Great night last night! Toni celebrated her 31st birthday and I got the night off from the Hard Rock so managed to stay out with the gang much later than I thought. Toni had an old polaroid camera printing off £1-a-go photos but they look ace in an 80s sorta way.
Bumped into Ade from Beat Union who told me they were going on tour with The Used and Alexisonfire. We discussed the possibility of me going on the road with them for a few days to photograph them on tour, an idea I really like the sound of even though there's no oney involved. Obviously if they go on to be huge I'll publish a book of my photos and retire. Check the band out HERE

Today sent out my annual review of my year which you can see HERE It's my way of keeping my friends who I might not see often updated with what I've been up to. If they care. Deciding my fave albums of the year was tricky. There's been so much good music recently but these are the albums that I've listened to a lot this year:

1. Lamb Of God – Sacrament
2. The Bronx – The Bronx
3. Silversun Pickups – Carnavas
4. The Frames – The Cost
5. Tool – 10,000 Days
6. Roddy Woomble - My Secret Is My Silence
7. The Haunted – The Dead Eye
8. Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam
9. Damien Rice – 9
10. Bernard Fanning - Tea & Sympathy
11. Dilated Peoples – 20/20
12. Mastodon - Blood Mountain
13. Dustin Kensrue – Please Come Home
14. Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
15. Slayer – Christ Illusion
16. Gomez - How We Operate
17. Thom Yorke – The Eraser
18. Ministry - Rio Grande Blood
19. The Roots – Game Theory
20. Glen Hansard & Marketta Irglova – The Swell Season

Got my hands on 6 tracks from the forthcoming Idlewild album, a band I love, and the new songs are fantastic. Can't wait to see them when they tour in a few weeks.

Jess called to congratulate us on the pregnancy. She's got a 3 month old baby so said we should meet up so Evelyne has someone to chat with about nappies and sore boobs. Sounds like fun to me!

Quite a night had by all at the Edwards reunion. At times I felt like I was on "This Is Your Life" as another face from the past came through the door at Island. Really good to see so many people show up for it. We filled both floors of the bar.
Good also to see my old friend Jon Grant who hasn't spoken to me in almost a decade but managed to put past disagreements behind him and buy me a beer. It was a stupid disagreement in the first place as hopefully he would agree. Ex-girlfriends showed up and got somewhat flirtatious which is always good. And I have to say that on the whole most people look better today than they did when I knew them from Edwards in the 90s. This rock n roll lifestyle suits us well.
Miserable day in Birmingham today. Grey, cold and windy. Think I'll be staying home til this evening when I'm off out for Toni's birthday meal and then on to the Hard Rock Cafe. Maybe I'll even get through some more photos. Not many gigs at the moment so it'd be a good time to catch up.

So that was Christmas eh?
Pretty uneventful really but still all good. Best part was just taking time out to chill with my girl, catch up on some TV and have a JD & coke or three.
The family stuff up in Chester was fun too. Always good to see cousins, aunties, uncles and my nan and play stupid games. That's what Christmas is about. Oh, and the birth of Jesus of course! lol

Evelyne bought me a great book about wedding photography and her parents got me a subscription to Photoshop User magazine, which looks really good but will mean I spend even more time at my computer which may not please Evelyne so much!
Back in Birmingham got our first enquiry about photographing a wedding through the website. They've asked how much we charge. I hate that question cos we don't wanna undersell ourselves but at the same time we don't wanna lose the job cos they think we're too much. It's a tightrope. It's good that we got the enquiry though cos I haven't even put any wedding photos up on the site yet.
Speaking of weddings, Evelyne and I took some time looking for venues for ours and found a great little fort in Cornwall with a private beach. It's not cheap but would be a great location so we'll see what happens.
Sold a few prints on Ebay too. The Pete Doherty ones are really popular, but then his fans are a little obsessive. AFI do well too, as do Aiden and Arctic Monkeys.
Last night had dinner with Dave & Kerry from Fused Mag and then went down to Island again, which was pretty busy so ended up leaving after 2am. I'm there again tonight for the Edwards reunion thing which I'm looking forward to. Should be a few old faces in attendance and it'll be good to play some tunes I haven't played out for a while.
James Brown RIP :(

