Why Not Watch The Support Band

Went to a gig last night as I was asked to take some photos of the undercard a band called Under a Banner, they were very good indeed and the room was about a third full of very appreciative people who were royally entertained by a very fine band,if there is any justice they will go far.

So an enjoyable hour and then about thirty minutes later the main act came on and suddenly the room was pretty well full and I asked myself why,you pay for a ticket that entitles you to see a band plus support so why not take advantage.

Now I've seen many duff support acts over the years, Liquid Landscape last year was particularly painful and believe it or not many years ago Queen were absolutely dire supporting Mott The Hoople but I have seen many many more superb support acts who music has sustained me for many a year.

So if you are going to a gig turn up on time watch the support because if they're crap just go get a pint but if they're good like Under A Banner you will be in for an unexpected treat

Football Finances

Elsewhere in social media I've been part of a rather interesting discussion on advertising and its morality,this got me thinking about the part advertising plays in keeping Non League Football afloat.

I was at Redditch Utd yesterday and they seem to be very successful in getting adverts from local and national sources in the programme and around the ground ,you can be pretty certain that without the income from this Redditch would not be where they are today.

There was however one billboard that caught my attention especially bearing in mind the rumpus that it caused when put up at nearby Kidderminster Harriers earlier in the season, that being one from UKIP

UKIP are  a divisive force with their being no middle ground you either love them or hate them but should they be advertising at a football ground,well at the end of the day they are a legal organisation and their money is as good as anybody else's so why not.

Of course there is another way that Grassroots and non league could be funded and that's the Pork Barrel Buffet that is the TV rights to the Premier League soon to be sorted to the tune of around £4 Billion,,the tiniest percentage of that could help fund non league across the country,during half time at the Redditch match I I noticed on the internet that for 20 days "Consultancy" work for Manchester Utd Alex Ferguson had been paid £2 Million.

People may not like some types of advertising or even advertising per se but until the vast fortunes at the top of football start filtering down the tree its a major way that football at the level that I love is going to have to be funded

Keep Taking

In the BT add but more importantly on a Pink Floyd track Stephen Hawking told us to Keep Talking ,that's fine  but I want to you to Keep Taking as well,keep taking what you may ask and the answer is photographs
What do you mean keep taking photographs there are more taken than there have ever been you say ,well yes we all see the photographs on Facebook and Twitter but what are most of them,they are People and Selfies very relevant in their own right and they will show future generations how we relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.

However I have seen recently on the Flickr Photo sharing website a number of shots from the early part of the century of assorted everyday scenes,traffic in the street,train stations,people going about their daily business  basically what is defined as Reportage Photography  not carried out by "Proper Photographers"  but by people in the street with their cameras and phones.

We need to ensure that everything that goes on from day to day in the world and the places we frequent is recorded for future generations to see,and believe it or not its not illegal, don't go out to embarrass your subject just record what is going on and in 100 years our descendants will get as much pleasure looking at what our world looked like from the point of view of the average Man and Woman in the street as we do looking back on shots our Ancestors took

Oh and you'll probably never win any awards for them but you'll have a lot of fun taking them I promise

A few I have taken in the last 12 months

I'm Back And Its Still Footy Time

4 months since I last posted no idea why I've done nothing in that time ,just one of those things I suppose.

Anyhow since I last posted my Non League Football life has changed and I am no longer club photographer for AFC Wulfrunians (I guess most people who read this already know) and I'm not going to go into the reasons why.

So now I am a freelance Ground Hopping photographer just looking at the Non League Paper every Sunday morning and planning where to go everywhere from Step 3 to Step 7,I must admit its very liberating,new surroundings each week different people to meet and the chance to get differing views on Non League football at its various levels.

It also gives me a chance to vary my style of shooting,when you are a club photographer you feel duty bound to get the action shots that can go on the website and in the programme,when you are freed from that you can look at the Non League world from a different angle, a style I was introduced to by a very fine and innovative photographer called David Bauckham (And yes he's heard all the Beckham jokes), you can find his work here and its well worth looking at

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ccpub/

So now in addition to all the action shots these are few of the weird,stupid offbeat (Whatever you call them) shots I now take

So hopefully I will be posting here a bit more regularly,not just on footy but anything else that takes my fancy