On Monday night I was at Gym Class Heroes at KOKO in Camden for my first music photography outing of 2012. The band were very animated which made them good fun to shoot. For more images please click the shots above and below to launch a Flash slideshow.

The group formed when Travie McCoy met drummer Matt McGinley in high school and decided to form a band. After the addition of guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo and bassist Eric Roberts, the group was signed to Fueled by Ramen and Decaydance Records (Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz’s independent record label), on which they released their debut album, The Papercut Chronicles. In 2006, the group released the gold-selling album As Cruel as School Children.

On Monday night I went to see the final date of The Revival Tour at The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth. I caught the guys on an earlier part of tour at an instore at the Lee Jeans store on Carnaby Street, London but it was so good I had to catch the show again. This run of the tour featured Brian Fallon (The Gaslight Anthem), Dave Hause (The Loved Ones), Dan Andriano (Alkaline Trio) & Chuck Regan (Hot Water Music). We grabbed some food with the guys and crew before the show and they are all very humble, great people.

To launch a flash slideshow of images from the show please click on their image.

Revival Tour best describe the concept of Revivalon their website:

Folk music was born from a rich tradition of giving and openness—and no one has done more to bring that original spirit back to the genre in recent years than Chuck Ragan has with The Revival Tour. “It’s an age-old idea and the way that families and communities have shared music for hundreds of years,” Ragan explains when asked where the inspiration for the Revival Tour came from. “At the end of most tours I went on, everyone would end up on stage together anyway so I thought why not communicate more before hand so we can share the old way collaboration onstage from the onset as the folks that came before us all did in the past?’”

For more information on The Revival Tour visit the offical website.

These images of Paloma Faith (above) and Latitude’s headliners The National were taken on the Friday of the four day festival. To see more images from the Friday including Bright Eyes, Lyle Lovett & His Acoustic Group and Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan please click on either image to launch a slide show of the days bands.

These images of The Divine Comedy and José González were taken on Tuesday night at the Greenwich Summer Sessions in London. It was the first time I had been to the event which was an evening festival at the Old Royal Navy College. For more images of the evening please click each image to launch a couple of flash slideshows.

The Divine Comedy are a chamber pop band from Ireland, fronted by Neil Hannon. Formed in 1989, Hannon has been the only constant member of the group, playing, in some instances, all of the non-orchestral instrumentation bar drums. To date, ten studio albums have been released under the Divine Comedy name. The group achieved their greatest commercial success in the years 1996–99, during which they had nine singles that made the UK Top 40, including the top ten hit National Express.

José González, born in 1978, is a Swedish-Argentine indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist living in Gothenburg, Sweden. González is also a member of Swedish band Junip, along with Elias Araya and Tobias Winterkorn. His cover of The Knife’s “Heartbeats” was used in a Sony BRAVIA commercial featuring 250,000 coloured bouncing balls in San Francisco.

Here’s an image I took of Nicky Wire of Manic Street Preachers on Sunday (3rd July 2011) when they performed at the Roundhouse, London as part of the iTunes Festival. Support came from Dry The River and Ramona. Click on the image above to launch a slideshow from the night.

The Manics released their debut album, Generation Terrorists in 1992. Their combination of androgynous glam punk imagery, outspoken invective and songs about “culture, alienation, boredom and despair” soon gained them a loyal following and cult status. The band’s later albums retained a leftist politicisation and intellectual lyrical style, while adopting a broader alternative rock sound. They have had eight top ten albums and fifteen top ten singles. They have reached number one three times, with their 1998 album, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours and the singles “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next” (1998) and “The Masses Against the Classes” (2000). They have also won the Best British Album and Best British Group accolades at the BRIT Awards in 1997 and 1999, and were lauded by the NME for their lifetime achievements in 2008.  Their ninth studio album, Journal for Plague Lovers, was released on 18 May 2009 and features lyrics former member Edwards had left behind to the band weeks before his disappearance. Manic Street Preachers released their tenth studio album, Postcards from a Young Man, on 20 September 2010.

Last night I returned to the Royal Albert Hall in London to photograph the master of Blues B.B. King. He was grest fun to photograph pulling lots of faces and talking inbetween songs. He arrived onstage after his band had opened with an instumental throwing plectrums into the crowd. You would had never have guessed that he’s now 85!

After the photographers three song limit B.B. King was later jointed on stage by special guests Slash (ex-Guns N’ Roses), Rolling Stones Ronnie Wood, Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi. Click on the image above to launch a sideshow from the night.

Riley B. King known by the stage name B.B. King (“B.B.” short for Blues Boy), is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter acclaimed for his expressive singing and fluid, complex guitar playing. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at #3 on its list of the ‘100 greatest guitarists of all time’. According to Edward M. Komara, King “introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed.” King has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

This images of Bright Eyes was taken tonight at the Royal Albert Hall, London. I always love coming to this venue, so it was great to catch this show which also had a strong support bill. please click on the image above to launch a flash slideshow.

Bright Eyes is an American indie rock band founded by singer-songwriter and guitarist Conor Oberst. It consists of Oberst, multi-instrumentalist and producer Mike Mogis, trumpet and piano player Nate Walcott, and a rotating lineup of collaborators drawn primarily from Omaha’s indie music scene. Bright Eyes is signed to Saddle Creek Records, a Nebraska-based label founded by Conor and his brother Justin Oberst and distributed by Sony Corporation. In 2004, the singles ‘Lua’ and ‘Take It Easy (Love Nothing)’ took the top two spots of Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Sales chart within two weeks of their simultaneous release.

Here’s a shot from Panic! At The Disco’s show this evening at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London. To view a flash gallery from the evening please click on the image above.

These images of Frank Turner were taken at his 1000th show at Hearn Street Car Park, London as part of the Strummerville Spring Sessions on Friday 21st April. I was at Frank’s second ever solo show (and countless shows inbetween) and now he’s reached the 1000 mark in such a short space of time, it makes me regret missing the first! Frank took to the stage just before midnight to a packed crowed which kept on bursting through the photo pit barriers at the front of the stage. Click on either image to launch a flash slideshow featuring other images from the night.