Long night Saturday taking in a quick visit to my friend Sarah's Christmas meal, then on to DJ at the Hard Rock again, then to Edwards No.8's Christmas bash where 99% of the people were dressed in black (the DJ played Europe's "Final Countdown" and he wasn't being ironic), and finally onto the Cold Rice Underground party where 99% of the people were pissed beyond belief. All good fun but I feel a little the worse for wear today.
Time to wrap some presents before heading up to Chester for a couple of days with the family. Taking my camera to get plenty of shots of course.
I'm feeling quite festive now actually. So, I'll just say Merry Christmas to anyone reading this. Have good one.
All the best.
Steve

I keep thinking I'm gonna have time to chill out cos it's Christmas, but in actual fact nothing could be further from the truth. If I'm not out photographing bands I'm DJing almost every night before New Year and in between there's the usual family visits, present wrapping and carol singing. Ok, so that last one's not true but you get the point. Having said that, I do love Christmas. It brings out the old romantic in me and I feel like inviting all the neighbours round for mince pies and mulled wine. Nobody does that these days though and if I did, they'd probably think they were being invited to a swingers party or something.
So what's happened since we last met then? Wednesday night was great. Photographed some of the best local bands currently doing the rounds and all of them were excellent. Apart from the photos I did a quick review for Fused which you can see HERE . I don't pretend to be a writer but it's good to have something to go with the photos I think.
After the gig I rushed round to Island Bar for our Banquet night which was packed out. Ended up leaving there at 3am. On a school night!
Thursday saw more Christmas shopping (arrrggghhh) and we picked up the brochures for Steve Gerrard Photography. They're exactly how we wanted them so we're really chuffed and can't wait to get them to potential clients. While we were in town we popped in to my solicitors to get signed affidavits to send to the Home Office cos we've applied for a Certificate of Approval for Marriage, necessary cos Evelyne's from Canada. All very official and quite tedious, not helped by the solicitor being a Liverpool fan and getting excited cos my name's Steve Gerrard!
Thursday night I offered to shoot a great local band called Beat Union who were opening for the Wildhearts in Wolverhampton. Picked up my pass at the stage door from another Liverpool fan (!) and then met up with fellow photographer and all-round nice guy Lee Allen. Managed to get some great shots of both bands despite them both being washed in that annoying red light. Had to take a few sneaky shots using flash despite the infamous "no flash" rule being enforced by security. Both bands were great too. It must be about 15 years since I last saw the Wildhearts but they were surprisingly good and had the crowd singing every word back to them all night.
Friday I did my best to stay in the house and go through some recent photos. There's some new stuff up on my ROCK PHOTO site for those that are interested. And then it was back to the Hard Rock Cafe last night til midnight. Bit quieter than expected considering it was Christmas weekend but thankfully a few friends turned up, including all the staff from Calumet, so a good evening was had by all. I'm back there tonight.
Got an email from Annabel Williams inviting me to a 2 day seminar with Andy Earl in the Lake District. Andy is a successful photographer who has shot portraits of Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger to mention a few and the seminar will teach us all about studio lighting and creative technique. It's pricey but I really fancy it so we'll see... You can see Andy's work HERE

