Category: Seabright Arms

B309 – CLEAR SKYS AND COLD WEATHER – PERFECT

joshfspear1 Comment

Last night was one of those nights, while on my walk to Old street, my photos just seemed to happen. I think half of that was down to the light, I had hit the perfect time, just as the sun was setting and theres this cool kind of blue light in the sky. I know it might sound a bit weird as well but I think it definitely helped that it was ridiculously cold. A lot of the time I walk around and really struggle to take some photos decent photos that I actually like, that definitely wasn’t the case last night.

One of the things I have learnt about myself over the past 309 days is that I really love street photography and take pictures of people and capturing those random moments that we all see happen and that give us those little chuckle to ourselves. thats definitely my favourite thing to photograph, but Ill also take a clear cold night where you are given loads of strong, bright, contrasty colours from shop windows and the odd coffee shop.

At the moment I really don’t have a lot of time to make it down to gigs and music venues to work on that photography project, which is really annoying. The only way I could make it is if I probably stop eating dinner and cut my sleep down but as I think that would probably do more damage than good, for now Im just going to put it on hold and get through the next couple of weeks / months and then pick it up from there. So sorry to anyone that Ive been speaking to about gigs for events, I haven’t forgotten about you.

my plan for the future is to write these posts that night instead of the morning before work, I just dont leave myself enough time and now spent my morning rushing around. theres nothing better waking up in the morning before work, knowing that the post is ready to go. C’mon josh up your game!!!

B309-1
– Bethnal Green Road towards Shoreditch –
B309-1-2
– I cant remember if I have taken a photo of this before, but I like this shot so Ill post it anyway –
B309-1-3
– its like the hand it pushing him back –

B297 – PROPER ROAD TRIP STUFF

joshfspearLeave a comment

My plan for today is to post some photos from the gig yesterday, I really get paranoid that I take so many photos I like from gigs and then they just sit on my hard drive for the rest of eternity, so Im just going to go ahead and post them. I haven’t stopped listening to Blueprint Blue since I heard them, its kind of getting me ready for the summer in a weird way, they are proper road trip music.

As Im sure most of you are aware today is Friday, which means its one more sleep till the weekend and thats my last weekend as a free man, because as of Monday I start my next job. Its been a fun two months of doing what I like and I have to say I’ve spent that time pretty busy which is actually quite good, Im not looking back on December and January and thinking “wow I watched some great TV series”, its more “oh cool, Ive taken some fun photos, made a few cool videos and created a pretty solid 2018 plan”. It now just comes down to putting all of that plan into practice and not spending to much of the time in the pub. Im quickly approaching a massive mile stone in this blog and thats something Im pretty proud of, its day 300! After that the finish line is in sight!

Today I have a bit of plan to get my life in order and sort out some of the boring stuff in life, but after all that I want to get down to the south bank and take some photos. I haven’t really been there in the day to take photos, so it will be good to see how that turns out, its a mini city adventure. but for now, heres so more of my favourite photos for that gig the other night.

B296-1-12
– Seeing a pack out gig on a wednesday night at the Seabright arms, makes it all worth it –
B296-1-27
– looking forward to going to their next gig –
B296-1-28
– because the stage is so dark, I definitely think black and white photos look so much better –

 

B296 – BLUEPRINT BLUE, AMAZING WEDNESDAY NIGHT GIG.

joshfspearLeave a comment

As most of you know, Im trying to go to as many gigs as possible and photograph all these amazing free gigs around London. Last night I heard of a gig headlined by a Band called Blueprint Blue, before last night I hadn’t heard of the band, normally what I do is listen to the band during the day of the gig so when I get there I know what Im in for, but last night I was on a total wim.

When I arrived it was just starting to get busy and people where arrive but by the time the band were all set up and ready to go, the place was fully packed. I have never been to a free gig at the Seabright Arms before and seen it that busy. Then they started playing and I could see why, this band are amazing. Just good music and a pretty high cool factor, their songs are pretty slow but with the old fast rift everyone is always singing in Harmony and they’ve just kind of found a style and made it their own. After I write this blog post I will be sending them an email to see when they are next playing and if its ok to come along and take some photos. If these guys aren’t playing some amazing festival gigs over the summer Ill be surprised and i hope they will soon be on everyone radar.

One of my favourite songs of theirs is called Wheres The Sun, its one of those songs that you can just listen to over and over again. Im sure some music review person could give you a better reason for why its soo good, but I just like them tempo of this band and how well their voices go with the music.

Heres a link to their Soundcloud and my favourite youtube song.

Heres my photos from the gig, I hope you like them!

