Urban Portrait Book

Progress is being made in the Urban Portrait Book project. We have had discussions with a local publisher and we are confident we can go to press. We are looking for sponsors to help fund the initial run so any local businesses interested in getting involved are more than welcome!

It’s been a varied and busy time of late. The traditional wedding season has concluded and we had a very lovely visit to Wallasey Town Hall. Our bespoke books have started arriving from Italy and have been delivered to happy clients! We’ve had lots of comments on the wonderful layout created by Tina using her Graphic Design skills to the full!

As well finishing a last few Urban Portraits for the book we have had a few musician promo shoots. Tim Gallagher is finalising his recording and we had a great, if slightly chilly, shoot in Hassall Green beside a canal. Looking forward to hearing the EP and seeing the final artwork which will be designed by Tina! We’ve also been lucky to visit Whitby Morrison in Crewe for a shoot with Shaun & The Special Sauce. Whitby Morrison are the worlds leading manufacturer of ice cream vans. I’m also pleased to say that the company are sponsoring the Urban Portraits book. By bizarre coincidence straight after the shoot with Shaun I headed over to Nantwich Town for some press photos of Ed Whitby and Nantwich Town Chairman Jon Gold as Whitby Morrisson are sponsoring a stand at the Weaver!

I was also commissioned to photograph the recent Labour Party Conference held in Manchester. I produced a set of press photos covering the event and some of the fringe events. The highlight for me was meeting and photographing Eddie Izzard! I also got to photograph Lord Coe and Jonathan Edwards!

I am available for press work and I have recently been undertaking a variety of commissions for Cheshire East Council. I’ve been to Knutsford, Macclesfield, Handforth, Nantwich and Crewe to photograph a variety of events!

I’m also available for private commissions for Urban Portraits. If you would like to be photographed, please get in touch. I now have a site dedicated to the project: http://www.urbanportrait.co.uk

I am also organising a day of family/ kids/ pets photos in Nantwich. It will be a special event where you can come along and have a set of photos, then order online with delivery guaranteed by Christmas. More info to follow soon!!

Gridiron UK

I’m sure most of you have seen all the buzz over the last month regarding the film that has been made right here in Crewe. It is based on the true story of the Crewe Railroaders which was set up in 1984 by Gary Delaney. Well, since then Gary has gone on to set up a film making company, written a script and has directed the film.

I was employed on the film as the official stills photographer. This has involved being on set to get the stills photos for publicity and also some behind-the-scenes photographs!

Michael Dixon, Actor

Michael Dixon, Actor

The film boasts some great actors and has been shot entirely in Crewe. Michael Dixon, Stephen Marcus, Right Said Fred and Rebecca Pitkin are just some of the people in the film. I managed to get in front the camera for a cameo as well!

Rebecca Pitkin, Actress

Rebecca Pitkin, Actress

The cinema release is scheduled for November and the DVD release should be in February next year.

During the filming we still managed to find time for 6 weddings, my Urban Portrait exhibition and the Prom Night for Sandbach High!

Nantwich Town Football Club Squad Photo 2012 - 2013

Darren Fletcher, Manchester United FC

The football season is back as well and we have been to some great games already at The Weaver Stadium. Nantwich Town are looking very strong this year. We have done all the player portraits for the club website as well as the full squad photo and a new manager portrait of Jimmy Quinn. Stoke City are also playing some of their home Barclays U21 Premier League at the Weaver. Manchester United were the first visitors and fielded a team that boasted Scotland international Darren Fletcher who played the full 90 minutes.

Darren Fletcher, Manchester United Player

Darren Fletcher, Manchester United Player

Music Photography: Live From Jodrell Bank

Last year I was fortunate to photograph The Flaming Lips and British Sea Power at Transmission 001 at Live From Jodrell Bank. This year saw the festival grow to a 2 day affair with headline acts Elbow and Paul Weller. Sadly the weather ended hopes of the Weller gig taking place.

Guy Garvey, Frontman of Elbow. In front of the Lovell Telescope.

Guy Garvey, Frontman of Elbow. In front of the Lovell Telescope.

I was at the Elbow gig though armed with the camera on official business! A great line up saw Transmission 002 take off where last years event finished! I arranged a portrait shoot with Guy Garvey of Elbow in front of the dish which was a nice little shoot. I’ve got to say of all the backdrops I’ve used in my time the Lovell Radio Telescope is one of the most special!

Elbow performing live at Jodrell Bank

Elbow performing live at Jodrell Bank

The live music itself was really good and not at all ruined by the deluge of rain. It’s a shame that that rain ended any hopes of me photographing the Gomez, Graham Coxon and Paul Weller show the following day! Still, I got a nice set of images which I have shared on the Facebook Page.

