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 I left school when I was only fifteen, nearly sixteen, and started my working life as a press photographer, covering the news and sport for the national newspapers. It was only a matter of time before I would pursue my musical interests, first as a musician and then later as a roadie.

I think I was about nineteen or twenty when I met up with another roadie called Mick Webster. We spent several long hard years trucking around the UK with many different bands. We worked with some big names in the rock ’n’ roll business that included musicians and promoters.

We worked with Stuart Fraise who had promoted the legendary Jimi Hendrix, at a small pub in Ilkley in the sixties. We got to work with Eric Clapton, Motorhead, Hawkwind, and we even did the security for Stephenson’s Rocket.

We split up in the early eighties, Mick went to work with Jab Jab, and then Johnny Thunders, then we lost contact for many years. I got back into photography and turned my lens onto the world of rock ‘n’ roll, mainly shooting posters for local bands, The Birthdays, Polly’s Medicine, and getting into surreal artwork. Later I started to make movies and creating videos for local promoters of live bands and festivals.

I was ticking over nicely when I had a heart attack and two days later I was about to have another when I arrived at hospital, according to doctors I was twenty minutes from death, obviously they worked hard and fast and saved my life, although at times I wish they hadn’t.

Six months later I was in Leeds City centre when I heard my name called, I turned around to look who was calling me, I thought f*** me it’s Adam Faith, no it’s Mick, after all these years he hadn’t changed much, gone a little grey but hadn’t put an ounce on. Cheeky b’ said that I hadn’t changed at all and was looking well. At the time I thought I looked like death warmed up, and I had put a few pounds on.

Mick was shocked to hear about my health problems, I asked him what he was doing, he said that he was managing a band called the Kaiser Chiefs. I’d never heard of them, thought with a name like that they will never make it. We had both lost contact with most of our old road mates, musicians and roadies, he took my home phone number but never got back in touch.

About two or three months later he was stood next to me in an electrical store, I couldn’t believe that we had met twice in such a short period of time after so many years apart. He took me for a coffee, and gave me his phone number and invited me to one of the three shows at Leeds Town Hall. I went along and thought that they had a bit of a following, but it gave me the buzz again for more music and more life on the road. How much I had missed our time together, I never wanted it to end.

Mick managed to track down some of our old road mates, and we made a few journeys into Lancashire to meet up again. We started hanging out together when he wasn’t touring and about a year went by when he invited me to the two nights at Millennium Square in Leeds, by now the band had played Live Aid 2 in the USA and the show just like the band had grown in stature.

So a couple of festivals later, and an earlier trip to Manchester Apollo, and I was heading back to Manchester once again, this time to the Manchester Evening News Arena for two nights, where I was meeting up with a bunch of friends.

Mick arranged to take me over in his car and booked me into the Radisson Edwardian Hotel for the two nights. He had organised a Photo Shoot Card, VIP seats, and Aftershow Passes for both nights, as well as six Guest tickets with Aftershow Passes per night.

On our drive over I was in some pain from my damaged sciatic nerve, but we made plans for next year and what we were hoping to do. We hope to have sometime to ourselves and head for the coast and go exploring new places. Mick asked me to meet our six guests and look after them and to ring him when we got into the venue, so he could meet and greet them.

So as I checked into the Radisson Mick went down to the venue to meet up with the band. It was a nice hotel, better than sleeping it rough on top of the bass bins in the back of the groups trucks as we had done for so many years in our earlier days on the road.

It was a difficult task to work out how to get the lights to stay on in my room, everything was so modern and technical, whatever happened to a simple light switch. It didn’t stop there, the bath taps, the shower controls, even the basin sink taps took some working out. The room was fantastic, I had a king size double bed and every mod con I could wish for.

I sat on the bed for awhile looking at the time, I had about four hours to kill, so I thought I would have a quick drink and then go on a mission to find what kind of kebab houses I could find, and take a few shots to sum up my stay in Manchester. I could only find one kebab house and I thought I best sample their kebabs, so I bought myself a mixed kebab with chilli sauce, but the chilli was crap, it had no bite in it at all, it was for softies, the chilli sauce I get from my local kebab house can be used as a paint stripper, it‘s that powerful.

On my way back to the hotel I came across a beautiful American girl taking pictures of the German market, we got talking about photography and then she found out that I wasn’t from Manchester and that I was here to photograph the Kaiser Chiefs, that impressed her, wish I had had a spare guest pass for her as she liked the band. I gave her my details and hopefully she will get in touch.

