Error Creative Studio launched their new website recently. They make lovely things with websites, identities, campaigns and all sorts of other lovely bits and bobs. Here’s a bunch of photos from the website shoot and a couple of behind the scenes ditties.
Check out their website. It’s super.
Last night saw Gary Numan play Liverpool’s O2 Academy on the last night of his ‘Dead Son Rising’ tour. Support came from Jayce Lewis. Super show, love a bit of industrial/synth loveliness in Liverpool.
I’ve shot a lot of bits and bobs for LJMU recently, here’s a brief summary to catch up on what I’ve been doing. Paralympian Chris Holmes visited, the university welcomes new Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Weatherill, LJMU aquired the massive Royal Mail building on Copperas Hill and I visited the Graduation Development Centre to photograph some of the foreign students working there. Last week I was also invited to photograph some of the new buildings, new theatres and fresh student zones that have appeared over the summer. Super smart.
This is a bit of a bumper post so make sure you scroll down. ;)
Last week I was invited to the new Taste North-West evening held this month at The London Carriage Works, Liverpool. The night is used to show some of the brilliantly talented chefs and hosts from around the area. This night was hosted by Jennifer Cusack and Merseyside’s Young Chef of the Year, Rikki Vidamour cooking in the kitchen. The shooting a night like this… I got to eat! Hurrah. The food was superb and I was genuinely impressed with the whole evening. Super food and super people. There’s a full report over at Taste NW website.
You can sign up and eat an incredible dinner for a knock down price through the website. Definitely going to take the other half next time!
I’m onto the backlog of blogs from before I went away. The week before I set off for Mongolia I shot my second graduation for LJMU. 1 week, 2 ceremonies a day, a megaton of students who are a million times more clever than I am picking up their degree’s is a great thing to be a part of. I met so many ace people throughout the week. Honorary fellows Matthew Kelly and Paul Barber were particular highlights for me, both super fun and great characters. I also shot some of the students who I’ve followed through their academic progression, its been good fun documenting their rise each step of the way. Another highlight was being able to photograph the Chancellor of the university perform.
Big thanks to a great team down at LJMU who manage to pull of such a massive series of events, great to work alongside them again.
Wow, it’s been a while. For one reason, UK to Mongolia in an ambulance. Yep, we made it. Through deserts, mountains, meeting amazing people, meeting horrible people, scary driving, even scarier driving and a hell of a lot of rice and ragu we managed to get the ambulance into Mongolia where it’s going to be used by an amazing charity.
This is just a quickie, I’ve tons and tons to blog from before the rally and already a bunch of cool stuff after the rally along with a big special post on the actual rally itself.
In the meantime, I hope you’re all well and looking forward to catching up with everyone.
M x
Well as most of you know, on Saturday the 23rd July I set off on a 10,000 mile road trip from Goodwood Race Track, UK to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia in a decommissioned ambulance all in aid of the awesome Breakthrough Breast Cancer. It’s been nearly 2 years in planning this trip and suddenly everything is coming together (nearly!).
Brutal old school show last night. Dark, smokey and monstrously loud. Liverpool’s Masque is a nice arena for these guys. Filled to the brim with metallers, Liverpool got another great metal show. No photo pit, crowd surfers, stage divers and smoke machines made it pretty tough to shoot in. Received a couple of kicks to the head and tried to push my way through to the middle but with no joy. Still, I wouldn’t want a photographer standing in front of me either if I was in there. Bleh to no photopits and yay to a legendary band making it to Liverpool.
For the camera geeks. ISO 6400 all the way in here ;)
I spent a few days in Cambridge last week shooting some new marketing and promotional material for St. Johns College. Cambridge is a stunning place, I was really taken aback by its friendliness, calmness and stunning architecture. Walking round at night checking out a few locations before the shoot days felt so safe it really is remarkable. I also shot some video tests with Martin of Error Studio, interviewing students and graduates, great meeting so many people from around the world. One of the best things I love about shooting universities is that diversity. I’ve met so many amazing individuals in Liverpool too, makes me feel kinda jealous to not still be a student.
Shot for a piece in Terrorizer Magazine at Vulcan rehearsal rooms, Liverpool. Again with the last minute dash for a shot to goto press. Conan have just been signed and are due to release a new recording next year. They performed live at The Kazimier a couple of weeks back with Aethanor, Mugstar and Ex-Easter Island Head. (Click ‘Read More’ for live shots) Great show, probably the loudest I’ve seen in a long time.