They should sentence petty criminals to a day's Christmas shopping in Birmingham. And if it was a violent crime, throw in a journey home in rush-hour traffic. I'm convinced crime figures will drop drastically. I, however, have commited no such crime, except maybe the odd case of illegal parking and perhaps driving a tad over the limit on occasion. And yet I had to spend my Tuesday shoving through the crowds in the Bullring with bags of useless crap and then sitting in stationery traffic in the fog in an attempt to get home again. And I haven't got all my shopping done yet so tomorrow it's back in to do it all over again! Grrrr..
Plus... did you know you can spend £10 on one Christmas card?! Neither did I til I got to the till (after a ten minute wait). Still, it's hopefully the only time I'll buy a card with "Fiancee" on it so...
Thankfully after all that hassle I got an evening off with my girl and chilled watching tv with a glass of wine. Last in the series of Spooks (on Sky+ obviously) and a bit more Gordon. All good stuff.
Sunday night I was shooting Ocean Colour Scene at the Academy which was completely packed out, and any band that has a 60 year old DJ warming up for them, complete with the full wedding-DJ rapport, gets some respect from me. Just a pity their music leaves me bored to tears. Got some nice pics though.
By way of contrast, last night I got to shoot Cradle Of Filth. Not so many fans, no wedding DJ in site and hilariously bad music but great to photograph. My taste for metal has been well and truly renewed this year but Cradle Of Filth can not be taken seriously unless you're a 13 year old goth who just wants to piss off the parents.
Finished going through the wedding photos from Friday. It was hard work being second photographer and I felt somewhat in the way on occasion but I got some great images for the portfolio and that was my main purpose. Hopefully Ric & Dawn will be happy with their extra photos too so everyone's a winner. It was great experience watching the hired photographer do his thing as he's obviously good at what he does. I'd like to see his results actually, but he knew how to handle people in what proved to be particularly tricky shooting conditions. We'll add a "Weddings" section to the new site shortly.
First visit to the midwife tomorrow morning. Oh, did I mention we're having a baby..? :)

My mom emailed saying she likes the new site, adding "if all else fails you can always get a proper job". She's been saying that for nearly 20 years now. I heard Jenson Button's mom still says the same thing too! lol
DJ'd at the Hard Rock Cafe Friday and Saturday night and enjoyed both. The staff in there are all super-friendly and most have great taste in music too. It's nice to play somewhere where I can really get away with playing all kinds of stuff from unknown bands to classics to hip-hop to hard rock. Haven't dared to drop anything like Lamb Of God yet but you never know...
After playing at the Hard Rock last night went on to play a small house night in Digbeth called Phonique. It was in the basement of a bar and only holds about 50 people but there was a good crowd and the people were well up for it. Hopefully I'll play there again some time. About time we had some good house nights in Birmingham!
Evelyne's friend Antoine, from Montreal, was in town visiting a girl he met in Thailand so the four of us went out to dinner and then they came to the Hard Rock for a while. Evelyne enjoyed the chance to speak French again and I love listening to her speak her first language. Tres sexy!
Photographing Ocean Colour Scene tonight...

So Darcy has gone off to run wild in the fields of doggy heaven. It upset me more than I expected actually. It was definitely her time though. Here's a photo..


Never made it out to Kasabian last night, just stayed in and watched Grand Designs and Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmare's, both of which were glorified repeats, rehashing old episodes with an update stuck on the end. Also watched the British Comedy Awards which were shambolic but entertaining.

Still haven't had chance to go through photos from this week's gigs but here's one of Steve Harris from Iron Maiden, taken on Tuesday..


Shooting a wedding today in Shrewsbury which will be a test cos the weather's a bit drab and the light's terrible. Good experience though as winter weddings are becoming more and more popular so it opens up a bigger market for photographers as long as they know how to deal with the conditions. I'll let you know how I get on...

Wednesday night and Tony said he wants daily updates so here I am! :)
Just got back from DJing at Island bar again. Nigel Harman from Eastenders showed up with half the cast of Guys & Dolls. I move in such celebrity circles eh?!
Before Island I shot Billy Bragg at the Academy which was an interesting gig. Got some good shots as the light was great and as I only had one person to photograph I could experiment with angles etc. Billy's actually quite the comedian on stage as well as his political side and his songs work well live even though I'd never listen to them at home. He was supported by Get Cape Wear Cape Fly who I'm a big fan of and I got some good pictures of him too.
Last night, of course, was Iron Maiden at the NEC. I got there too late to catch Trivium as I had to photograph some crappy electro pop band at the Academy first for the NME. I only got the call from NME a few hours before the gig. I have no idea why they always leave it til last minute to ask me to do these gigs for them but I'm glad I could do that but still shoot Maiden later. And yes, I did get the Steve Harris monitor shot! :) All these new photos will be on my website in the next day or so I promise.
Maiden were an impressive spectacle but overly self-indulgent with the set list. They played their new album in its entirety before playing any of their older material. They never played Number Of The Beast, Run To The Hills, The Trooper etc which disappointed me but then I haven't seen them in 20 years or so!
They hinted that they're gonna do Donington next year so maybe we''ll get the greatest hits set there.. Met up with James from Kerrang! who got an extra 2 songs than the other photographers. Git! The power of the mighty K!

