We can win ..

 

 

 

 

 

It's time for The Olympics, and how exciting that they're over here in France. We looked into going to see an event or two but soon realised that - what with the ticket prices, travel and hotels - we'd be much better off sitting in our front room and watching the games with a stash of unsporty beer, crisps and chocolate ..

Tonight's opening ceremony has put me in mind of 1993, when Manchester made a bid for the 2000 Olympics. Didn't get them, of course, but the advertising of the bid made for a few nice pictures. Manchester Town Hall, Cornerhouse and the Evening News offices all sported promotional material but, should you happen to be in Manchester at the moment, I wouldn't waste your time looking for any of these buildings. The Town Hall is still shrouded in scaffolding and tarpaulin whilst it undergoes renovation, Cornerhouse (An arts venue) disappeared in 2015 and the Manchester Evening News hasn't had an office in its own city for .. ooh, bloody ages! Anyway, good luck to all the athletes, especially those in my favourite sport .. breakdancing!!

 

It's all about me ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the risk of becoming boring, can I point you to a nice little article about me that's just appeared in the Manchester Evening News ..

That's it. End of blog ..

Slebs ..

I've been in Foo Foo Lamar's bedroom! Now, if you're not from Manchester, that statement won't mean a thing, so let me explain. Frank 'Foo Foo' Lamar was a Drag Queen who ran his own club - Foo Foo's Palace - in Manchester, for years and years. He raised kerjillions for charity though, sadly, died of cancer over ten years ago. Anyway, let's get back to his bedroom! The Manchester Evening News launched a new weekly magazine in the 90s and, rather flatteringly, chose me as one of its small posse of snappers. They decided they'd run an article on 'Celebrities in their bedrooms' .. (?) .. so I got the job of hoiking my 645 transparency camera around the city and squeezing myself between the wardrobes and dressing tables of the more-well known citizens of Manchester. Rowetta, from The Stone Roses, was another whose bedroom I've shared! (Oooh, Matron!) I mention this because I've just turfed up rather a lot of celebrity photographs from my days on the 'papers, so I decided to design a 'Slebs' page on my web-site. Alas, as I was working for the press, a lot of my shots are long gone, but the ones I managed to salvage are a fascinating look back at the days when being famous meant you'd actually done more in your life than marry a footballer or sung for two-minutes on a Saturday night talent (?) contest! Anyway, have a look via StudioFiveFour Photography. See how many you can name! There's everyone from Peter Ustinov to Sooty, via Maggie Thatcher, Terry Wogan and a very young Steve Coogan!
Oh, and Foo Foo? Great legs .. 

A friend dropping out ..

The Manchester Evening News used to be massive. It was known as the 'friend dropping in'. I was the second ever freelance photographer to start working for them. The man before me was the late, great Derek Eastwood who, like the late, great Weegee, had a radio receiver in his car and would arrive at many a serious crash or major fire long before the emergency services. The MEN, being a newspaper, would very often use this work and Derek made a very good living from it, thank you very much. I started there in 1982 and became very quickly established as one of the 'crew', working practically every day for them under the guidance of the late, great Picture Editor Stan Royle and, on one momentous occasion, getting a staggering 27 photographs in the 'paper in one night! They sent me to Libya once too, for goodness sake, though that might have been their way of cutting down my earnings for a wee while!..

Well, they've cut freelance earnings now alright because, today, they announced that they will no longer be using freelance photographers on the 'paper. Thirteen snappers are out on their ears, and they were all probably only freelance because, as was the case with me, they'd already been made redundant from a newspaper in the first place! Oh, what a sad day!..

Do you know the most ironic think about this 'end of an era' moment? It was announced by the Associate Editor, a Mr W. Ankers...

Dead Sexy ..

Now here's one way the Manchester Evening News could buck up its circulation .. boobs and dead bodies .. in yer face, wham bam, hands up! It's the front page of a newspaper I brought back from Brazil (I told you I never throw anything away!) and I thought I'd show it you today, what with all the excitement of the World Cup in that country and all. Click on the pic for your full on close-up!..

The paper's dated 21st September 1990, so I don't know if newspaper styles have changed over there or what but hey, it sure made me buy it, even though I can't read a word of the text! It's certainly different to any press photography I ever shot! Oh, and there are three more corpses inside the paper.
No more boobs though!..


  

The power of the press ..

Well, that all took off rather quickly! I mentioned yesterday that I'd been called by a reporter from the Manchester Evening News. They wanted to do an article about the Joy Division gig I shot .. 35 years ago! They rang at 9.30 .. and the article was online by 3.30 (I think it's going in the 'paper today!) Well, my website went bananas! The home page received over 800 hits and is still ticking over nicely this morning, with the actual Joy Division page heading for the 800 mark as well. Anyway, you can read the article here! Funny, as much as I think everybody must have seen the shots by now it's great to still get emails coming in telling me how much new viewers like them. Thank you ..

Music is definitely in the air today, as I'm off to shoot a rather-renowned bass guitar player this afternoon. I recently had one of those 'Aren't you the guy off the telly?' moments - dribbling lightly from the corner of my mouth - when I saw this cool looking dude at a party I was at. Cut a long story short, turns out he was 'the guy off the telly', so I asked if we could get together for some portraits and .. well, now you're up to speed. No doubt an image will grace this blog on the morrow! ..

Rock on ..





 

Send in the army ..

So, let me get this straight..

The task in hand is pretty important but, to save money, you sack the professional and get a part-timer in, someone who does the work as a hobby at the weekends. Right? Well that sounds a recipe for disaster if ever I heard one! And what if they get killed? It doesn't bear..

Oh, sorry! No, I'm not talking about Wedding Photographers here (As if I'd complain about people booking cheap amateur 'photographers' - ie: camera-owners - to cover their Weddings! As if...) No, I'm talking about the Army, which is to lay off 20,000 troops and replace them with part-time TA soldiers. I mean, I've got nothing against the TA - I'm sure they strive hard to achieve the standards of the regulars - but there goes another layer of professionalism down the pan as we yet again we hear the cry of "That'll do!"

Actually, "that'll do" should be printed on the mast-head of the Manchester Evening News. It was bad enough when it layed off the last of its staff photographers (Hi Mark!) but now it's decided it's not even going to employ freelance photographers, and will make do with shots supplied by its coterie of weekly newspaper shooters and erm .. the public! Recently there was a fire in South Manchester and the MEN tweeted "Anyone got any photographs of it?" "Why.." I replied "don't you send in a photographer?"