I got back to the hotel and made a few calls, had a couple more drinks and then set off down the road to the gig. I found the guest list office and text Gill with the details. Gill had been to a couple of festivals with me and her friend Kay, Gill was bringing her husband Frank, and their two children, Callum and Frances, and Kay was bringing her oldest son Tom. I had tried earlier in the year to get the kids guest passes for the Apollo gig but it didn’t come off, so Gill brought Kay, Kirsten, and Louise to the show. So I was really happy for the kids when they got Aftershow passes too.

I met up with them outside the box office and escorted them inside, we had a chat and rang Mick who came down to meet and greet the kids for the first time. They knew that this was a special moment in life, going to see a top band, it was Frances, Callum and Tom’s first gig. They were getting excited and went into the arena to watch the show as I went back out to the box office where I met up with the press guys.

About ten minutes before the band was due on we were escorted by security into the behind the scenes corridors, taken down in the lift to the basement, it was a long walk down the tunnels to the arena loading doors, the massive doors were opened and we were led in to the backstage area and brought out by the pit. We were given the run down on the do’s and don’ts, ( no flash, first three songs only, and to wait while the giant Kaiser Chiefs curtain dropped to the pit floor and made safe before we would be allowed to enter the pit ).

Moments later the lights changed, the crowd started to buzz, and the intro music / noise started. It was now the moment I had been waiting for, my time had come. How many shots could I fire off in three songs ? I started by focusing my camera on Whitey, my very first shot was spot on, the next set of frames I shot on Whitey were good shots too. I turned to my right to see Ricky climbing up onto the security fence that held the crowd back from the pit. I popped off a series of shots of him touching hands with the crowd, again I could see that these images where looking good on my digital screen. I couldn’t believe how much light I really had to play with and how so far nobody got in my way, and that every shot was usable. This was soon to change as I tried to get a batch of shots off of Nick, firstly Whitey kept cutting across the shots and as I adjusted my position the cymbals started to obscure my shots, so I moved across the pit to the other side when Ricky jumped back down onto the security fence and started playing with the crowd again, I popped off a few more shots, this time getting a few shots with the press guys photographing him. While I was at this side of the pit I tried to capture a round of shots of Peanut but again Simon kept cutting me off and Peanut had his back to me, from here I could barely make out Nick for his cymbals and his microphone and boom arm.

Simon is probably the hardest to photograph because like Ricky he is always on the move, twisting and turning, and pogoing up and down, but I did manage to capture a good few shots of him before he turned his back and moved in stage. Now Ricky was standing on one of the foldback monitors urging the crowd along, this made for a good few shots. I moved back over to Whitey’s side of the stage, from here I could see more of Nick, and by firing diagonally across the stage I could get Peanut’s face, and Whitey himself does make for a great shot. It doesn’t take long for three songs to pass and I wanted to make the most of it. I fired about a hundred or so shots off, I thought that the best shots were of Ricky and Whitey, and I was just happy to have managed to have got some shots off of Simon. I thought that I could now spend more time tomorrow night capturing some good shots of Nick and Peanut, hopefully. But if it was going to be that easy how come I didn’t achieve those shots tonight.

So three songs gone, the security escorted us back through the tunnels, up in the lift and the press guys cleared off while I was escorted to Customer Services where I had to leave my camera before they showed me to the block where my VIP seat was. I had a good clear view looking down across the stage. The sound was awesome, down in the pit the bass was vibrating my damaged sciatic nerve in my back, so as I sat in my seat to watch the rest of the show I was in some discomfort, but I wouldn’t have passed on this opportunity for anything.

The lads played some of their classics, I Predict A Riot, Oh My God, and Ruby, as well as playing some new songs, a slow acoustic song, and one that has number one written all over it. There was a kind of Beatles feel to a couple of the new songs, I still haven’t quiet worked out what it was, and at this moment the titles of the new songs elude me. Just like all good things they have to come to an end, but the end was just starting.

After a triple encore I dashed back down to Customer Services and got my camera, I stuck my Aftershow pass on and headed back to find Gill and family and friends. We went down on to the arena floor and went under the arena stands where there was a large VIP marquee tent for the Aftershow party. We got a round of drinks in and while the kids were having a look at my photos on my digital camera, I was staking out the doorway. Simon was the first to walk in and when the kids saw him I said that I would arrange for them to be photographed with him, there seemed to be a mixture of shyness and excitement as Simon stood with Frances, Callum, and Tom. I’ve never seen Simon look so excited, ( only joking ), the kids loved it, they got his autograph, then I photographed them with Nick, they got his autograph too, then Peanut, then Whitey, the big man always looks good and has a great smile. The kids thought Christmas had come early.

