Glow In The Dark

We went to a gig last night at a bar in the city centre to see a band we are friends with called The Disco Prophets.  We often take photos and videos of them performing at their various gigs around Nottingham.

Of course we took some last night and sifting through them today, I came across this one that looked quite unusual to me, as the woman dancing appears to be glowing, or being zapped by a ray gun.

I promise that I've not fiddled with this photo at all in my digital darkroom, except for a bit of tweaking with the the contrast and sharpening. The strange effect was caused by the bar's disco lights, as they are LED ones, and sometimes cause colour problems with the electronics in my Olympus camera.  Sometimes it's annoying, but on occasions it works out for the best.

It's A Groovy Party

The Disco Prophets are one of the local bands that we go and watch and take photos of. What makes them special for me is the leader is a friend of mine from my childhood days in London.

Tonight they played at a gig at a local pub for charity. Their second one with the new line up.

They play great 70's and 80's disco music, and all the pub staff were dressed up in vintage gear. So it was all great fun.

The pub were using some multi-coloured LED lights, that seem to play havoc with our cameras, as these two photos of Fay illustrate. The above one looks fairly normal, albeit with a green tinge, while the one below shows what happened when the blue lights came on. It was even worse in red.

Mind you, if any of you can remember Top of the Pops from the 1970s, they always used to do lighting and camera tricks like this, so I don't think it looks out of place.

Are Friends Electric?

Here's one of my arty shots that I like to create every so often; as the mood takes me, or think the scene would make a good one.

This one for instance. The keyboard player from the Disco Prophets. I decided to focus in on the keyboard itself, rather than the musician. Partly because I find it more interesting, and partly because it was quite a crowded stage and I counldn't get a clear view of him.

Also I like keyboards and synths. Not that I can play one. I did try once and could just about play the theme tune to Wallace & Gromit; but very slowly. I do enjoy the sounds that they make. Some keyboard wizards that I like are Vangelis, Rick Wakeman, Jean Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream. Kraftwerk are OK too, but prefer the more melodic stuff from their German counterparts.

To hear what I mean, here's a one of TD's shorter melodies; as a lot of their tunes cover one side of an album. This one is from the crime movie Thief, which starred James Caan.

Dancing The Night Away

This is local band The Disco Propets who we went to photograph at an awards ceremony at a local hotel.

The awards were for foster parents which had been organised by Nottingham City Council, and the Disco Prophets were providing the entertainment. I know the group's leader, and he asked me if I could come along to take some photos, as Rupert has big plans for the group this year.

The band had changed a bit since we last saw them at a gig last summer. They had lost a female singer, gained a keyboardist and swopped a saxophonist. They had also been lent a percussionist. But they still had that great 1970s disco sound.

Lots of the audience got up to dance along to the tunes and the conference room had turned into Studio 54. So it was Boogie Nights all the way until late in the evening.

Studio 54 Reborn

West Bridgford tonight wasn't exactly downtown New York, but it was the nearest thing you could get to take you back to the heady disco beat of the 1970s.

Gail and I went to shoot a 70s night at a local pub. We were invited to by Rupert, the leader and guitarist of the band that were playing. They are called The Disco Prophets. In fact Rupert and I used to play together as children in London, back in the real 1970s. Alas not musically. Just kids stuff.

Strangely enough, he and is wife moved to Nottingham earlier this year for his job. I didn't know until his aunt told me, when we went to visit her in Rye, where she lives earlier this year.

It was a good night too. With plenty of tunes from that era going down nicely with the audience. Many of whom had dressed up for the occasion.

There was a dancing competition too. Gail had paid to enter. Not that she had any intention to do any dancing, unless it was with her OM-D. But she wanted go pay, as the money was going to charity. Oddly she won, as no one else in the audience had entered, even though they were all happily dancing away all night to the tunes. The band gave her a cup as a prize. Not a silver one, but a drinking one, with instructions of how to moonwalk on the side. Someone also won a cup for the best 70s outfit.