2023 was a quiet year for me photography wise due to personal commitments, but what bands I did capture were amazing and interesting with the added spatter of being awesome.

This was the first year I covered a gig for GRIMM that I had in the pipeline for a while and was possibly one of the hardest to acquire a photo/review pass for, the artist in question was Self Esteem or now known as Rebecca Taylor who currently is performing in the stage production of Cabaret.

I had the honour of working with and for one of my synth Idols of the 80s, namely Martyn Ware of The Human League (early years) and Heaven 17.

The project with Martyn Ware was titled “Music for Total 3D Sonic Immersion” where the audio literally immersed itself around the room while the acts performed, which included Richard Norris (The Grid), Utopia Strong with the famous world snooker player Steve Davis and not forgetting Martyn Ware performing on a variety of synthesizers with John Wesley Barkers Strings, Tim Wheater and Cherub hitting things hard and delicately.

I also covered the entire gig of Heaven 17 on the opening night of The Luxury Gap UK tour.

Finally, as a birthday present to me from me in October I went to see Gary Numan perform an acoustic gig in a cathedral in Manchester, as a birthday gift from Gary’s tour manager I received a photo pass for the first 3 songs which was fortunate as after exiting the pit I couldn’t see a thing for the rest of the night what with the place being packed out and pillars blocking every conceivable angle!

And that’s 2023 in a nutshell. 2024 already has Foo Fighters booked for Manchester, but chances of getting a pass there are slim to none.