Dabbers in FA Cup History & Guillemots at The Box

I spent the afternoon at the Weaver Stadium in Nantwich. Nantwich Town have made history by reaching the 1st round proper of the FA Cup for the first time in their 127 year history and head down to Milton Keynes for Saturday’s fixture. The place was buzzing as the team got ready to set off with Sky Sports News broadcasting live as well as all the local Press. I’m off to the Stadium:MK on Saturday to photograph the match for the club and local press.

Thursday night saw one of the best nights of music at The Box in Crewe I have witnessed. Guillemots were in town and the performance was special. I had a good chat with the band before they took to the stage and shot a portrait of each band member as well as a group shot of all the band together.

I also was the official photographer for the WTD Promotions darts exhibition at Crewe Alex with three times world champion John Part. Did a great portrait and also all the shots with the fans!

I’ll be working with the Retrospective on Sunday on a band shoot. Got some great ideas and looking forward to an interesting shoot!

Duff McKagan and Four Four Two Magazine

Another busy week is underway at SJN Towers! After a weekend spent partly in Blackpool photographing loads of MPs and a day at RedShift Radio for the special photo day we have loads underway this week.

On Tuesday night I was off to London to meet and photograph former Guns ‘n Roses musician Duff McKagan. Duff is now with Loaded and I met him at The Garage in Islington. We did some portraits followed by some live shots of the last gig on their UK tour! Great gig it was too!

I recently received a request from the famous football magazine Four Four Two for some images of Nantwich Town manager Jimmy Quinn. I photographed the former Northern Ireland international leading up to my exhibition at the Lyceum Theatre earlier in the year. The resulting article is in the December issue and is a humorous take on Jimmy featuring on the bench for the Dabbers due to suspensions and injuries! I photographed Jimmy in a charity match in which he found the back of the net against Franco Baresi’s AC Milan Legend XI.

Still got lots on over the rest of the week. Guillemots stop by Crewe on Thursday at The Box. On the same night I’ll be photographing three times world champion professional darts player John Part. John is taking part in an exhibition with WTD Promotions at Crewe Alex’s Carlsberg Suite. Friday sees another gig at the Box before a weekend which will involve heading down to Milton Keynes for the historic match between the MK Dons and Nantwich Town in the first round of the FA Cup. Sunday I have a family shoot followed by a music promo for local band The Retrospective!

Ray Parlour at the Weaver Stadium

Over the summer I was appointed the official club photographer for Nantwich Town FC. I had previously done a portrait of Chairman Jon Gold and club manager Jimmy Quinn for my exhibition ‘People’ staged at the Lyceum Theatre. Mr Gold was so impressed with the portraits that he invited me to take up the position, which I was very happy to accept.

I now attend all the home fixtures to take action shots which are used on the club website and in the programme! I also have a full page advertisement in the matchday programme. As well as the action shots I have taken the full squad photograph, recently published in the Chronicle and all the player portraits.

There are many fundraising events held at the Weaver Stadium including after dinner speaking. I was privileged to be invited along to a recent event starring BBC football commentator John Motson OBE. I had a good chat with John and also did a monochrome portrait which was also included in the ‘People’ exhibition. Last night England and Arsenal legend Ray Parlour was at the Weaver! I was once again invited to attend and provide the event photography and produced a portrait of Ray.

Ray had some great stories to tell about his playing days and a great evening was had by all!