A Year In Gigs - Part 1

As it's the time of year that lists become the staple of blogs across the globe (and there will be many to come on here!) I thought I'd start with putting up a couple of gig shots from each month of the year. They don't necessarily represent my favourite gigs, or my favourite photographs, but something drew me to each as I looked back through the years catalogue. This covers January to June, and I'll put the second part up later in the month (mainly because I've not actually shot any December shows yet!).

January

Endor - King Tuts Consistently one of my favourite bands, a highlight from the King Tuts New Years Revolution gigs. This is from my first show of the year.

Twin Shadow - Captains Rest Love/Hate relationship with this venue. Love gigs there, hate shooting there. This was a fun one though, the frontman decided to take a photo of me taking a photo of him. The joy of literally being within sniffing distance of the bands.

February

Conquering Animal Sound - Captains Rest Their album launch show, which is something that will probably feature in another list to come. Horribly dark lighting again but included because the show was stunning and their album is one of my favourites of the year.

James Blake - Nice N Sleazy This was my first publish in a glossy monthly, hence it's inclusion here. Otherwise not overly fond of the shot or performer.

March

Blitz Kids - Cathouse See the next shot for explanation of this one.

D.R.U.G.S - Cathouse So I woke up on Sunday morning with an e-mail from an LA photo agency looking for shots of this show. Queue a manic Sunday trying to secure a photo pass. Nobody was working or answering their phone, so I showed up at the Cathouse and blagged my way in to the photo pit. Support (Blitz Kids, above) and Destroy Rebuild were awesome and well worth the stressful day. Far from the best shot of the show but sums up how manic the day, and the show, were.

April

Frightened Rabbit (feat Twilight Sad) - MONO Only one shot this month as I was pretty busy outwith the gig circuit. This is from the annual Record Store day celebrations. James Graham of The Twilight Sad joined Frightened Rabbit on stage for one song and it was bloody marvellous. Great show to end a great day at which I spent way, way too much money.

May

United Fruit - Oran Mor Another band that will come up again in the weeks to come. Really love these guys, and in particular the phenomenal shapes that bassist Marco pulls on stage. This was supporting ASIWYFA as part of a particularly epic line-up.

Trapped In Kansas - Oran Mor On the same bill as the shot above, this was the first time I'd seen TiK. Really like this shot.

June

Song of Return - The Arches These guys played their debut album start to finish at this show and it was a pretty special night. This is drummer Pete Kelly. Their new single is out digitally tomorrow (December 5th) go hunt it down!

Kasabian - Rockness Festival Main Stage My first festival of the year, these guys headlined the first night. Amazing how much the crowd lap up everything they do, they are great showmen and have an obviously passionate fan base.