Bartolomy’s Diary

The Kiss in Farringdon & Soho

Anna Calvi @ Punk

Former Cheap Hotel member Anna Calvi at Punk. This used to be called Pop and before that it was called Los Locos (a dive then and it still is now).

The gig; I liked her material a lot, too bad about the horrible led lighting.
Did a nice band shot straight after, I like to see it being included in the Ponytail story….

Doll and the Kicks @ Imax

Felt like a pointless excercise, bad lighting, just an acoustic, in the foyer of the Imax, barely anyone there play @ half 10 in the morning…..However if I had not gone I would not have heard some new tracks and hear their take on Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ so even when the setting and timeing of this gig was like ‘ugh, why bova’………..it went really well. I did a super quick band shot afterwards.

Solid Gold

Shot for Ponytail Magazine.
Met them just before the Waterrats show, they were eager to do some shots and it took like 2 mins. Nice bunch, easy.

Well my missus Terri ‘FITTY’ Potasnick weren’t feeling very well the entire trip so our so called break turned more into an indoor event, we did spend some time outside but the weather had turned for the worse as well, only Saturday and Wednesday proved to be a real nice days other than that loads of drizzle.
Thursday eve went to see Joana and the Wolf @ Favela Chiq, I thought the place was nicely laid out (very Shoreditch) but at the same time I thought I’d attended some staff do, and this proved to be a bit of a problem for the band as well as there was simply too little feedback for Joana to really tear the roof off, maybe I am spoiled and have seen them too many times but had this been at a venue were punters had paid to get in then this would have been an entirely different affair.
Still good show, and took a few nice shots. I was going to do a bandshot but I did not see the band until just before showtime, so better luck next time.

Some pix:

Tony Montana

Holland

Joana and the Wolf

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump

Here are a few shots that will appear in Ponytail, I like them, they like them, all happy bunnies by the looks of it.
First shot Sweet Sweet Lies (a.k.a. the Von Trapp Family) in Farringdon, super quick bandshot just arround the corner from the pub, then there’s An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump in Hoxton and Anna Calvi in Shoreditch.

Meanwhile still in Holland, have not touched the camera for a week now, then again not much arround to shoot at all, it’s snowy/rainy/sleety, missus not feeling well, and the same for me, so we stayed inside and yacked with momma instead, which was good as we had not seen her for more than 8 months.
Going to Rotterdam to see my Bruderherz and his missus and the kids for a few before returning to good ol Lahndahn.

Left Monday morning early for Edinburgh, a city I only once drove through just peeking when I went to a festival there about 10/12 years ago. In a nutshell, I like Edinburgh and the hotel we stayed in, The Rutland.
The stay could have been great only for it to be spoilt by some dickhead who left his bath running for hours and therefore flooding the restaurant below (the water went down 3 floors below), every holde/electric fitting was acting like a shower. Thus the boiler overworked and had broken down, I left for London the same day but the guests that were staying there longer all had to be rehoused.
Home late on tuesday only to get up early again to go to Eindhoven and take the train from there to my mom’s place in Vriezenveen to relax for few days and I help my mom will all sorts (chuck ourt the vhs player, install the dvd player, chuck out loads of others tuff such as computers, cordless battery drills and cd players all which have ceased to work.
Then there’s more ebay, I have been doing this on and off for almost 5 years now, my dad’s stuff has kept me busy cataloguing and advertising the many collections he has gathered in the military aircraft world. I have sold over 650nb scale model kits, a few thousand magazines (BOXES of this stuff) and now I have to try and sell a load of books which are quite rare but will take a serious effort to do so.

Started to shoot at the beginning of Tony’s set while there were not too may punters arround, then met up with Peter Gallina, the genius behind Pirate Hitler on Twitter, for a quick few drinks and then made my move to Camden to see An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump @ Purple Turtle.
Shot a few…..

Never been to the Wilmington Arms before, caught up with the boys at an Indian restaurant and then it was time for a pint and a quick bandshot for Ponytail Magazine. Then watched them play live, I shot for two songs, then felt I was repeating myself and I felt I could not outdo the shots of the 12 Bar so I stood in the back and enjoyed watching them.

Just before that I got some fantastic news regarding my outstanding PPI case against MBNA, the verdict of the Ombudsman is in my favor BIG time……..

I have to shoot DJ Tony Montana tonight at Sound Republic and then perhaps see/shoot An Experment on the Bird in an Airpump at Purple Turtle, hopefully I can wing that timewise.

Monday I am off to Edinburgh and then it’s to Holland later on in the week.

Left last night to go to the Proud Galleries to see Doll and the Kicks (Hannah Scanlon, Matthew Garrity, Olivier Nicholas, Chris Woolisson, a welcome change from sitting inside doing post prod. The band went on at 9:15 and played a fairly good show, I don’t think it was as good as 229 or Waterrats for that matter, soundwise there were problems as they did not have a soundcheck and Matthew Garrity didn’t feel too shabby either, add on the atrocious stupid lighting from the Proud Galleries (I should have known after shooting Die! Die! Die! there 4 months ago). I have a few decent shots but it could have been a helluva lot better if these peeps paid some attention to what they are doing and actually pretend to light out a band decently instead of treating it like some bullshit media art experiment live band projection screen yahda yahda…. .
The band sounds very meaty, the rock elements are starting to push through…….also got a good reception from the 150 odd punters there watching them.
The Proud Galleries were filled with prints of AC/DC and these were taken by Philip Morris, and the quality of them is stunning, shot more than 30 years ago I was well impressed by them, some great shots inside the studio and live.

And here’s Sweet Sweet Lies @ 12 Bar, I am shooting them again tonight.

It took me 17 hours to get back was standed at Meribel station for 3 hours and then another 7 at Geneva airport, sweeeeet, NOT.
I left by half 7 and mananged to get in my house at just before 2am, the longest day to me for sure.

I am leaving for Edinburgh and Holland next week, but hope to see a few gigs before that happens.

The weather is lovely, a few more clouds than in Verbier but still this is perfect ski weather. Just saw the BBC news with reporting of snow in the UK, the way people and workers react to this is like WW3 has broken out, laughable really…… Thankfully most peeps are just ignoring this and just build snowmen as you should!!!!
Although the setting of Meribel is just ideal and very picturesque I find the punters frequenting it complete wankers, it’s not Chelsea on snow more like Falaraki on snow……

First of all my iphone has some problem and will have to be sent back as it wont work abroad.
I left for Verbier on Friday and flew to Geneva first thing and then had a real nice scenic train ride through the alps, sunny milka country with the snow capped alps in the background. The weather in Verbier, simply stunning not a cloud in the sky.
I managed to get a pair of kissers while out there, the shot is to my liking.
Right now at the airport and waiting for transport to get to Meribel where I will be until Tuesday morning………
Thursday eve Terri and I went to see Danny “Fingers” Butcher or Danny “Fingers” Logan as he is also known as, doing a show at the 12 Bar with the band Sweet Sweet Lies. The last time I saw Danny was just before Cat The Dog splitt up and I shot them for Ponytail Magazine. A few weeks later he had joined The Kooks and did a world tour with them for the remainder of 2008.
It was good to see him again, he is teaching music in Brighton and he has this band but has also started a nameless project with Darryl Pruess (also of Cat The Dog) which is musically completely the opposite from Sweet Sweet Lies.
The gig itself I enjoyed, the obnoxious drunks in the bar I did not………..
Some shots: