The Orb - Chester

Someone leaned over the rails at the end of the show and demanded that 'those people covered in glitter should dance for The Orb'

Anglia Studios Norwich

It's the quiz of the week

Back at the old Anglia TV studios and it's our first multiscreen show in a while.

An 8-Bit coincidence

Added some 8-Bit graphics to the start of the show and would you believe, someone posts this the same day...

The Orb - Inverness

With live Sitar this time, from Suns Of Arqa - Wadada.

Beardy Weirdy

A detour back in time for The Orb to a land of psy-trance and composite video in the MegaDog tent at Bearded Theory Festival.

I had a wonderful time and didn't want to leave

Back on The Orb tour

A banging night in a crowded venue in Verulamium.

Someone asked me to turn up the Aircon during the show..
I mean do I look like an AC engineer?

What The Floyd - Tour of the Orkneys & Shetland

We were so far north that the north was 200 miles south of where we were.
Six back to back shows, clean air, some colourful 'local' characters and some cracking performances.  Even the local papers loved us.

Orkney News: "the light show was superb"

The Orb - Mackintosh Church Glasgow

At the last church The Orb played at, the Christian staff were less than friendly and didn't hide their disapproval, but this venue had wonderful people and amazing architecture.

photo Ross Siddle.

Orb Sound System

A bit of a busman's holiday - in the audience for a change.

Re-textured - Queen Elizabeth Hall

Photo - Terry Choggis

The Orb

The Orb in action

pic Justin Gimblett

On tour with The Orb

Tempted live - Duran Duran

As promised, onstage video for Tempted shot by Nick Rhodes, Nefer Suvio and yours truly..

Apocalypse Now

Sailing the dutch barge narrowboat Adelente down the Shropshire Union Canal can get a little like a Francis Ford Coppola Movie at times.
There are some very unusual people here on the canals, and I might be one of them.

Devil's

A day well spent, filming My Bad Sister for Duran Duran live.
As usual, a spiffing time was had by all..

Canary Wharf

A late night light test for a big mapping project next year.
Client EMF

Day off? No chance

Most kids want to borrow the car, or need a new iPhone.
This one wants visuals for a show in Vegas.

Ibibio Sound Machine

Very excited to be working with this super cool band

Winter Lights - Canary Wharf

A cold wet and very smelly day spent in a river bed at Canary Wharf installing the projection system for Winter Lights.. A 5 projector blend in resolume with 5.1 surround sound from Qlab and a dollop of timecode for good measure.
It was fine, but of course you can't have a job that involves a 'Video Artist' without something going wrong.  Oh hum..

client EMF

Berlin - Promo shoot

Much drama on set as the 10m circumference screen ends up as a 10m diameter screen.
We got there in the end, but it was a bumpy ride.

Dublin NYE 2019

Two big waterscreens in the middle of the river for New Year's Eve in Dublin.
Best part of the week was some young chap diving off the bridge into the bitterly cold river during the show.

Client EMF

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.