Contact details:
rocktasticpix@gmail.com
Mob: 07730 277079

Website: www.rocktasticpix.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/rocktasticpix
Myspace: www.myspace.com/rocktasticpix
Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/rocktasticpix/

 

It all starts back in May 1978. The place, Bingley Hall, Stafford. The band, Queen. It only cost £3.50 and it changed my life.

 

I was 15 then at my first ever gig. Three years later I had a choice between reading physics at uni or earning a pittance as reporter on a small town newspaper. The smell of the money won, so it was goodbye to a life of science and hello to a world of council meetings, court hearings and wedding captions (and not much money after all).

 

I never really enjoyed being a reporter though so took an early foray into designing pages as a sub editor. But along the way I'd started to go to and review concerts for the paper - the likes of Saxon, Iron Maiden, UFO etc.

 

This is something I continued doing as I progressed into the world of evening newspapers, reviewing all sorts of bands in places like Southampton, Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Wolverhampton, Stafford and Birmingham.

 

As a teenager I'd had a fairly strong interest in photography (even setting up my own darkroom in the bathroom to develop film) but that had waned over the years. Then I started to get back into it again, taking my then Fuji Finepix camera to a couple of small pub and club gigs and getting some reasonable if not spectacular results.

 

I decided to get a bit cheeky and when arranging to review gigs would ask (more in expectation than hope) for a photo pass too. And, you know what, would generally get one. Suddenly I was in front of the front row, photographing some of my all-time heroes like Journey, Magnum and . . . bringing me back to the beginning Queen + Paul Rodgers.

 

But I was beginning to feel somewhat inadequate with my Fuji among a sea pf pros with their Nikons and Canons and so, with a deep breath, took out a 0% credit card and bought what was then the brand new Nikon D90. My first gig with that was Joe Bonamassa at the NEC where I took what is still one of my favourite pix - http://www.rocktasticpix.com/gallery/6837703_FbxhG#487278114_oPVzu-A-LB - call it beginner's luck.

 

The next week my partner Debs and I were in Germany where I photographed two Deep Purple gigs and one support slot by Gotthard. I was absolutely delighted with the leap in quality moving to the Nikon and it was then that the idea for RocktasticPix was formed. I launched the site in December 2008 and haven't looked back since.

 

Highlights have included those Deep Purple concerts, AC/DC and Metallica at the NEC, an amazing gig by Black Stone Cherry at JB's in Dudley and being asked to photograph Joe Bonamassa at the Royal Albert Hall. As I write, the DVD of that gig is about to be released and I can't wait to see if my silhouette is on it somewhere!

 

To date my pictures have been used in the Daily Telegraph, Express & Star, Shropshire Star, Blues Matters magazine and here at MidlandsRocks.

 

RocktasticPix is almost a year old and I can't wait to see how the next year turns out.