Crossing the line ..

People ask me if I still photograph gigs and the answer, I'm afraid, is no. Ok, I might shoot a few snaps when I go to see someone, but nothing that you'd call 'professional'. Probably because I don't actually go to many gigs anymore. There aren't any new bands that I like, and I hate to sit through a gig when it's somebody I don't like. The main reason though, is access. Three songs and you're out. That's all a pro snapper is given these days. None of that hanging around and walking on the stage like I did with Joy Division. I hate the way groups are kept so separate from the fans - those big metal barriers that say 'Stay away' from us ..

Today's shot is from the gig I went to in London a couple of weeks ago. Believe it or not a steward told me to 'get back behind the line' when I was standing thus that Saturday. Rock 'n roll? I think it died and went to Health and Safety school ..

From on high ..

A look back at the history of Health and Safety here as, in around 1977, I was allowed to go up in the cherry-picker being used by these council workers as they put the lights on the civic Christmas tree in Eccles! No 'clearance from the top', no straps, no 'emergency' lecture, no hard hat! I just asked and they took me up! What a simpler, more relaxed era! If I could have one wish for Chrimbo I'd have the return of that 'take responsibility for yourself' attitude...

.. and a train set!

Healthy, safe! ..

Hard hat? Check! Hi-Viz vest? Check! Safety goggles? Gloves!!? Check! ..

Good grief, anyone would think I was going down a 300 metre mine-shaft yesterday, rather than standing on the edge of a building site, fenced off in a 'safe' area away from the diggers, just to take a PR photograph of a councillor holding a garden spade! Health and Safety is going nuts! I just thank my lucky stars they decided that, after taking all our shoe sizes, we didn't need to wear steel toe-capped boots after all!..

There'll be none of that nonsense for this afternoon's Wedding. In fact, if it wasn't for all the gear I carry to a Wedding, I wouldn't even need my car today! Everything that's going to happen is so close to my house that I could walk between the bride's house, the church and the reception venue. All very safe, and all very healthy! Just don't tell anyone that I'll be climbing up a ladder to shoot the group shot..

PS: Check out the event here... Look, it's me!!

Strap me down ..

Sorry to go on about 'the old days' but the subject was inevitable - or should I say, obligatory - when me and my pals got together at the weekend. One old Yah-Boo that came up was the ever-present - well, it is these days - problem of 'Health and Safety'. We're all fed up with it!..

I've shown you before the photographs of me standing on top of a 300 foot high chimney stack in nothing more than my work jacket and a pair of trendy 1980 flares. I climbed up a ladder on the outside of it with not so much as a sniff of a safety rope or hard-hat! You can read that blog here, and now here's another one I've found for you to enjoy. This was the time I went up in an RAF Hercules to photograph the Red Devils Parachute team. I think it was in 1980 or '81. First finger up to H&S was the fact that I took off - standing up - in the cockpit of the aircraft, and then I stuck the full two fingers up by walking to the back of the plane and standing at the edge of the open ramp to take pictures as we swooped over Barton Aerodrome! Tied in? Strapped down? Get lost!..

Bonkers...

Oh, to be in England! There's been a massive road-works job going on around our way, with a thin trench being dug over a distance of quite a few miles by a company working for the 'electric'. Once they've filled in the trench and put tarmac over their work, they repaint any traffic instructions their digging has removed. Thing is, they literally only paint over what they've dug up and so, because the original warnings were almost completely worn away, we're now left with this whole series of Os and OVs running for miles through the area! Brilliant! (This is part of the word SLOW, in case you're confused!)

Yesterday, a PR photographer pal of mine phoned to ask my advice as he's been told he's required to send in a Risk Assessment form for a shoot they want him to do. 'Will it be dangerous?..' I asked 'Are you likely to cause an accident? Could someone get hurt?...' He laughed, bitterly! 'Well, what exactly is the job?..' I pushed. 'It's a portrait of a man sitting at his desk!..' he sighed! I ask you!..

Oh, sod it, let's have one more! When we were landing during my holiday last week I was told by the stewardess to ... switch off my camera! Stayed tuned: I'm writing to the company for an explanation!

England! You don't have to be mad to live here, but it helps...