Life of the Rich and Famous

I got a call the other day from Rich in Media Sales (or something like that) at the students union, he needed a photographer to cover the Student Media Awards at the Cardiff Hilton and would I be interested?

Being the curious cat that I am i said of course, since I wanted to see inside the hilton, that i have walked past hundreds of times but never dared go inside for fear of being whisked off my feet by my collar and thrown out the door by a burly bouncer.

Greg James from Radio 1 (one of my favourites for live DJing, he's really very good) presented most of the awards. It all looked very pretty indeed with Peanut's fruity lighting colours and lots of white drape and frippery. On top of champers and other fine details that make an awards ceremony so glitzy, I have to say that the Hilton make a mean lasagne. I could have done with 4 pieces of garlic bread instead of 2 though, get it sorted!

Ignite Hope 2010

As promised here are some photos from the IgniteHope 2010 event in Sophia Gardens.

Top two taken by Marie, with her amazing 10-20mm lens, Bottom photo taken by Ceri, on an unknown but also very wide lens.

Someone left cake by my desk, it wasn't there after the preach...

Lighting Rig consisted of:
Pearl Tiger
4 x Mac 550s
4 x Mac 250 Kryptons
8 x LED Parcans
4 x 2 Cell blinders
2 x 4 Cell Blinders
24 x PAR64s
3 x Betapack3's
4 x Source 4s
Festoon for prettyness
and 6 LED truss warmers (Multiform 1310 Multispots)

Unique Hazer and JEM ZR33 Smoker were used for effects, and lots of it!

Flashy Flashy

As a technician, and especially a lighting technician, its not often that i get recognition from artists or in the press (aka blogosphere), but the last two weeks I've worked on two events where the feedback has been positive and has made me feel like my contributions have been appreciated.

The other week I worked a drum and bass night in the SU's Great Hall, called Hospitality. Hospitality is generally seen as the little cousin of the larger BEDLAM nights that happen at the union, but this last event was the best yet and hopefully will set the calibre of acts higher for next time.


Alongside the regular local and regional DJs and MCs, I had the privilege of lighting a set by Mr David Rodigan, the reggae equivalent of Tim Westwood. Rodigan (blue t-shirt) played some great tunes, was a fantastic MC and all round good fun.

After a big night of bass and "revelry" it was time for a week of tent-based christian music and worship in the form of IgniteHope 2010. 

IgniteHope is the sequel to the national Hope '08 initiative in which many thousands of young christian people did good deeds in their community to show the love of God through their actions, and Hope Local in 2009, which sought to let the churches have a go at organising their own social action, rather than having it centrally controlled by Ignite.

This years event production was provided by PG Sound and was a grand entry into the world of medium scale outdoor events for the company, only a year after its inception. 

The event was held in Sophia Gardens in Cardiff City Centre, (as far as I know we had no noise complaints!) and the site was used as a mustering point for hundreds of young people for the mornings and evenings, and was open to the public during the day.

Pictures From the event will hopefully arrive soon on the internet, I couldn't tell you where because there were so many people with cameras, but when I find some good photos I'll post them here

Lighting was provided by MJ Lighting, Video by Genero, Sound and crew by PG Sound and Staging from Stage Lighting Services.