2018

GMB

Breakfast TV and tbh I've been awake at 2am every night this week so it wasn't such a big deal to get up and go into London to do a projection on the ITV studio for Good Morning Britain.

Client EMF

The End of The End

Finally, we come to the end of The Orb's 30th Anniversary Tour.

Melkweg Amsterdam and I am reminded of earlier times when I came here 40 years ago to another world, of late flower power freedom and psychedelia.

The gig was preceded by a showing of Lunar Orbit - the documentary where I get a 

1⁄3rd of a second walk on part and you get to see the back of my head..

The glamour of it all.

Anyway, it looked great, if I do have to say so myself.

Photo: Wouter Bessels

Orb 2018

As we head into the last few fly-in shows of The Orb tour, there's still time to nudge some more content into place to keep the show vibrant and fresh.

Photo: David Baylis

Dua Lipa - pepsi

A long day on set earlier this year, finally found the result. Still have a lump in my finger where I trapped it in a fast fold.. ouch!

Rolls Royce - Ghost

came across some projection work I did earlier this year for director fil fury

Back on set

Back on set, this time for a sunglasses advert.
Can't say it was the most exciting day of my life but made a nice change from touring.

GBOA T&C 30 years

30 years ago today, my life took a big swerve in a new direction when I found myself doing projections for Gaye Bykers On Acid at the T&C.

A few weeks later I was away on tour with them as their lighting/visuals guy. Halfway through the tour I was joined in the VW campervan by a very young Ben Sullivan. Things were never going to be the same again.

What The Floyd - Skipton

Last show of the WTF tour in a cattle market in Skipton...
It's been nice coming back to stage lighting and nudging the show into shape.
Sad to say goodbye to the band, who are my new imaginary friends.
I didn't know cow foot trimming was a thing....

Orb US Tour

I'm home while the kids are away having fun.
It's raining.

London Guildhall - Visit Florida!

New client and a challenging gig. Aside from all the projector nonsense - and there was a lot of nonsense, it was fun being at the epicentre of the Puss In Boots panto plot.

I asked the security guard:
Q. Did Dick Whittington build the London Guildhall?
A. No
Me. Oh yes he did!

and he had a talking cat.

Sunday

Today for the first time in over 5 weeks, no alarm clock.
A day off, but of course I am woken by the return of my cat allergy, which had taken the best part of two years to die down.
Oh hum.

Back to work tomorrow.

Kempton Park Fireworks - Redux

I could just as well copy and paste the same  post from last year.
It was cold.
We had to stand around outside for 6 hours.
At least it didn't rain.

Diwali - 2018

EMF back in the square for the Diwali Festival. I sat this one out, but that's my imagination up there on the column...

What The Floyd - Narbeth

Bizarre moment when one of the audience came over at the end of the show to tell me he was one of the people in the 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' video ( the goatee guy).  He had been a model years ago and had never seen the footage before, so he was a bit freaked out when he spotted himself in the show..
Rock N Roll.

BAFTA - Without You

Back on the film set doing projections for a short ad for BAFTA.
One projector onto a wall - what could possibly go wrong?
Well, this was one of the toughest gigs in a long long time. The projector failed, the spare failed, the replacement failed and the spare replacement failed too.
I got it all working in the end, but I think my few remaining dark hairs are now a lighter shade of grey.

The Orb - UK tour

6 Shows and comedy gold with S Club 7 as support....

Sunderland Illuminations

Another stonking projection for EMF, this time in Sunderland.
If only I could bottle and sell the relief I felt when it all worked.........

The Sundering Sea

Lining a dome up with Resolume for a change.
It would have been a whole lot easier if I had some step ladders... oh hum.

We Love Bo

Have to admit, one of the coolest things I ever shot was Bo Tsui locking away in a nightclub on Swallow Street in the west end with Nick Rhodes. The footage was originally intended for Duran's Nite Runner but was only used on two shows before the whole RCM project evaporated.
Since then she has been a regular feature on my live work and sure does get the crowd going.
I bumped into Bo in a bar once a few years later and when she recognised me she jumped up and started dancing.. x

Orb Prep

The first of two long weekends of UK shows with The Orb and System 7, plus a mid-week installation for The Sunderland Illuminations in between, and then straight out onto more shows with What The Floyd.
Oh my.

What The Floyd - Castleford

What a show!
What a band.

The Orb - BlueDot Festival

PTZ Heaven

The Stasi

I've recently upgraded my onstage PTZ system.
Now as well as the tried and tested PAL Sony cameras used on the last two Duran Duran world tours, I have half a dozen Panasonic AW- HE60SE robocams and a wonderful HD-SDI switcher and matrix control system.

The Orb - Buenos Aires

deepvisual provide a scaled down video system driven by VDMX for the Orb's show at Mutek in Argentina...