Wedding season is truly upon us and I have 5 special days to document next month. I have a few weddings in North Wales as well as one in Crewe, and one at Old Hall in Madely, South Cheshire. I hope the weather is better than for the Elbow gigs as two of the weddings are outside!

As the new season approaches for Nantwich Town I have lots of work ahead getting the new player portraits and the new squad photo. I was at the Weaver Stadium this afternoon to photograph the new kit. A change of sponsorship and a new away strip will be launched very soon by the club. It’s exciting times at the club as manager Jimmy Quinn has assembled a strong squad for the coming season. A lot of new faces bring hope for a successful season. I’ll be at most of the matches providing action shots for the club and local press in my role as official club photographer!

Eventbrite - Urban Portraits by Simon J. Newbury. The Exhibition.

My Urban Portrait Exhibition is really taking shape now, having photographed nearly 30 portraits. It’s been fantastic to have so many people volunteer to be a part of it. The majority of the photographs were taken around Crewe and the exhibition itself will be held at Bar 7 on Nantwich Road on Sunday July 22. As well as the photographic exhibition there will be some wonderful acoustic music to enjoy, all for free! I’m still shooting portraits for the project and hope to have a body of around 50 images by the time the exhibition comes about. I hope you can join me there!

Nantwich Jazz, Blues & Music Festival

cleo laine

Dame Cleo Laine performing Live in St Mary's Church, Nantwich

It’s certainly been a busy week for us here at Simon J. Newbury Photography. We were tasked with capturing the 16th Nantwich Jazz, Blues & Music Festival. A wonderful event spread across 15 venues and 5 days!

Tina and myself were out every day capturing

lots of the action around the town and the venues. One of my favourite bands were Spikedriver who appeared at the Crown Hotel Ballroom.

 

Tony Christie was amazing and it was great to actually meet the man and do a portrait of him in his dressing room!

Tony Christie Amarillo

Portrait of Tony Christie taken in his dressing room just before his performance at the Nantwich Civic Hall.

 

The jazz concerts at the churches were also really nice and the entire festival had lots of variety!

Tom Seals played all over the place and we were pleased to be able to get him photos with Tony Christie and Dame Cleo Laine. It was nice to see my photo of Tom on his roll-up banners around the town!

I managed to fit in two Nantwich Town matches as well.I travelled down to Stafford on the team bus on Monday before getting back to Nantwich in time for the final gig…

…The Beat at the Nantwich Civic Hall.

Since the festival I have also done another ‘Paint & Portrait’ with Sharon. I also visited Haslington Hall, where I am booked to photograph two weddings over the summer. I was meeting with Kim & Darren for the pre-wedding shoot which is a standard part of all my packages! The weather was kind and the daffodils were lovely!

Nantwich Jazz, Blues & Music Festival 1

Well its festival time again and we’re gearing up for a busy season. As well as our regular photographic coverage of Crewe Live (looking amazing this year with Ash, Hadouken and Pulled Apart By Horses) we are covering the Nantwich Jazz Festival this year as well.

The popular festival has some amazing acts and top of the bill is Tony Christie. I’m hoping to get a portrait in Nantwich as well as lots of great live shots of his performance. We’ll be getting around all the venues as well to ensure decent coverage of the event!

Its a busy weekend for us as we also have our regular event at the Box in Crewe to photograph on Friday. Saturday is another home fixture for Nantwich Town FC ahead of Monday’s away fixture at Stafford. We’ll also be at Crewe Alex for the WTD Promotions darts exhibition featuring Steve Beaton and Colin Lloyd offering our event photography.

Tuesday (weather permitting) we are meeting up with a lovely couple for their engagement shoot at Haslington Hall. They are getting married later this year and we always offer a complimentary pre-wedding shoot as part of all our packages!

No doubt we’ll see some of you around this weekend!

England Under 18s International, The South & The Aussie Pink Floyd

It seems I have been doing loads of travelling lately. In the last few weeks I have been to Birmingham twice, Manchester, Birkenhead and Stoke. I’m off up to Burnley tomorrow too!

Nantwich Town have been at home for two Saturdays on the trot so I have been over at the Weaver sat pitchside. I have great shots of Mat Bailey’s goals which appeared in all the local press. The England U18 national team also stopped by the Weaver Stadium this week for training ahead of their 3-0 win over Poland staged at Crewe’s Alexandra Stadium. I attended the training session and got a photo of the squad for the clubs website. The facilities at the Weaver must be good as the lads put in a stunning performance in front a a 6000 plus strong crowd. It was good to be pitchside at such a prestigious fixture! It was also nice meeting Sir Trevor Brooking before the game!

We have also been about to loads of live music gigs of late. The first visit to Birmingham was to photograph The South (formerly the Beautiful South) at the o2 Academy. This was the fifth time I had seen the band and they put on a great show!

We also headed up to Manchester to photograph the Australian Pink Floyd at the Apollo. It was a real visual spectacle with a stunning light show and video graphics. If you like Pink Floyd then its really a show you will enjoy!

