Tuesday 4 May 2010
Monday 29 March 2010
Frost Hammer
I've decided to put together an editorial style piece about the band in which I play.
The two other band members and myself formed the band in the autumn of 2008, around the same time I began the Foundation Degree. As the course progressed, as did the band.
The ugly bastards pictured within this post are Rob Barnes, Keith Daisy and Myself. Rob is a good old mate who shares my belief in good old fashioned heavy metal. Keith is an old school chum who has spent more money on drums than he has on shaving materials. Incidentally, shaving is for girls.
As the band is moving from the rehearsal space into the live performance phase of it's lifespan, I feel motivated to photograph our efforts for prosperity. My plan is to show this in an Editorial fashion, as would be shown in a music magazine where they talk about real bands.
Tuesday 23 March 2010
Ok so the idea that I've decided to run with will be related to the band in which I play.
The band is called Frosthammer and surprisingly, we have a myspace page. This can be found HERE.
With that self-righteous bout of promotion out of the way, on to the idea.
Tuesday 16 March 2010
Ohh, what is it?
The first ever blog by Andy, on the blogging website known as blogger where bloggers gather to write blogs and read blogs by other bloggers.
I hate the word blog.
So some background info isn't really relevant... or it could be... but it will give me a chance to use/abuse the concept of a blog in some form of beta test phase.
I hate the word beta.
I'm Andy; mid-twenties, hairy and bearded. Often compared to a teddy bear (stuffed with fire-retardant shite). I learned to be creative from an early age, starting with the recorder, then moving to piano and violin and eventually electric bass. Failed academically at music due to difference of opinion on the pronunciation of "Chopin". Turned my hobby in photography to a potential academic pathway at Sixth form college but found that drinking between classes was far more inspiring and infinitely more rewarding. Strangely enough my success was in media studies although I was never allowed to finish the second year of the course due to more personal differences, this time over the use of the word "Diphthong".
After a soul searching' summer holiday to Greece, where I discovered the contradictory nature of Mediterranean public nudity laws, I found myself arriving at Farnborough Tech full of ideas and bile. My n00bish opinions and knowledge picked up from Sixth Form were quickly exorcised by the Cardinal of photographic wisdom that is James Cooper. The latter portion of this course was spent dwelling on one important thought; the real world was rearing its vast ugly head!
Having achieved an ND in photography meant that I then had to find work. I frequently suggested to bands, local and otherwise, that they ought to be paying me money for the photographs I was taking of them. I knew their position, as the band I was playing in at the time (http://www.myspace.com/mfkzt) was operating on zero funds and not even attempting to break even. This changed in the new year when we travelled to Ghent in Belgium. The promoter gave us hearing damage and we made back 200% of our expenses, not to mention receiving a crate of Belgium's scummiest (therefore UK's finest) bottled larger.
Our renewed enthusiasm spawned TWO tours of England and a mid afternoon slot at Bloodstock indoor festival '05. I then gained tonsillitis and left home.
Around this time, I had gone from being a part-time lazy peon to being a full-time lazy peon, albeit a lazy peon who had now learned to prepare and sell raw meat and fish. I learned many useful things during this time. The two most important things were that the closest flesh eaten by man to the flesh OF a man, is the flesh of a pig and that the landing of whole Skate was prohibited in most of Europe due to the fish's resemblance to a vagina.
The more exciting part of this period was finally having left home. I by no means dislike my parents but I feel less guilty about pissing off two close friends instead of the people who fed and clothed me as a child. Sharing a house with friend's offered two big advantages; playing far too many hours of multi-player video games and building a recording studio in the living room. There was also the valuable opportunity to get seriously laid, as women respect a man of responsibility and plus I could bring home "guests" without arousing suspicion. Unfortunately my inability to arouse much else brought this idea to a grinding halt.
The tenancy came to a close when the issue of paying rent came back to bite us in the backside. I left the house as the ONLY tenant who had handed in all rent checks on time, to date my greatest achievement. Of the good times we took away from our time in the house, one friend had met his girlfriend now of four years, the other had discovered his inability to mow the lawn.
Moving back in with my parents was the hardest thing I've ever had to do and may have been a major contributing factor to my being a miserable prick at every opportunity. Again, I love my parents to pieces; not many people would take back their eldest after a failed nest abandoning. It was the feeling of loosing the perks that come with such freedom. The late hours, the living room of nerd paraphernalia, the hot boxing of the kitchen etc. Never again would I able to entertain a lady on the couch with my vast collection of Magic The Gathering cards...