It’s weird that despite Ladytron forming in Liverpool many years ago, it wasn’t until 2007 that they really caught my eye after being invited by Trent Reznor to open for Nine Inch Nails on their European tour (later they actually ended up remixing NIN for their Year Zero Remixed album). A great show in the magnificent St. Georges Hall Concert Room. Originally seated, most people had kicked the chairs away by the 4th song and were forced against the stage dancing. Good times. In support were the awesome Outfit, with a single red lamp lighting the stage it was pretty nightmarish to shoot, but that band keep getting better and better. One to watch.
Graduate show season kicks in today and yesterday I had a look at the rehearsals for LJMU’s fashion catwalk graduate show. 24 super talented designers showed off some of their awesome and some of their mind bending creations.
After shooting 3 days of Soundcity, it would be rude not to hop along and catch day 2 of HUB festival for Thrash Hits. Held on Otterspool promenade, Liverpool. It’s the first time I’ve been to Hub, a mix of skate/bmx/breakdance and music. On the cards were two bands I had to catch. Firstly, For Eyes. Been dying to see them for a while and they didn’t disappoint. Love ‘em. Secondly Hawk Eyes (formerly Chickenhawk) took to the stage with a couple of brand new tracks that are sounding awesome as well as a few killers of their first record ‘Modern Bodies’. Both these bands need to be seen.
And so concludes a barrage of music on the blog. There’s some nice commercial work coming up and some nice creative stuff to get stuck into that I’m excited about too. This week Ill be in with Conan to shoot some upcoming press bits and bobs so be sure to come and check that out.
PS: If I was a headline writer I would of titled this post “ALL EYES ON HUB” ;)
When Day 3 kicks off, I can think of nothing but sitting down somewhere and letting my mind recover after 2 mad dash run about days previously. So the Australian Showcase and BBQ at Heebie Jeebies is good place to start. The Jezebels were hotly tipped and gave a great performance in the courtyard amongst some cloudy skies and bursts of rain. Some solid performances for the final day, Marina Gasolina was excellent as well as La Faro at O2 Academy. But the highlight for me was sweating it up in Screenadelica, gig poster exhibition by day, glazed rock hole by night. Jazz Hands comprised of 1 sax player, 1 demon bassist and 3 bat-shit crazy drummers. An experience it was.
Roll on next year.
Another full day. Great conference with Drowned in Sound’s Sean Adams discussing data measuring and analytics use across social media kicked things off. Into the gigs afterward. Highlight of the evening, hearing a great bluesy growly voice coming from upstairs at Heebie Jeebies and pouring down Seel Street. Upon investigation it turned out to be Ben Caplan playing as part of the Canadian Showcase. He was flipping brilliant, had the audience singing along with his shantyesque tones (thats a word right?). Great sets from Outfit, The Chapman Family boosted the day along, finishing with returning hero Pop Levi.
Out to shoot the final day now and then HUB festival tomorrow to finish a mammoth music session. Good times.
Be sure to hit Read More, for the full gallery :D
Liverpool Soundcity kicked off yesterday. Starting for me with a conversation between photographer Kevin Cummins and musician Peter Hook. Fiery at times the two squared off on the all important question of copyright. A highlight from the word go, but I’ve been dying to get into the pit for weeks. I covered 11 bands last night and I can honestly say that they were all pretty great. Some maybe not my own cup of tea, but good performers regardless. Personal highlights include stumbling upon Minion TV in Ink and discovering how bloody great they are, The Publicist at Static was immense, intimate and a wonderful vibe, playing in near darkness with a strobe in the snare drum and a guy holding a laser across the stage it was pretty tough shooting. Seeing Delta Maid, Liverpool’s most recent export playing in the surroundings of The Bombed Out Church (St. Lukes) for the first time was awesome too.
Only the first day and I’m happy, cant wait for the next 2. Be sure to click read more and see the gallery.
Light Night comes around again. Last year I got to shoot the awesome Il mattino ha l’oro in bocca? over in the Baltic Quarter. This year I got to shoot the Candlelit Labyrinth at the Art and Design Academy. I ruddy love Light Night, it’s turning into such a great annual event, be great to take Erin to next year. Take a look over at http://www.lightnightliverpool.co.uk/ for more details.
