Shooting Bloxx at Reading Festival

In the summer of 2018, I headed out with Bloxx for their show on the Festival Republic stage on Saturday the 25th of August at 12:50. I have never shot a festival before, I thought it would be similar to shooting Ally Pally, but I was very wrong. For this show, I was running my Sony A7III with 55mm F1.8, my Canon 80D with 10mm-18mm F3.5, and for the occasional photo, I had my Chinon CE-4s with a 50mm F1.8 and a 400mm F6. I also took my sigma MC-11 adaptor and my 8mm fisheye, but never took it out of my bag. I didn’t come across a event where the fisheye would work better than a 10mm on my Canon.

I started the day by arriving at site at 9am to meet their tour manager, her took me back stage to meet the band. I’ve met them before and know them very well, we sat around drinking and talking about their super secret headline tour later this year. I must have checked my gear at least 5 times in the space of two hours, making sure I have my SD cards inserted, my glass was clean and my film was loaded. At promptly 12:35 we left their cabin and headed to the back stage entrance to the tent. Even though I could not see the stage, I could tell when the lights went low as the cheering from the crowd was deafening. I knew Bloxx were big, hell they have a headline tour coming up, but walking out to side stage to see the whole tent packed front to back is a experience I will never forget. I could not even begin to imagine what that would feel like if I were the reason that many people were there.

Their set started exactly at 12:50, opening with their massive song ‘Curtains’. I immediately got to work in the photo pit with my Sony starting with left left stage member Taz. His hair being the most iconic part of the band, a fast shutter speed was definitely needed to capture his afro like hair going all over the place. The amazing lead singer Fee, rocks centre stage, I took this opportunity to switch to my 10mm-18mm to capture the whole band in one shot. Moving to the right, Paul’s movement around the stage really stands out as he jumps and dances around, all while keeping the biggest smile on his face. From there, all the festival official photographers were kicked out after three songs, while I was allowed to stay as the pass allowed my all stage access. While in the pit, I saw an old press company manager I used to be with. We needed on bad terms, I will not state his name or the company for professional reasons, but I am glad he got a chance to see before getting roughly escorted out my security. He once told me I had not idea what I was doing in this industry, and that I would never amount to anything but shooting free shows for friends. Look at me now.

I spent the rest of the show backstage shooting from behind the band. With the light bleeding in from the tents sides, I could shoot lower ISO, faster shutter speeds and higher F stops, even on my crop sensor on the Canon 80D, I had problem shooting between 100 - 600 ISO. This is where some of my best shots came from, not only from this shoot, but of my live music photography career. However the best was yet to come. While in their last song, I went around the back of the stage and crouched down behind Moz, the drummer. With my Canon and wide angle lens, I stood up behind Moz and took a burst of 10 photos, all 10 of these images are amazong, the best comes from the highest point where the drummer, band and crowd are all in focus, with the rood of the tent ands the crowd acting as a personified sky to land landscape.

I could not thank Bloxx enough for taking me with them for their biggest ever festival show, and I can not wait to see / shoot them when they come to Bristol on their headline tour later this year. My gear held up, my first live shoot with my Sony was amazing, I definitely made the right decision switching to Sony as I do not think a Canon could capture as sharp inmates from the photo pit in such lighting conditions.

Once again, Thank you Bloxx for taking me out with them.

Main stage next year????