I met and photographed Frank Turner in Reading one year ago on November 30th, 2016 for the new bowel cancer fundraising book I am currently putting together. All proceeds raised from sales of the forthcoming book will be donated to the Beating Bowel Cancer charity. It turned into being a pretty amazing experience which will be told in full in the chapter in the book, As you can see in the above photo Frank was great fun and happy to do a photo wearing the charity's tie to help raise awareness about this awful illness. The reason why Frank agreed to meet me was after hearing about my Mum's 4 year battle with bowel cancer before she sadly passed away in August 2016.
I met Frank in one of the rooms back stage at Reading Hexagon. I was told that I would have 5 minutes with him, so I knew I had to be ready with my camera and that every second would count with him. There was a itinerary sheet on the wall which showed just how busy a day he had. And I saw my name on it, which was a nice touch knowing that I was a very small part in his day.
Frank couldn't have been nicer. I made sure I got the name of his first record, which has an interesting story behind it. He was extremely nice and was happy to chat and do the photos. We crammed in quite a bit into the 5 minutes. When he found out that I didn't have a ticket for the sold out show he put me on the guest which was a very kind and generous gesture.
The gig was outstanding. I've got a few of his albums and, through other fans of my favourite band, The Alarm, I have been really getting into his music this year. However this was my first experience of seeing him live. I knew it was going to be good, but seriously it would not be an understatement to say that this was one of the best gigs that I have been to. Quite brilliant! I followed this up by going to one of the The Lost Weekends gigs in London earlier this year, which was outstanding too.
I don't want to write too much here as I want to save plenty for the chapter in the book. I know that this kind of magical experience will produce the kind of chapter in the book that I am aiming for. It simply would not have happened without Frank's help. A true legend..
The book is about half finished. Plenty more interesting people to still to meet and photograph, so it is still about a year away I reckon.
No comments:
Post a Comment