As many of you know, I’ve known Will and his previous band of lovely gents ‘The Hot Melts’ for some time. Anyway, the ‘melts are gone and now they all each do other wonderful things. Will, has at last revealed his great quaint solo record “Tiny Little Grandeur” and we spent some time together recently getting some images for his new venture. He’s currently streaming 3/4 songs on his site. Be sure to let him know what you think of them on Facebook.
Go listen. There’s some behind the scenes iPhone shots over on my Facebook page.
Bad light is bad light. No light is even worse. Welcome to The Loft upstairs in the Masque, Liverpool.
I checked out Dan’s band Dire Wolfe last month when they supported Les Savy Fav and was more than impressed, so to get an email through asking if I’d shoot Dan at his showcase event at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts I was pretty damn pleased.
It was the 99th Roscoe Lecture at the Philharmonic Hall last night featuring business expert Lord Digby Jones. I only managed to catch his introduction, but a man with a huge history and a CV as long as a few football pitches. Impressive and quite a character.
As most of you know now (mentioned on the previous blog) I’m driving an ambulance to Mongolia in July (JULY?! That crept up!?) with 4 chums all for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. Support so far has been great, fundraising is going well, but we’re desperate for sponsorship. We’ve had bits and bobs that have been extremely welcomed, but now we’re incurring large costs as we go through Visa hell and we’re looking for businesses to help with the bills. We offer SO MUCH amazing, hi quality media and press attention in return, it really is worth checking out what we can do for you. Not to mention you get me for nowt. :)
Please go check out our website, take a look at what we can offer you.
A few of you may have seen me plugging this over twitter recently. A few weeks back after a chat with a couple of other local photographers, we decided it would be great to setup a website selling real hi-quality photographic prints for a super low price (a tenner) and donating all the profits to the British Red Cross – Japan Earthquake appeal. The few day’s that passed after the earthquake, we were bombarded with horrific, terrifying photographs of nature brutally destroying peoples homes and taking their lives in Japan. Sitting miles away, it’s very easy to feel useless and for us, a couple of photographers, this seemed like an ideal way to not be useless. The Print Aid Project.
Last week I shot a lovely group of dance students giving their final performance to Temple University in Philadelphia, USA via video link. Total great interesting concept looking at how technology is changing teaching and employment in the field of dance.
Some recent work with LJMU for their Sports Scholars promotional work. Shot in a busy gym, lots of weight lifters shouting and screaming. Made for an interesting atmosphere ;)
I was recently commissioned to photograph the new British Art room at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Kyuss – Manchester | 05.04.11 – Images by Matt Thomas
I doubted this reunion at first, thinking that Kyuss would miss Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) far too much. In the end, I decided that it I’d risk ruining their legacy and go see them (and photograph them) in Manchester. I guess most fans thought the same really, but the risk was worth taking because if they pulled it off, it would be monumental and we’d finally get to see the band that inspired and started the whole ‘stoner rock’ genre.
From the moment Mr Brant Bjork walked out on stage, followed by one Mr Nick Oliveri and Bruno ‘The New Guy’ Fevery and the opening bars of ‘Gardenia’ were bouncing off the walls you knew that this was the real deal. But what of Mr Garcia, does he still sing good? Hell YES. Yes he does.
Bathed in red light from beginning to end, with a massive backlight, it’s mega tough shooting them – but all’s fair. If they want red light, they can have red light frankly. They can have anything they want. Kyuss are back.
A few weeks ago, I spent a weekend working with some awesome people on some sport fashion using a great selection of clothes from Puma.
Watain – Liverpool | 08.03.11 – Images by Matt Thomas
I have a strong stomach. I do, I really do. But it nearly met its match at this show from Watain. It was the 10 skinned lambs heads that did it! No, thats not a joke. 10 skinned lambs heads on spikes…. on stage. The smell was unreal, but luckily soon forgotten as Watain blast through their set with their infamous stage show. There’s fire, there’s blood, there’s rotting animal flesh and there’s black metal. What more could you want?
Tell you what though. The photos beat the hell out of any boring indie.electronica stand in front of a microphone for an hour though eh?
Full review coming up on Thrash Hits.
Les Savy Fav – Liverpool | 26.02.11 – Images by Matt Thomas
Awesome Wingwalker 1st Birthday bash with 4 awesome bands. Les Savy Fav didn’t disappoint on the “we’re well weird live” front :)
Good good day. (Taken with instagram)
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