The night had to end and as the clock struck midnight I escorted them back through the arena and up onto the street, I said goodnight to them all and shock the kids hands, and Franks too, a quick hug from Gill and Kay who will be meeting up with me tomorrow night. I strolled off down the street hoping to find a better kebab house or an Indian takeaway but no such luck. It was a wet night as I walked back to the hotel feeling that a kebab would have rounded the night off nicely, but outside the kebab house I had eaten at earlier was three drunks looking for a light, they were clinching their fists as I walked towards them, have you got a light they asked, I pulled a disposable lighter out of my pocket and they leapt into the air shouting yeah, nice one, and then they jumped on me and started hugging me, I said woo I have a bad back be careful, I said they could keep the lighter, they started jumping up and down again and one offered me a cigarette but I told them that although I would love a cigarette I had to stop smoking due to having a heart attack, and massive heart disease, one of them jumped on me again, shouting thanks for the lighter, I should have said thanks for the back pain.

Now I know that at fifty two, with heart disease, vascular disease and a damaged sciatic nerve in my back, that I look a bit worse for wear. When you are in the pit at a pop concert people like to throw things at you, beer, water, and all sorts of objects and other things, so I ain’t going to wear my Armani jacket, so I wore my old leather jacket and a woolly hat. As I walked up the steps to the hotel entrance the security guard stopped me, I said to him is there a problem, I’m stopping here. Well go to the reception desk and check in. I thought that this seemed a bit odd, so I went to the reception desk and said that I was in room two hundred and one, the doorman seems to have a problem with this, the two staff behind the counter brought up my details on the computer, I asked if there was a problem, one of them replied no problem, have a goodnight, I said thanks and went to my room,

Well it was only just passed midnight, so I thought I could have a drink or two and watch some telly, but what I would have given for a kebab. I had brought a few chocolate bars with me, so I had a couple with a mug of coffee before taking some pain killers to help me sleep in comfort. I must have passed out on the bed, when I woke up the telly was still on, it was sky news and all it was reporting about was the Sudan Teddy Bear crisis, and how the Sudan Government and public wanted to behead the woman teacher who had let her class of school children name the Teddy ‘Mohammed’.

I managed to turn the telly off and set a morning call for eight o’clock but I woke up at about six thirty and all I could smell was oxtail soup, I sniffed the bedding and I could smell oxtail soup, my pillow, me, my armpits, everything had a smell like oxtail soup. So I got out of bed, had a wash, went down for breakfast, it was seven fifteen and I was the first in. There was about fifteen or twenty jugs of different juices, there was rows of different bread rolls, a fruit bar, and a self service cooked breakfast, but no oxtail soup, and even worse no kebabs.

So after breakfast I went back up to my room and got my camera and went for an early morning stroll around Manchester, everywhere was wet from the overnight storm. I found China Town but no Indian restaurants or kebab houses. I picked up a jug of milk and headed back to the hotel where I took my morning and last nights heart medication as well as a couple of strong pain killers, I thought I would try the wet room shower, once I sussed out how to work it it was nice and refreshing, I made a coffee and laid on the bed, my medication kicked in and I started to feel drowsy, I woke up feeling really groggy and it took some shaking off, it was two in the afternoon. I had another coffee and set off to find a kebab house or an Indian, eventually I gave in and found a café that was doing chilli and chips, it was a massive meal, real value for money.

I returned to the hotel just as the rain came in, it was only about four thirty and I wasn’t meeting tonight’s guests until eight thirty, so I had a few drinks before getting out my mobile and sending everybody on my phone book at least one text, but my mate Mick Rix, himself a rock ’n’ roll security guard who looks after some of the biggest names in show business, he was doing a weekend bands and DJ’s festival, so we got texting each other stupid jokes. I was sending out a text with ’ Met a guy from Sudan FLOGGING Teddies, if you can’t afford one we could have a WHIP round. Anyway it passed a bit of time on, and it stopped me from playing with all the gimmicks in my bedroom.

Seven fifty five, I got my camera and my woolly hat and headed off to the gig, a slow walk in the rain down to the arena. First to arrive was Louise, a quick hug and explain what was happening. We had been to two Kaiser shows together before, with Gill, Kay, and Kirsten, who was still to arrive with a guy called Chris who Mick and I had met once before, and Kath who we had yet to meet.

