Bertie Blackman, originally uploaded by Ben Grubb.

Last week I went to see a rather splendid gig by Australian songstress Bertie Blackman. I hadn’t really heard of her before until Katy from Creative Boom asked me to go along and write a review and take some photos. It turns out I actually really like Bertie’s music. I listened to her latest album ‘Secrets and Lies’ which is out in May and it’s rather splendid. The show was hugely enjoyable as well. For a petite little thing she certainly has a really powerful set of lungs, and really belt the tunes out. You can read the review now on Creative Boom; and there’s a selection of shots from the night up on Flickr. I also did a video interview(!!) with her which should be up on Creative Boom some point soon. Hopefully. It went pretty, and was a largely enjoyable (yet nerve wracking) experience. Michael Parkinson I am not.

I also caught the band on before Bertie who weren’t bad either: Sheffield based act The Little Million, who I also managed to get some decent photos of. Result! I’m also, through the power of the internetz, seeing them again tonight to take some more shots. It’s been a busy time. And the sun’s out which is nice. Here’s to a decent Spring and Summer I say!

Hello all. Sorry it’s been a while. A lot’s been going on with me recently which is good! Also, I was computer-less for a while. My PC picked up a rather nasty virus which it is still recovering from, and had to undergo some particularly nerve wracking open hard drive surgery! Luckily, we found a suitable 1TB donor and the operation seemed to be a success. There’s still some way to go until full recovery though. Huge thanks to master surgeon Dr. Ben Sales for all the help. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do it without him and would be a jibbering wreck on the floor by now. More than normal I mean, obviously.

Also, my MacBook had to go in to the Apple Store to have it’s fan and top case replaced (which they did for free, bless ‘em) and is now back to it’s full glory and looks all cleaned up and handsome again. Wonderful. It’s good to be able to actually do work and things again.

Anyway, techno geekery aside, I have some exciting news: I have started to write and photography shows for my friend Matt’s music review site Call Upon The Author. The very same site which I designed a banner for last year. I’m working towards getting together a decent portfolio of concert shots, and Matt’s the man with the contacts, so I thought we could help each other out. So far, so good. I went to my first show as a “reviewer” last week, and to start things off, I was lucky enough to see Paul Murphy’s (of Wintersleep fame) side project Postdata at The Borderline. He (or rather they, as he was joined by fellow Wintersleep band mate Tim D’eon on keyboards) are doing a short European tour opening for David Bazan (of Pedro The Lion). Both were rather enjoyable, and I certainly enjoyed Postdata! The review is done and up on Call Upon The Author now is you want to have a look. There’s also a small selection of photos on Flickr. Definitely check out the album as well – it’s marvelous. I have a few more shows lined up over the next few months which I’m looking forward to, and I hope you’ll check out my post gig ramblings. I’ve got a few other exciting things in the pipeline as well which I’ll no doubt talk about on here in due course. As the weather starts to brighten, so to does my year! Good times.