We also managed to find time to photograph Syntronix at the Carlsberg Suite at Crewe Alex. Great performance and good crowd. Over at the Box Mercedes put on a really good show.

Sham 69 are heading back to town on Saturday and I’ll be doing some band photos for their publicity and website. One of my favourite portraits is of Al Campbell taken the last time they played at the Box!

We have also been busy covering a few events. We photographed a Christening party at Crewe Vagrants on Sunday. A great set of images for the happy parents. We have also photographed a few after dinner speaking events. We were with Yvette Cooper over in Tranmere and will be with Alan Johnson in Burnley.

Thin Lizzy

As you know music photography is one of my favourite areas of photography. I have worked with many bands in promo/ band setups, live photography, documentary or at festivals.

I was recently asked to photograph Thin Lizzy on their European tour which was a great honour. Tina & I traveled to Leicester to photograph the band both from the pit and onstage. Its actually an amazing experience being on the stage while such a huge band entertain a massive crowd!

My favourite shots came right at the end of the set as the band got together centre stage and saluted the crowd to rapturous applause. I got behind the band so I could capture the emotion of the fans. it makes for a great black and white shot!

Next up we are off to Sheffield to hook up with the band again to make a set of portraits and a full promo shoot. Really looking forward to it.

By contrast we have been at two gigs back in Crewe at the Box. Gypsy jazz legend Gary Potter rolled back in to town and I have to say I stand amazed at his music. It’s simply amazing! All the gig images are on the Facebook page if you want to check them out!

Before we get all rock n roll on Sunday we have a shoot in Preston with another MP and some local council candidates on Saturday. After that we head back over to the Weaver Stadium to photograph Nantwich Town! We are certainly getting about this week!

Review of the Year – 2011 – Part Two

Following my request to photograph the Chairman of Nantwich Town, Jon Gold, and club manager Jimmy Quinn I was invited to become the official club photographer. I was delighted to accept this position and have attended every home game at the Weaver Stadium. I have also travelled to several away games and I am loving being involved with the club.

It’s certainly been an historic season. The club reached the 1st round proper of the FA Cup and were drawn away to Milton Keynes Dons at their new stadium. Although the scoreline was pretty harsh (6-0), everyone at the club had a great day out and the financial input from the cup run has made the world of difference to the South Cheshire club!

As a result of my involvement with the club I have been able to produce many portraits of many of the game’s luminaries. John Motson OBE paid a visit to the club and was happy to pose. England and Arsenal legend Ray Parlour was also a visitor to the Weaver Stadium. The Club’s Life President is former Chelsea and England star Frank Blunstone. Frank won the 1st Division title with Chelsea after moving from Crewe. He also went on to represent England. Certainly a legend and a great subject for a portrait! Another legend I photographed at the Weaver this term is former AC Milan and Italy sweeper Franco Baresi. Franco brought a charity XI to the Weaver along with a few other former Italian internationals.

Aside from the football I have been as busy as ever with my music photography. I have been fortunate to photograph at some wonderful events this year. The Crewe Live Festival was back after a year away and Tina and myself undertook to photograph as much of the event as we could. Spread over 12 venues and 4 days with over 150 bands playing it was no easy task! We managed to photograph 100 bands between us and had a great time. The festival was headlined by Funeral For A Friend and I was pleased to do portraits of the entire band as well as a promo shoot before they took to the stage in front of a packed Box!

The Cloud 9 festival near Sandbach was a wonderful one day event. Again Tina and I attended as official photographers and really enjoyed the variety of music on offer. Our good friend Sheena Bratt appeared with Nick Bayes guesting on bass and it made for some great photos. Over on the main stage Ed Sheeran was amazing. I was pleased to meet Ed and do a portrait. Also on the bill was Bez and The Futureheads.

The first ever Transmissions – Live from Jodrell Bank took place this year as well. The event was headlined by The Flaming Lips along with British Sea Power and OK GO!. A phenomenal event which was truly a visual treat. I entered one of my images of Flaming Lips front man Wayne Coyne into the NME professional photography competition and it finished in the top 20. I certainly hope that the event continues next year -its such a wonderful venue for such an event!

The very next day I headed off to Chester Rocks at the racecourse. They had a fantastic lineup! Tommy Scott (Space), I Am Kloot, Lightning Seeds, Australian Pink Floyd, Feeder, Leftfield and Iggy Pop & The Stooges. A great day in the sun and was amazed at the fantastic performance from Iggy. Came home with a wonderful set of images!

Also on a musical note I was pleased to do a portrait shoot with former Guns ‘n Roses musician Duff McKagan. Duff was on tour with his new band Loaded! We travelled to the Garage in London to do the portrait and capture the live performance. A late night but a music legend!