B295-1-2
– for 21:45 on a Wednesday night it was so worth it –
B295-1
– all of them just seemed to understand each other and had the timings down –
B296-1
– sorry theres no photos of the Keyboard player, he was just out of shot –

B260 – IVE WANTED TO SEE THEM FOR YEARS

joshfspearLeave a comment

Last week I went to a gig that I had wanted to go to for a while, it was for a band called Mellow Gang, they’re this band I discovered while in America and was that band I would listen to on the long plane journeys and extra long passport queues, well this band are probably the reason I’m still sane. The gig was at the famous Seabright Arms on Hackney road, you’ve definitely read about me going to this place before, its like 2 minutes from my house and actually plays really good music most weeks. and even better a lot of it is free which makes the whole gig a no brainer.

I find it a bit weird writing about a gig I went to last week as its not that fresh in my head and I cant really remember all my favourite parts, but unfortunately Im really not able to post any photos today as Ive spent the day running around different Disney stores trying to get hold of this Doll for my niece (don’t worry she’s too young to read so no chance of her finds out through this blog what I got her), well anyway that didn’t go to plan as no disney store had the right thing so I just brought as much stuff as my bank account would let me and moved on to the next task, which I cant really talk about on here but I can say that even that didn’t go smooth as I had realised after being in the store for an hour trying to get everything completely perfect to the point where I had to ask for a tape measure, well I went through all that to realise I had left my wallet at home. but luckily after a short phone call to Amy for her card details we were up and away, I just need to go back tomorrow morning and collect it. I have to say this year I have really pulled it out the bag with my christmas presents!

I really hope you like me writing and photographing gigs around London because I actually enjoy it quite a lot. So if you don’t like what I write and photograph let me know why and ill see what I can do to make it better!

Also don’t forget I still have prints for sale, so dig deep and buy one. Ill even send you a christmas card!

B255-1-5
– Mellow gang doing there thing –
B255-1-3
– Seabright arms on Hackney road, have a look at the Dice App for re gigs, trust me it is actually a pretty useful tool –
B255-1-10
– this was Phundo Art, a rapper from South Africa –

B256 – PSYCHEDLIC POST ROCK ELECTRO GRUNG.

joshfspearLeave a comment

Yep you read that title correct, last night I ventured over to The Beehive in Bromley By Bow, its this pub which looks and feels like its be held in time, one of those proper east london pubs, where people pay money into the Juke box and listen to Frank Sinatra while downing pint after pint of Stella.

While all that is happening out the front of house, in a small door which is also connected to the Womens toilets, theres a small 10 meter by 10 meter black room where last night you could have found some wild post rock beats mixted with the odd grung song. It wasnt a massive crowd but that doesnt really matter when you think about it.

The bands that played last night where the Desert Clouds, Ditsea Yella, The Anderson Tapes and the Heros Of The Last Age. it was the music I want to focus on for my photography project, it was those bands that dont play to massive audiences and their music is there hobby not there main income. I definitely feel that these bands are the reason for London being such a cool place to live, they are the creatives and expressionists that live and work in everyday London, who on their own are just a little bit quirky but when you have a few thousand quirky individuals all of a sudden its a movement.

I don’t want to show off to many photos from last night as I need to send them onto the promotor who sorted me out with the gig and let him post them all over social media but obviously I need to show you three photos. The Promotor who’s gig I was at is called Spoons Event sound Solution, its kind of an punk / rock promotor so the gigs aren’t your capital FM pop music stuff, its all heavy and completely off the beaten track in a way. really cool music and I’m looking forward to more gigs like it.

B256-1
– Ditsy Yella –
B256-1-3
– im not sure if that is a wig or real hair, but its definitly got a stage presences –
B256-1-2
– Desert Clouds, the first band to on stage –

B248 – HAZY JANE – SEABRIGHT ARMS 06.12.17

joshfspearLeave a comment

As yesterday was a working day, and I don’t want to be one of those guys that runs round a venue taking personal photos and then posting them online. I decided to have some thing stocked up in the bag ready to show you guys, Im talking about the warm up band for the other nights gig at the Seabright Arms. its the band HAZY JANE. this band are the kind of people that pop up at 3am in a music festival around that camp fire and all of a sudden your its 6am in the morning and your now best friends with a stranger talking about all the things you guys are going to get up to in the future. thats the type of band these guys are.

What makes it even better is that this band is based out of Hackney, so pretty local to where I live they play British Folk /indie music so all pretty chilled out accoustic sets. One thing I love is that they set up a crowd funding page to raise some money to record their first single “Us On A Wire” and even now have like a mini UK tour planned for April next year and will be playing all round the London, Norwich and Brighton. trust me if you see that they are playing at a gig near you, get down there and give them a listen. you cant go wrong.

check out this music video.

and heres their tour dates. trust me get yourself down to one of their gigs! https://www.hazeyjane.com/tour

Sorry that is post is a few hours late, but I kind of over slept this morning and have been trying to juggle getting this done, while trying to organise my life a bit.

Heres some photos, enjoy.

B248-1-2
– listen to the song – Take my soul, its got grit –
B248-1-3
-Seabright Arms 06.12.17 –
B248-1
– I cant remember at what point in the gig this was, but its a pretty cool photo –