Gary Gilmore's Eyes

Anyone who has a punk compilation will probably have heard of the song "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" by The Adverts. Former front-man TV Smith played a small intimate acoustic gig in Reading last week, and kindly agreed to let me photograph him for the book. It was a great gig, and the stripped down acoustic versions of his songs spanning his whole career going back the best part of 40 years were stunning!

Ben Richards Photo Session

I spent a great afternoon in the company of actor Ben Richards photographing him for the next book. Ben is now 12 months in remission from bowel cancer and was very enthusiastic to get involved. In this particular photo he posed with the Beating Bowel Cancer tie supporting the Follow The Bowel Cancer Tie group on Facebook so have a look at that here. I shall save the full story for the book as the afternoon turned into a great story in itself with me getting unique access to rehearsals for the Rock of Ages musical Ben is about to go on tour with. Once again the support for this project never fails to surprise and just when I think things can't get any better they do! Thanks so much to Ben for his support and I am definitely going to catch Rock of Ages on tour in the coming months.

Matthew Wright on Board + Latest News

The big news this Easter for book 2 has been Matthew Wright host of The Wright Stuff on Channel 5 coming on board. I sent him a request after seeing his support for Beating Bowel Cancer on the charity's website. I sent him a tweet and literally within minutes with the help of Mark Flannagan the Chief Executive of Beating Bowel Cancer I was in direct contact with Matthew. We are going to meet up next month where I will photograph him for the book. This is a great development and brilliant gesture from Matthew, which along with the recent support of Status Quo is beginning to get things moving in a really exciting direction.

It would be great to get a few more media personalities on board as well as a few sporting celebrities. There is some sporting news in the offing thanks to the help of a recently made acquaintance, Norma de Bidaph from Gearlink Kawasaki and bowel cancer patient. The momentum is growing and as the whole project gathers pace it becomes more and more interesting.

Status Quo Experience

My recent experience of photographing Status Quo from the press pit at the Hammersmith Apollo on their Frantic Four reunion tour was absolutely amazing. It really felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity and I had such a great time. I managed to take about 200 photos in the 10 minutes you are allowed in the pit before being ejected from the venue! The full story along with some of the very best photos will appear in the forthcoming book, and I am really happy with the results. The photo below gives shows just how close to stage I was... Thanks Quo! :)

There are a couple of other opportunities hopefully happening over the coming weeks, and if a few more artists could come on board like Quo did then it would be so good. As I have also previously said though the book is very much about the ordinary "people" photos in whatever guise they may take, and I shall be spending the vast majority of my time out there getting those shots for the book.