Chris had spent sometime in a Thailand prison for allegedly smuggling drugs, but the British Embassy got him out and he is in the process of writing a book about it, he’s a great guy and I wanted him at the show and to get VIP treatment. Once they arrived I made sure they knew what they were doing and where to go, while I was escorted down to the pit again, once down there I met a young student who was doing his first major shoot for the Uni Rag. The pit was less crowded but I decided that I would just stay stage left so I could try and improve on the shots from the night before, concentrating on getting shots of Nick and Peanut, but by the end of the three songs I still wasn’t happy with the images of them both, but I was over the moon with the shots of Whitey and Ricky. In the first song Ricky jumped off the stage and climbed on the security fence and got the crowd going again, but he needed to climb up the tower I was next to and we came close to colliding in the pit.

It was the same as the night before, I had to leave my camera at Customer Services where they locked it away, although each night I removed the memory card just in case anything went wrong, if I lost the camera I wasn’t going to lose the images, no way. This time I was in a different seat in a different block and who should I be next to but Simon’s dad and his mother, I met them before at the Apollo, really nice people, and although they were at the Aftershow the night before I hadn’t seen them.

Tonight the sound was even better and if I described last night as a fantastic show, then tonight was three times that. Again the new songs sound like hits to me and I can still feel a Beatles thing about them but I don’t know if it is in the vocals and or the musical style, but I am interested in seeing what happens to the songs in the near future.

This time at the Aftershow Louise had brought her daughter and two of her friends, they had watched the concert from the main arena, Mick got them Aftershow passes and they joined us in the marquee where I was introduced to them. I gave them the same treatment as the kids the night before although these were a little older they were still shy and excited.

First in was Peanut, so I got the three girls together and took them to meet Peanut, and I got him to sign Chris’s guest ticket, and photographed the girls with him. Simon came next, then Nick, then Ricky who gave me a big hug before posing with the girls, then last of all in came Whitey, that made it a full hand, and I had managed to get Chris’s ticket signed by them all, that is the first time I have ever managed to get all the signatures in one go for somebody, Chris was really chuffed and I think the guy will treasure the memories of that night forever, and so will the girls. Before leaving I thought just a minute I photograph everybody and with the celebrities and I never get mine taken, except for recently when I posed with Seasick Steve after his show at the Cockpit in Leeds, and Polly’s Medicine at the New Roscoe also in Leeds. So why not get a picture with Simon, and Nick, and I got peanut and Whitey and Nick to sign my Photo Shoot pass and my Aftershow pass. Wish I had asked Whitey to pose with me, hopefully there will be a next time.

Again, the clock struck midnight as we made our way out into the street, we shook hands, and I had a hug or two from Kay, Louise, and Gill. I walked off into the rain and as I passed the car park gates there were a group of girls waiting to see the band leave, so I let them have a look at some of my pictures on my digital camera, and gave them a web card each for my site, www.sdptv.co.uk.

This time I manage to avoid any drunks jumping on me on my way back to the hotel, but I do owe the security doorman at the Radisson one for his attitude with me last night. So I cross over the road in full view of him and his partner, I walk through the adjoining archway and up the steps, this time he runs up the steps and opens the door for me and asks if everything’s is alright and wishes me a goodnight. I think either he was trying to make up for last night or he was taking the p’, I’ll give him the benefit of my doubt, wouldn’t wont him to lose his job.

I went up to my room and had a coffee and took two strong pain killers, I woke early morning with a heavy pain to my lower left back, around the kidney area, I was in so much pain I couldn’t get back to sleep, I put the light on and saw that it was only ten minutes to six, I staggered into the bathroom and managed to take a bath before taking my medication again, I did not want to take any pain killers in case I passed out on the train home. Outside was a torrential rain storm, and I started packing my clothes and camera equipment, the rain was getting heavier, and my back pain was too. One last coffee and I was out of here.

The train journey home was very uncomfortable indeed and the only thing that keeps me going is producing great images, I hope you have had a look at my work and like what you see. For now I am putting my feet up and taking things a little easier.

Rock ‘n’ Roll will be the death of me.

Steve.

P.S

Thanks to the staff at the box office, especially the gorgeous looking one who sorted out my passes, nice people. The security stewards who assisted me in getting to and from the pit. The stewards on the Customer Service Desk for keeping my camera safe. The staff at the Aftershow. The Kaiser Chiefs for a fantastic two shows, and Mick for managing my requirements and needs. And the VIP's, Tom, Callum, and Frances, hope you like the photo's.