Kirstie Hunt Photography

JLS are Jim Kirkpatrick, Les Hunt (Climax Blues Band) & Steve Hayes (Nearly Dan), not quite what you had in mind?  A little bit older and a lot more talented!  This gig was at the Crown Ballroom in Nantwich as part of the infamous jazz and blues festival - or jazz and booze festival as it's affectionally known!  We like to catch the earlier gigs and escape before the town gets too full of people - bit of a lightweight me(!), but even for a Sunday afternoon, there was a pretty full house and they went down a storm.

I was very pleased to be asked again to photograph the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards Semi Final at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal last month.  The evening was presented by Mike Harding and all ten acts nominated had to perform a 10 minute set to a packed audience and then judges had to choose four acts to go through to the final which will be part of the main BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in February 2012.  The four finalists  were Blair Dunlop, Graham MacKenzie, Sunjay Brayne & Ioscaid.  Good luck for the awards!

Long time no blog post eh?  Things have been rather busy of late,  I've been working on my new website for my portrait and wedding photography so this site has been a little neglected - shameful I know!  I'm really pleased with how my new site looks and have had lots of positive comments, so if you've stumbled across here looking for my portraits and weddings work, head over to www.kirstieedwards.co.uk for my latest info and images.  I thought people looking for a music photographer to cover live gigs and band portraits may not necessarily want to look at images of brides and children and vice versa! 

So watch this space for some updates on what I've been doing recently on the music photography side of things including Nantwich Words & Music Festival, BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards and exciting news about some album releases featuring my photos!

Well how excited was I when I found out about a great Thea Gilmore interview in the Sunday Times today?  Her new single "You're the Radio" is released today.  It has had amazing reviews and been on Radio 2's 'A list' for a week now!.  It's a fantastic song and I urge you all to download it from itunes or Amazon.  I was even more chuffed to find out that they used one of my images of Thea for the first page of the Music section of the paper!  Shame there was no credit, but that's the national press for ya!

Earlier this month, in the August edition of MOJO magazine, there was a small article on the making of Thea's new album 'Murphy's Heart' released on 30th August - again using one of my images!  Have a listen to the single and the album and if you like it, buy it and support Thea, she deserves to have a shot at the charts!

I went to see Glenn Tilbrook last week at Biddulph Town Hall, it was a last minute decision to go and I was so glad I did.  I used to be a big fan of Squeeze and the set was a great mix of old Squeeze favourites and Glenn's new songs, the atmosphere was brilliant.  Eric Cox and the team at Biddulph Up in Arms do a fantastic job of bringing live music to the area and it was great that they managed to bring Glenn to such an intimate venue.  Eric writes regular reports in the local press and updates about live music in and around Cheshire and Staffordshire.  He used a couple of my images as part of a report for the Congleton/Biddulph Chronicle.

If you are a regular reader of the Sunday Times, you may have noticed in the Culture section on 20th December 2009, a four star review of Thea Gilmore's latest album 'Strange Communion'.  It was CD of the week and featured alongside reviews of Christmas albums by The Beatles, Tori Amos, Neil Diamond & Jethro Tull.  They even chose one of my images of Thea to accompany the review!  Just a shame they chose not to credit me for it!  Here it is anyway and you can also check it out online

You may remember my blog post back in July when I did a shoot with Thea Gilmore for her 'Angels in the Abattoir' project.  I was contacted by her record label, Fulfil Records, about a month ago as they wanted some of the images from that shoot for promotional purposes.  I'm really pleased to say that they have appeared today on a website called www.theartsdesk.com to accompany a great interview with Thea about her new album 'Strange Communion', current tour and her life in general!.  Check it out and if you can make it to any of the remaining dates on her 'Wintertide' Tour, get yourself a ticket quick, they're selling out fast! 

