What a weekend. After QOTSA and Axl’s hissy fit in response to the crowd’s understandable reaction to him being a cock, Saturday and Sunday were awesome.

Battery power was limited, but I grabbed shots of NOFX’s secret show in the Lock Up and the sunset on Saturday.

Today, Cypress Hill took things back to the 90s before Weezer made my weekend with what was one of the festival performances I have ever seen*, involving the following:

A trampoline
A sex doll (female)
Mud
A bear hat
A Lady Gaga wig
Wheatus and MGMT covers

I don’t need to see anyone else now before this thing is finished (though I might watch a bit of Paramore and Blink 182).

* also one of the best shows, full stop. I’ve waited 15 years for this!

NOFX in the Lock Up tent:

Saturday night sunset:

Cypress Hill…hits from the bong:

Rivers Cuomo from Weezer:

Ooh yeah…

Mid-air geetar shredding: frozen. I was getting the crap kicked out of me at the front, so I set up on the side of the stage for a couple of minutes and got this.

Here’s another 3GS shot – this time taken underneath the M60 on the way out to Carrington. I’m sure it means something important.

If you’ve got an iPhone 3/3GS, you’ll no doubt know how truly awful its camera is. Anyways, walking down the road on the way for some Chinese food at the weekend, the sun was creating some great shadows, so I thought I’d grab a shot and see what I could do with it using the free Photoshop Express app.

Here’s the before……………………………………………………….and the after.

Exposure > Saturation > Contrast > Border > Done!

This is on the same stretch of road and always makes me smile whenever I walk past it. I think there used to be a bin there or something:

I think iPhone photos work best when you stop trying to make them look like the real thing and instead, process the life into them.

I’m pretty happy with this.

Sunday’s Sundae, like last year, wasn’t quite as great weather-wise, though the rain did hold off this time around and spirits remained high. I’d seen a number of nutcases running around in practically nothing over the course of the day and it became apparent why, when they took to the stage in the afternoon to promote the Pants to Poverty line of, er, pants.

Even Billy Bragg got in on the action…

Rounding things off were Doves, who prompted a somewhat civilised, yet mildly worrying rush to the stage area for their set. Hit after hit flowed, with a superb finale in ‘There Goes The Fear’. No messing, no encores.

Shaky video of the outro to ‘There Goes The Fear’ (680KB)!:

doves_benandjerrysundae

After this, it was a swift pint in VIP, then a brisk walk to Clapham Common underground for my journey home to sunny Manchester. Another good weekend’s work.

I got an unexpected call a week or so back from Ben (or was it Jerry?) asking if I could go down to London again and photograph the events at the annual Ben and Jerry’s Sundae on the Common in Clapham.

Thinking of how much free ice cream there would be (particularly the Chocolate and Manadamia – yummy!), I jumped at the chance to do it again. Then I immediately resolved to not overdo it like I had last year and limit my intake of frozen dairy product. It was like when I was a kid and ate too much, then wondered why I had tummy ache (Mum…make the pain go away!).

Some of the usual suspects were there, like the Air Guitar Dudes and Tall Info Guy on Stilts:

On Saturday afternoon, there was a giant Fair Trade pass-the-parcel. I think the idea was that it would last around 10 minutes before the prize (a golden ticket entitling one lucky punter to a year’s supply of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, if I recall), hidden in the middle, would be won.

I think it took me all of 30 seconds to leg it from the back of the stage to the crowd, by which point, chaos had ensued and the prize had been grabbed!

My highlight was Idlewild, who came out of their (6 month?) hiatus to take up second slot on the bill. It was a greatest hits set, for which the sun shone and the crowd bounced, me included.

Not wanting to blow my own trumpet, but they still have one of my shots hanging up somewhere – first photograph I ever sold. I should dig it out…ANYWAY…more importantly, the band isn’t finished – they’ll be back towards the end of the year. THAT, is good news.

I think I have owned one track by this band for about 10 years – Girls Not Grey. I thought they’d disappeared, but I think it’s more to do with the fact I’m no longer ‘down with the kids’…!

AFI at Manchester Academy

Anyway, not knowing much of their other back catalogue wasn’t an issue – still a pretty enjoyable show.

Karnivool circumnavigated the globe in March to play at Manchester Roadhouse:

I love how low the ceiling is there. I remember when I photographed Pitchshifter there in 1997 and they ended up paying for new ceiling tiles after the surfers and jumpers kicked through half of them!