos ///

Sven Vath was back in Leeds last saturday for another Cocoon in the Park @ Temple Newsam, Leeds.

Coaches full of techno fans turned up to to see Sven spin records, the weather was hot hot hot, but kinda overcast and stifling.

There was plenty of fire, smoke, sparks and confetti cannons towards the end, and some interesting androgynous dancers covered in electroluminescent wire.

This was my second year at Glastonbury, shooting for the Dance Village area and  Mixmag.

An incredible festival with many highlights over the weekend, kicking off with what seemed like the entire festival descending upon dance village to watch boy george on thursday night.

There is so so so so much to see and do, and I’m convinced I’ve covered over 1000 miles on foot.

These are some of the photos from Glastonbury 2010:

Dance Village on Thursday as thousands of people turned up for Boy George

Gorillaz

Snoop Dogg

Florence and The Machine

The Stranglers

Strange goings on in Shangri La

Plan B

More Shangri La

Scissor Sisters

Kelis

Chipmunk

N Dubz

Blasted Mechanism

Craig Charles

Cube Henge

LCD Soundsystem

Crystal Castles

Shangri La

Example

Dance East Crowd

Rusko

Delphic

Simian Mobile Disco

Silent Disco

Chase and Status playing Shangri La

Fish n Tits

End of a  long weekend

Come Rave With Me – Mixmag Feature, published May 2010

Okay so a basic club rip off of the popular tv series Come Dine With Me.

4 strangers meet and head off to their respective club nights of choice, rating each club afterwards with a score from 1 -10.

Everything from hard dance to drum & bass, with hints of R&B and Techno.

There can only be one winner.

Shot back in March, in one night across various venues in Leeds.

Scroll to end for full gallery.

Author Kate Long photographed for You Magazine.

Back in April I photographed best selling writer Kate Long for an article in You Magazine. It’s a rather sad article, you can read online it online kate long on living with a loss.

Kate has a wonderful garden which we made use of on a lovely sunny afternoon.

Last week I was asked to provide some exterior shots for HMV’s new Birmingham venue the HMV Institute.  They are currently undergoing a multi million pound refit, so the inside was just a little bit of a building site, but when things are all in order I should be back there to do some of the interior.

I got up nice and early (around 4am) to arrive before dawn and get some night shots and some as the sun was just creeping over the horizon. There is hardly anybody about at this time, which makes for easier shooting and cleaner pics (no parked cars).

They have some awesome shows lined up (Gong are playing on my birthday!) check out the website hmv institute

Yes thats real money!

Portrait shoot with Union Djs for “Hello my name is…” feature in Mixmag

When this job came up to shoot a party in London that was all about (and to quote) “Taking the sounds and style of the 1920s and 30s, turning them on their head and smuggling them into the 21st century” I knew straight away that I had to shoot it TTV.

Inspired by Pete Ashton’s work with TTV – I could see the potential for getting authentic looking old school photos without having to resort to using real fim or photoshop.

5 mins on ebay later and I had a Kodak Brownie Reflex and a Kodak Duaflex in the post as well as some close up filters.

A few days later and after a blue peter-esque cardboard cutting and duct tape session, I had two contraptions to play with.

I opted for the Kodak Brownie in the end as it was giving me better results, a bit sharper overall –  thats the one on the right in the pic.

Final additions were to build some little cardboard lens hoods as I was using flash with my camera, and also taped a torch onto the side so I could focus in the dark.

I shot both TTV and low key with my DSLR and processed into various black and white options to give some variation to the photos. The sort of thing you expect when you look through a bunch of old photos, they all look a bit different.

I’m a big fan of LCD Soundsystem, and its been about 5 years since I last saw them play live, at the old Academy 2 Birmingham.

2 more stunning albums later and I’m back to see them in Birmingham.

Travelled up straight from London as I was doing some work down there, and just about made it in time (mins to spare, thank you Virgin trains).

Best gig I’ve been to for ages, James Murphy is just brilliant live.