The people of Nantwich were treated to an afternoon of free acoustic music at Costa Coffee today.  It was the official launch of the second 'Words & Music Festival' which will take place in Nantwich between 8th - 11th October.  The acts that are appearing at this years Festival include Thea Gilmore, Rod Clements (Lindisfarne), Ian Broudie (Lightning Seeds), Mark Radcliffe & Simon Armitage.  Performing at Costa today were Pete Quinnell, Dayve Dean & Dan Logan, Thea Gilmore, Nigel Stonier & Fluff.  Check out the website for more details and to book tickets for this years shows.

I was lucky enough to get a couple of tickets and a photo pass for All Star Fairport Convention at the Barbican last Saturday night so Matt and I took off for the weekend to London.  It was a fantastic show and full of very special guests.  Aswell as the usual Fairport line up - past and present, we had the pleasure of hearing Chris While, Kellie While, Teddy Thompson, Kami Thompson & Linde Nijland.  I was able to snap away for the first three songs of each set at the back of the hall and then was restricted to shooting behind glass in a 'booth' for the rest of the gig.  It would have been great to have been able to get a bit closer to the action but I was still pleased with the images.  Here are some of my favourites.

Thea Gilmore is an amazingly talented singer songwriter and I have been a big fan of her music for about 10 years. She has just launched a brand new subscription website called 'Angels in the Abattoir' so we stole a couple of hours one afternoon last week to take some shots for the new site.  For more details or to sign up click here

On Sunday as part of Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival, Matt and I went along to a Womens singer-songwriter themed afternoon gig that included Rachel Harrington - a country / americana singer-songwriter from Oregon with musical partner Zak Borden.  Andrea Glass - a singer-songwriter from Bolton who we'd seen before at the Words & Music Festival in Nantwich in October as part of Bob Harris's set and Thea Gilmore who was joined on stage with Nigel Stonier and Fluff.  I've been a big fan of Thea's for a long time now but it was the first chance I'd had to take some live shots.  It was a fantastic mix of live music and a great way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon!

The Urban Folk Quartet (UFQ) are Joe Broughton on guitar, fiddle and mandolin, Paloma Trigas on fiddle, Tom Chapman on percussion and Frank Moon on guitar and oud.  I took some shots during their debut performance at Huntingdon Hall and then managed to drag them off down by the river to take a few fun relaxed portraits before they all went off for a well deserved beer or two!  They are off to Italy for a couple of Festivals this summer and are touring in this country in November so check them out - you won't be disappointed!

I love listening to live music and Chris While & Julie Matthews have to be my favourite act.  They have such beautiful voices, they are amazing songwriters and they have a positive energy on stage that makes their audiences come away feeling uplifted and on top of the world.  I have become close friends with Chris & Julie over the years and have met some wonderful people through knowing them.  I've been taking live shots of them for several years now and I'm pleased to say that they now use a lot of my images on their website. 

One of their many projects throughout the year is called Rejoice the Voice.  This is a 'sing out' vocal workshop for women that they do with Helen Watson - another favourite singer of mine.  'Matthews, While & Watson' have released an album this year called 'Bare Bones' to coincide with the workshops and the album sleeve shots were taken by me!  Here is a shot of the album cover and a few photos that I took at the first workshop in Poynton on 16th May.  The workshops are ongoing during weekends until 5th July up and down the country.  If you fancy having a sing with a big group of women and three professional singers - check it out  - and don't worry, you won't have to sing on your own!  Follow the link above or from the While and Matthews website.

We went to see my friend Helen Watson with her band – The Burden of Paradise and it was a special treat as they were playing really close to home in Nantwich as part of the Jazz, Blues & Music Festival over Easter weekend.

She asked me if I would bring my camera along to get some live performance shots and I was more than happy to oblige.  I love Music Photography – being able to capture the energy on stage, the banter between band members and how the stage lighting gives great effects.  I was blown away by them as usual and then to top it off – Snake Davis's band The Suspicions were amazing, they got everyone dancing right from the first song, the atmosphere was great.