Review of the Year – 2011 – Part One

2011 has been an amazing year for Simon J. Newbury Photography. I’ve met and photographed so many amazing people!

One of the most notable things of 2011 for me was the 2 major exhibitions I staged. The first was the conclusion of the massive documentary project I undertook with Wulvern and Cruden Construction documenting Phase One of the Regeneration (now award winning regeneration!).

The major exhibition was funded completely by Wulvern and ran for a week culminating in a huge VIP event and tour of the Sherborne Estate. I was very proud and honoured to have my images displayed and viewed by so many people. It was a fitting conclusion to the work I had done over the previous year. It remains the biggest project I have undertaken.

The second major exhibition was held throughout May at the Lyceum Theatre in Crewe. A very different project on display entitled ‘People’. This was an exhibition of my portraits including many famous names as well as some local people and even an anonymous gentleman photographed on the streets of Florence in Italy!

‘People’ included some of portraits I had made previously from my portfolio such as James Toseland (who announced his retirement this year), Mark Morriss (The Bluetones), John Pienaar (BBC 5 Live), Ben Montague, Darius (before his appearance in Crewe), John Bramwell (I Am Kloot), Mat Horne (Gavin & Stacey), Jez Williams (Doves), Bez, Mark Chadwick (Levellers), Garry Christian (The Christians) and Lord Prescott. I also did some portraits especially for the exhibition. Nantwich Town Chairman Jon Gold and manager (and former Northern Ireland international) Jimmy Quinn, former Crewe Alex player Joel Grant (now with Wycombe Wanderers), Fiona Bruce MP, John Motson OBE and Simon ‘The Wizard’ Whitlock. The exhibition was a huge success and once again thank-you to everyone who attended during the month, everyone that left comments in the book, Tom Seals and Hayley Strangelove for performing at the VIP evening and Volume PR for the promotional work. Huge thanks to Nick Bayes for the professional hanging and display work!

I am pleased to say that the exhibition now exists as a permanent feature at the Brierly Centre in Crewe and at the Rising Sun Vaults around the corner from RedShift Radio on Earle Street.

Lots of people are familiar with my images appearing regularly in the local press. The Crewe & Nantwich Guardian, The Chronicle and the Sentinel have all borne my images this year and each has had my images on the front cover at some point. On a national level I have been published in two major publications this year.

The first was a full page poster in Kerrang! which also included the image on the front cover. The images was a promo shot of The James Cleaver Quintet taken straight after their performance at the Box in Crewe. The other major publication was two images of Nantwich Town manager Jimmy Quinn featured in the December issue of Four Four Two magazine. One was the portrait featured in my exhibition and the other was a shot of Jimmy in action in a charity match at the Weaver Stadium.

Definitely one of my main highlights of the year was appearing on Granada Reports with Sharon Burrows of Hullabaloo Kids. Between us we have been pioneering an innovative package for mums-to-be entitled ‘Paint & Portrait’. Sharon, a professional face painter, paints a scene onto the baby bump and I produce some quality portraits of the pampered mum-to-be! Again with the help of Volume we landed ourselves in all the local press including a half page front cover photo in the Sentinel! Not long after we got a call from Granada Reports asking to do a feature! This lead to a film crew heading over to join us with a selection of mums and mums-to-be. Paul Crone and his team filmed Sharon doing her painting, and me making the portraits and interviewed us both about the package and the feature went out that night on ITV!

Working with Cheshire’s Poet Laureate

Many of you will know I volunteer my services to local Community Radio station RedShift Radio. Presently on the airwaves on 87.7FM in the South Cheshire area I am doing four shows a week in between the busy festive photoshoots! I ordinarily present the local music show on a Monday but have stepped up the shows and present the local community show called Community Roundup three days a week!

Recently one of our many guests was Cheshire’s longest serving poet laureate, Terry Fox. He delivered several poems and one, Homage To Cheshire, was so full of wonderful imagery that I had to ask if we could collaborate. I have recently put together some slideshows of various areas of my photography and thought the idea of photographing a set of images to put to the poem would be a wonderful project. I am pleased to say that Terry was very keen, he commented “I am enormously pleased by the prospect of my poem being used with your photographs.” I can’t say how proud I am to be working with such an esteemed poet!

I will of course keep you up to date on the progress of this project!!

Meanwhile there is still time to get Christmas bookings in. I use local suppliers so I can guarantee prints and canvas for a while yet so please do get in touch if you fancy a kids, family or pets shoot for Christmas! We also offer vouchers which make wonderful Christmas gifts!

On Saturday 10th December we will be at the Kingsmead Primary School Christmas Fair in Northwich. You can pop along to see some of our canvas montages and printed work including our kids photography, family photography and pets photography! We’ll have images of newborns, baby & toddler shots, maternity photos and lots from our portfolio! I’ll also have my portrait portfolio and some of my wedding books! See you there?