The work situation also collapsed rapidly, over a period of two years. After requesting the assistence of the Union of which I was a suck....member, I discovered that the Union representatives were bed-fellowing with middle management. This put a dampener on the whole "fair trial" concept of Retail Disciplinary Procedures and so I packed up and got out of dodge. Opportunity presented itself by chance when I happened across a drunk patron of a pub in Farnborough. The man pursued me across the car park and insisted I come back to Farnborough Tech to take up the Degree course in photography.
Man I hate blogs.
I hate the word blog.
So some background info isn't really relevant... or it could be... but it will give me a chance to use/abuse the concept of a blog in some form of beta test phase.
I hate the word beta.
I'm Andy; mid-twenties, hairy and bearded. Often compared to a teddy bear (stuffed with fire-retardant shite). I learned to be creative from an early age, starting with the recorder, then moving to piano and violin and eventually electric bass. Failed academically at music due to difference of opinion on the pronunciation of "Chopin". Turned my hobby in photography to a potential academic pathway at Sixth form college but found that drinking between classes was far more inspiring and infinitely more rewarding. Strangely enough my success was in media studies although I was never allowed to finish the second year of the course due to more personal differences, this time over the use of the word "Diphthong".
After a soul searching' summer holiday to Greece, where I discovered the contradictory nature of Mediterranean public nudity laws, I found myself arriving at Farnborough Tech full of ideas and bile. My n00bish opinions and knowledge picked up from Sixth Form were quickly exorcised by the Cardinal of photographic wisdom that is James Cooper. The latter portion of this course was spent dwelling on one important thought; the real world was rearing its vast ugly head!
Having achieved an ND in photography meant that I then had to find work. I frequently suggested to bands, local and otherwise, that they ought to be paying me money for the photographs I was taking of them. I knew their position, as the band I was playing in at the time (http://www.myspace.com/mfkzt) was operating on zero funds and not even attempting to break even. This changed in the new year when we travelled to Ghent in Belgium. The promoter gave us hearing damage and we made back 200% of our expenses, not to mention receiving a crate of Belgium's scummiest (therefore UK's finest) bottled larger.
Our renewed enthusiasm spawned TWO tours of England and a mid afternoon slot at Bloodstock indoor festival '05. I then gained tonsillitis and left home.
Around this time, I had gone from being a part-time lazy peon to being a full-time lazy peon, albeit a lazy peon who had now learned to prepare and sell raw meat and fish. I learned many useful things during this time. The two most important things were that the closest flesh eaten by man to the flesh OF a man, is the flesh of a pig and that the landing of whole Skate was prohibited in most of Europe due to the fish's resemblance to a vagina.
The more exciting part of this period was finally having left home. I by no means dislike my parents but I feel less guilty about pissing off two close friends instead of the people who fed and clothed me as a child. Sharing a house with friend's offered two big advantages; playing far too many hours of multi-player video games and building a recording studio in the living room. There was also the valuable opportunity to get seriously laid, as women respect a man of responsibility and plus I could bring home "guests" without arousing suspicion. Unfortunately my inability to arouse much else brought this idea to a grinding halt.
The tenancy came to a close when the issue of paying rent came back to bite us in the backside. I left the house as the ONLY tenant who had handed in all rent checks on time, to date my greatest achievement. Of the good times we took away from our time in the house, one friend had met his girlfriend now of four years, the other had discovered his inability to mow the lawn.
Moving back in with my parents was the hardest thing I've ever had to do and may have been a major contributing factor to my being a miserable prick at every opportunity. Again, I love my parents to pieces; not many people would take back their eldest after a failed nest abandoning. It was the feeling of loosing the perks that come with such freedom. The late hours, the living room of nerd paraphernalia, the hot boxing of the kitchen etc. Never again would I able to entertain a lady on the couch with my vast collection of Magic The Gathering cards...
The work situation also collapsed rapidly, over a period of two years. After requesting the assistence of the Union of which I was a suck....member, I discovered that the Union representatives were bed-fellowing with middle management. This put a dampener on the whole "fair trial" concept of Retail Disciplinary Procedures and so I packed up and got out of dodge. Opportunity presented itself by chance when I happened across a drunk patron of a pub in Farnborough. The man pursued me across the car park and insisted I come back to Farnborough Tech to take up the Degree course in photography.
Man I hate blogs.
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