New Online Store - Coming Soon
In a few weeks time, I will have a new online store on my website. To start with I will be offering a range of different size prints of the various bands in my portfolio. This includes live shots of bands at various venues and festivals, and band portraits.
So, if you are a member of one of the bands or a fan, you will be able to purchase directly from my store. Of course, I will also continue to handle any orders that you would like to make to me personally. So get in touch anytime: john@johnnycajon.com
All printing and order fulfilment with be handled by my independent, high quality print partner. It's gonna be slick.
More details to follow soon......
A Summer of Festivals - Part One
It's been quite a year so far; I celebrated a fantastic 50th birthday party in February at which I played drums in a band on stage for the first time to a warm crowd of friends and family. And latterly I've spent most of the summer weekends enjoying my first ever music festival season.
"What?" I hear you say. "What have you been doing with the past thirty odd summers if you ain't been going to music festivals and behaving like any 'normal' human being?"
It's not like I've spent them doing nothing in the summer. The truth is I've spent most summers doing other summery stuff which has been completely non-music related. I ain't been to prison all this time either in case you're thinking.
Anyway, this blog and a couple more to come are about my experiences attending my first summer of festivals, a season in which I lost my Glastonbury virginity; life will never be the same.
And it's at Glastonbury that we start.
My good friend John Fairhurst asked me mid June "What you doing at the end of June kidda?" "Nowt", I said. "Wanna come to Glastonbury?" "Are you kidding me?" That's generally how the conversation went.
Two weeks later I'm loitering in the wings of a sunny Hell stage on the first night of the festival in front of 2000 fans who've been gagging for the festival to start for a day or so. They're all here to see the John Fairhurst band featuring John, Toby Murray on drums and Justin Kool on bass.
The hell stage has a notoriety about it which is to be expected judging by its name.
I'm nervous as hell and I ain't even performing, just taking photos. The music starts and the nerves turn to adrenaline and next thing I'm out on stage mixing it up with the band and the crowd but I'm trying to remain discreet, not get in the way and looking for the shots that will do the band justice. I have to try to remain disconnected but it's difficult because I dig the heavy blues sound and can't help getting into the groove.
There's lots of space which is a relief and I try and make the most of this luxury. There are good lights, good smoke and loads of atmosphere; the crowd look amazing. The band hits it's stride from the off and I'm there with them in that moment. It was a magical experience and one I won't forget.
There were other great performances from the band at the fantastic Glade stage (perhaps a better performance overall), and other stages over the week long festival.
It was a terrific experience and one I'm intending to repeat next year. It's not important when you get there, only that you get there, wherever there is.
Part two - Maverick Festival with the Clubhouse Crowd (coming soon)
John Fairhurst At Drummond And Hammett Guitar Workshop
In 2014, I was fortunate to be involved at the start of a collaboration between John Fairhurst and Pat Hammett and Tom Drummond. Pat and Tom make fantastic cigar box guitars out of their workshop in Easton, Bristol. I met them at the Grillstock festival last summer and a couple of weeks later I took around my guitars to their workshop for them to look at my work.
During this meeting they mentioned they were looking for a local blues guitar player to endorse their guitars and had I heard of John Fairhurst. "Funny enough", I said "I've been working with John for a while now taking his photographs". And that was it. A couple of weeks later I'd lined up the Bristol Roots media team and we recorded several videos and an interview with John at the fantastic D&H workshop.
During the session we recorded John playing a song that he said was inspired by John Fahey and a meeting with Christopher Paul Stelling at the South by South West festival in Texas. I listened to Christopher's latest album last night and loved it and felt motivated to watch this video of John again and post it to my blog.
I'll be posting links to all the videos that we made that night on my blog soon.
Band Portraits
Last November my friend Hannah Jones and I set up a one-day band portrait session in a small studio in St Werburghs, Bristol. The idea was to invite 6 local bands into the studio, give them an hour each and shoot as many poses as we could in the same day.
After their hour was up, we gave them some cream cakes and told them to go nuts....... and we made sure we kept the camera going (this makes for entertaining viewing also, but I'll save that for another day. It was hard work but well worth it.
Band portraits are something I'd like to do more of. So, if you are interested please get in touch - john@johnnycajon.com
News.. News.. News..
In an exciting development yesterday (I’ve always wanted to say that), I started a collaboration with studio owner Steve Haddon on a new exhibition of my photographs at his soon to be opened new premises.
Garrison studios www.garrisonstudios.co.uk, is located in Northamptonshire between London and the Midlands. The building is an old Royal Ordinance depot (get it?). Steve has been meticulously converting the grade 2 listed structure over the past year or so to turn it into a contemporary photographic studio, whilst ensuring the work does not break the heritage building regulations. I’ve yet to visit the premises, but I’ve seen the fantastic photographs on his website.
Steve and I met on a studio portrait workshop run by the Royal Photographic Society in Lacock last year. He’s a big fan of my music photographs, and said ‘I can really tell from your photographs that you love your subject’. I'm glad that comes over.
Steve has also been instrumental in setting up an opportunity for me to work with a highly respected and esteemed music photographer (fingers crossed and hopefully more on this soon).
Speaking to Steve yesterday, he mentioned that the studio is ‘large enough to accommodate a group for doing full band shoots with equipment, and there are partitioned areas to allow many different types of configurations for shoots and workshop purposes'. The main area is also long enough to install a gangway for doing fashion shoots’. He also commented on the fantastic acoustics.
Steve received some great news of his own recently, when it was announced that he would be the only studio in the UK to be solely affiliated to highly respected Swiss lighting manufacturer - Broncolor. This is a major coo for Steve, and is an indication of how highly his work and the studio is considered.
Things are pretty exciting at the moment for Steve and myself.
The Garrison Studios open day is Sunday 9th August. Now all I need to do is select the photographs to include in the exhibit, and that is no easy task.