Memoirs of a Roadie

Kings of Evermore

Posted on 17th October 2007

Bleeding Hearts @ The Boarshead Taphouse, Kidderminster

A couple of weekends ago, I went along to The Boarshead Taphouse in Kidderminster to witness the live recording of the new Bleeding Hearts live album. After playing for around 2 hours, and considering it was free entry, I would call that value for money. I told Nicole's brother that I'd got him in on the guest list, which he thought was great until he saw the poster advertising free entry :) The boys played a great selection of old, new and unreleased songs and ripped up a storm. The live album is only likely to feature around 10 songs from the 20+ set, so hopefully they'll be able to include a few classics in there.

As previously, I took my camera along. The first 30 minutes of the set I tried to record on video. Unfortunately several people kept wandering in front of the camera, so although none of the tracks are suitable for professional airing, Nick was thinking of adding one or two to Bleeding Hearts's own website. I now have a new 5"+ tripod, so hopefully I can get a better viewpoint for recording video in the future. I ended up taking over 1,000 photos, which worked out at roughly 16 shots a minute, and whittled it down to 175 for my selection. I've given the boys over 300 to choose from for their own purposes and have already asked whether they can use them on the inner sleeve of the album, which will be nice.

However, the venue wasn't the best for lighting, so I had some problems with some of the shots. I haven't got a top of the range camera, so lighting is important. Despite trying several settings to get the best out of the camera, the shutter speed still isn't fast enough for my liking. There were some great shots I would have liked to have got of Gel and Nick, but the light from the PAR cans was just too weak to capture them mid-movement. The Roadhouse photos came out much better simply because of the professional lighting rig the venue has, so I hope this set doesn't prove too disappointing for them.

A while ago I considered buying a small lighting rig, so that when I take photos of Nicole or her band, Slim Pickins, I can focus the lights and use the colour gels, just as I want them. Then I can bring them along to gigs for friends like Bleeding Hearts, and give them a much better stage lighting, and thus take much better photos. Unfortunately these sort of small rigs don't usually turn up on eBay, so I'll have to put the feelers out to my music industry contacts to see if anyone is selling off some old equipment. They'd be great for house parties for the kids in the summer too. DanDan and Ethne can pretend they're doing a real gig :)

For my selection of photos from the Bleeding Hearts gigs, see the links below:

• 29th Sept 2007 - Boarshead Taphouse, Kidderminster
  
• 21st Apr 2007 - The Roadhouse, Stirchley, Birmingham
  

Widow's Peak

Posted on 17th October 2007

Suspected Black Widow found in grapes from Tescos

How close have you been to a Black Widow spider? <--- This close (see photo)? Although it's not yet been confirmed by the RSPCA, we suspect this is an immature female Black Widow spider. A colleague bought some grapes from our local Tesco on Gloucester Business Park, and was rather shocked to see this little beauty crawling around. Searching the internet, it would seem this isn't the first time Tesco has been caught out by giving their customers a free pet with their grapes.

Unfortunately I didn't have my usual camera with me, so had to make do with the camera on my phone, but you can see enough detail to see that it's similar to the image we found on the web. The arachnid has now been taken away by the RSPCA, and should hear back from them once they've been able to confirm the species. My colleague has already contacted Tesco, so we'll see what their official response is once he relays the details from the RSPCA.

The bag the grapes originally came in has no country of origin, which I thought wasn't allowed these days, but we suspect it's from America. I've heard of instances like this, but this is the first time I've seen it first hand. I'm intrigued to see what happens next.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Posted on 6th October 2007

I can't quite believe that September is over already! 4 family birthdays, including my own, loads to do at work and plenty of personal projects and I still have yet to fully clear out my home office so that Ethne can have her own bedroom. I've still tons to do for this month, but there is an end in sight. Well until next month anyway :)