Chilly Gonzales

Big time deja vu as we re-enact 'Pianovision' with Chilly Gonzales - just like we did 5 years ago at the same venue - Cadogan Hall in Chelsea.
Yet again another brilliant performance by Mr Gonzales in a camo smoking jacket and slippers..

Blackpool Pleasure Beach

I'm woken by a phone call. Can you just drive the 500 or so miles to Blackpool and back and fix their projection system?
No problem.
Sadly I wasn't there long enough to get a stick of rock or a kiss me quick hat.

RNIB EYEPOD

Some time back I made an Award Winning eye disease simulator for the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) based around an Xbox driving game and an interactive VDMX interface.
It has been used successfully by the RNIB for the last 6 years and was recently updated and reborn as the self contained Eyepod.

Back In Dublin

It must have been sometime in the early 1990s when I did this projection onto the Odlums grain store in Dublin Harbour.

We got on the local radio - someone phoned in and said they had seen a flying saucer..
Back here some 28 years later for a meeting about projections in Africa..

A Cock & Bull story

Normally I wince at the very idea of camping/working at a festival, but this small and perfectly formed gig on a farm in Wiltshire put a real smile on my face. Once more on the lighting desk.

As Promised - Pillow Fight @ Shag Mountain

That girls looks strangely familiar?

Blue Dot Festival

Comedy gold backstage after the show, when a lady 'artist' complained to me about one of The Orb's visual clips saying it "Made her feel uncomfortable as it was too sleazy".
She described the footage to me and I replied, "Oh yes, that's my daughter."
Needless to say she was a little lost for words.

Pillow Fight @ Shag Mountain

As well as charity shops and car boot sales, I occasionally do some work stuff too..
A new Orb video, this time featuring the band. Set for release sometime soon

The Orb - Doune The Rabbit Hole

What a splendid wonderful festival.
We all had a superb time and it looked like the audience did too!

Roger's Trumpet Tree

You come across the strangest things when you go outside London.

Orb Tour 2018

What The Floyd - Mini Tour

Another gig behind the MQ80
What an astonishing band.

Orbfest Roundhouse

First Time back on the lighting desk in 25 years for The Orb & Friends at the Roundhouse.
What a banging gig.
Chris from the Light Surgeons guesting on visuals

Primordial Ooze

Sometimes, you just have to get in the water and do it yourself.

Being an advanced open water diver comes in handy occasionally. So when there were problems with the pump system, as well as designing and operating the show, I spent two days in the estuary mud in chin deep water putting in the water screen. Plus I made some new friends. Pity they were all crabs.
Client EMF

Background life

That's me, twenty feet behind what you can see in this Artic Monkeys video

How The Light Gets In

A very relaxed and laid back gig on the riverside in Hay On Wye, with The Orb showcasing material from their latest album, No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds.
I got to do the lights, all eight of them...lol

Circle Sky

A full day of lip sync DOP in the studio with Circle Sky

Rush Hill Road

New vid from the Orb
All the nice shots were by Chris Allen from The Light Surgeons. I did all the clicky stuff in Davinci Resolve.

The Queen's Commonwealth Canopy

Back at the Palace for another very successful projection by EMF

No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds - The Orb

New band, new sounds, new album, new show.

What's not to like.

I'm all over it.

Behold

York - more promo

a mega 23 hour day, driving to York and back to do projections for yet another Promo.
It was a day of cold fast fold screens and my fingers still hurt.

3 legs good

Hard to believe, but it is actually possible to have too many tripods.
I've managed to keep it down to 5 these days, a studio column stand, a pro video tripod, two photo tripods and a travel tripod. So imagine my distress when my beloved photo 055 pro Manfrotto somehow mysteriously got damaged  a while back- two of the leg locks sheared off by persons unknown???

Anyway, after two years of pondering which model of tripod I should replace it with, I finally came to my senses, ordered the replacement parts online and 3 days later it's as good as new.

It's the little things that count.

Fashion

Something something London Fashion Week

Yet another day in the studio

another fun day of filming and projections, yet again NDA keeps details vague,
Next time I'll be using a Hyperdeck

back in the black hole

fun day in Black Island Studios with someone super famous, who I can't mention, but my dad would have been very impressed.. As famous people go, he was quite lovely and took the trouble to shake hands with every single person in the room..
an event that has happened so many times that I can count them on the fingers of one thumb

The Orb - Butlins

My family were too poor to visit Butlins for a holiday. I remember being aged 6 in a caravan on the wrong side of the fence, peaking over it at the swish monorail that snaked around the camp.
FFWD 50 odd years and it's time for The Orb to premiere their new line up and album at the Rockaway Beach festival.
Having the flu didn't help but I made it to the end of what I thought was a wonderful gig..

Sunrise 2018

Delighted to see Duran Duran loving my new onstage video for "Reach up for the Sunrise"

pic stolen from  bbamok... x