December was a busy month for me. I guess it can be for a lot of people. Time seems to compress into a rush of things that need to be done before December 25th or the New Year.
This December, I made a trip up to Lancaster to visit my sister and brother-in-law, I photographed the wedding of two great old friends, and I attended a couple of gigs. There was also excitement around the release of the album “Affinity” on December 5th, an album I provided the cover photo for and one which I’ve listened to a lot since its release. I’m now looking forward to receiving a copy of this on vinyl, and I’ll be interested to see how my photo looks on the front of an LP cover.
This was all punctuated by catching a nasty cold (I’m guessing at one of the gigs), navigating the rounds of Christmas-related shopping, a broken down oven that needed fixing (great timing, I got it fixed on December 23rd) and visits to friends.
Wedding photography. Yes, I have done it several times before, but it’s something I find very stressful, and I have turned people down on many occasions over the years.
But this one was an occasion I felt more relaxed about. Two very close and special friends had decided to ‘make it official’ after 20 years together. The wedding was on December 16th, 20 years to the day after their first date. They are two lovely people who I knew wouldn’t be putting incredible pressure on me.
Despite this, I decided to visit the wedding venue a couple of weeks in advance to scout it out and see what the lighting would be like. A trademark phrase of a good friend of mine is “set yourself up to succeed”, and I felt better for getting an idea in advance of the conditions I would encounter. As it transpired, I was shown the wrong room when I visited, but conditions were very similar, so it wasn’t a problem.
On the day, as I drove to the venue, I felt incredibly anxious, but this eased once I arrived and started shooting. The couple had booked a lovely old two-tone pink Vauxhall Cresta to transport them to and from the venue, and my brief was to make sure I got plenty of photos of them with the car. I’m not going to share photos here of any of the people attending the wedding out of respect for their privacy, but I wanted to share one of this beautiful old car.
Two gigs I really wanted to get to in December both featured JJ Lovegrove. Both were in Leicester, one at the O2 Academy and one at Duffy’s Bar as part of the excellent “Up The Duffy’s” monthly event.
For the gig at O2 Academy, JJ was supporting Then Jerico. It’s a larger venue than I’m used to shooting in, and I decided to leave my camera at home that night. This was mainly because I thought the venue wouldn’t like it. It was only when I was at the gig, chatting with Judi, that I learned I could have requested a photographer’s pass and been allowed to shoot from the ‘press pit’ for the first three songs of each set. I’m kicking myself a bit, as having that kind of access for photography at a gig has been something I’ve dreamed of for many years. It was a great night, and I was delighted that Judi got lots of new ears listening to her music.
“Up The Duffy’s” is a monthly music night held at Duffy’s Bar in Leicester. It evolved out of the brilliant “Soundhive Social” events, which were hosted here to encourage people back to gigs in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. I don’t really do “New Year Resolutions”, but I have told myself that I really need to make it to more nights of “Up The Duffy’s” this year.
As this is hosted at one of my usual smaller music venues, I took my camera along and got a few shots of the artists performing that night: Boilerverse, JJ Lovegrove, Boilers, and Velvet Crisis. There had been an incident of double booking for the room, which meant that things got underway a bit later than normal, and, sadly, I had to cut my stay a bit short, so I was only there for maybe half of the Velvet Crisis set. But I had a great night, excellent music to enjoy, some lovely chats with people and of course, I enjoyed using my camera. I’ll share a few of my photos from the night below.
All photos taken using Fuji X-T5 along with the 56mm f1.2 and the 27mm f2.8.
Great images of the bands, and the lovely Cresta. Must get down to Duffy’s sometime, a couple of friends of mine go down regularly. I’ve been down to the international recently.
The “Up The Duffy’s” nights are something rather special. Next one is on January 25th, doors at 17:30. However, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make that one. I’ve enjoyed several gigs at The International over the last year, I like that there’s a bit more space and a quick and easy side door to pop out for a vape *cough* 🙂
So glad you recovered in time to get along to the gigs Chris. I’ll definitely be making sure we get you that press pit access this year that’s for sure 🖤
Thank you for dropping by and taking a look here. Yeah, I should have asked about it before the gig, but I don’t like to bug you (believe it or not…). Did you catch the Woman’s Hour interview with Janet and Fish the other day? I managed to catch it again today when I turned on the radio and Weekend Woman’s Hour just happened to be on. Great to hear Up The Duffy’s get a mention on national radio, and wonderful to hear our local music scene get some much-deserved attention.