Launched the new website today. Stef finished it and it looks ace. See what you think... wwww.stevegerrardphotography.com
Even got our first potential client phoning asking me to photograph 30 pieces of jewellery. Not quite what we had in mind but I'm up for the challenge... Meeting them on Monday.

On a sad note, we've made the tough decision to have one of our dogs put to sleep tomorrow. Darcy has been struggling with arthritis for many years and recently has been suffering more than ever. She's not enjoying life anymore. She's been a lovely dog to have around for the last 12 years though.

Watched "The Butterfly Effect" with Ashton Kutcher. Very weird film which I wasn't really enjoying until about half way through when it all started to get a bit interesting. I think there might be different versions with alternate endings.
Also forced Evelyne to watch the "germans" episode of Fawlty Towers. Being Canadian, she'd never heard of the programme so I'm educating her. You can tell it's an old programme when they happily drop in very racist terms as part of the comedy.
Thought I'd better listen to the new Iron Maiden album before tonight's gig but I struggled to get through it. Too overblown and melodramatic for me these days but I guess they always were. I could just stomach it easier when I was 14. Still, I'm looking forward to shooting them at the NEC later. I'm going with the guy from Salvo mag who's reviewing it.
Had an email from the people in Germany who I bought Yann Layma's "China" book from. Unfortunately it's all in German (the email, not the book) so I have no idea how I'm supposed to pay for it! If you're interested in great photography Google Yann Layma and check out his stuff.

Got an email from one of the Ramshackle DJs who thought my comments regarding DJs there being 20 years older than the punters was referring to him. I can see why he got that impression but I was referrring to someone who basically jumped in as the resident DJ as soon as I'd left and whom I'd always seen as a bit of an idiot. Anyway, I've apologised for the misunderstanding cos this guy's one of my oldest friends and hopefully will continue to be so. He has been DJing a long time but he still doesn't look out of place behind the decks and he's the best DJ Ramshackle has.
It's weird that people are actually reading and talking about this diary already though. I guess if I'm gonna slag people off I'd better make sure they know exactly who they are! lol
Last night watched the last of the "Planet Earth" series which has been flawless. I'd recommend anyone who missed it to make sure you get the dvd which is bound to be out in time for Christmas. Also watched another episode of Spooks (MI5 in the US) which is pretty far fetched but still great TV.
Never went out for the meal as Evelyne wasn't feeling 100%. Understandable though. She's taking it very easy at the moment and I'm happy to pamper her as much as I can.
She's still a bit dodgy today so she's resting in bed.
Today has already proved to be one of those days that flies by without me being too sure where the time went. I need to crack on with going through photos from last week. People are waiting for them. People who write me nice cheques! :)
In fact... I should be doing that, not writing diary entries...

Miserable rainy day in Birmingham today. Stayed in the house listing stuff on eBay and listening to some death metal. It suits the weather outside somehow.
Got tons of useless stuff around the house that someone somewhere would probably love so it's good to get these things on eBay. It also clears valuable space in the house which is still pretty cluttered.
Got the new Bloc Party album which sounds great but I think it'll take a few listens. Good band, doing something original unlike a lot of indie bands.
Fused are happy with the Horrors photos so that's good. Evelyne and I are having a balti with Kerry & Dave who run the mag later tonight. Never been a big fan of balti, despite living in Birmingham, but I'll give it another go.
Need to go through the Enter Shikari photos for Rock Sound now...

The promoter in Bratislava was very understanding about my passport situation and even said to let him know when I could reschedule. I owe him one now!
Ended up spending my Friday night DJing at the Hard Rock Cafe in Birmingham which was actually quite good fun. It was packed and people seem to be getting into the Christmas spirit early. I guess I must have played ok cos the manager has now asked me to do weekly Fridays and Saturdays as well as doing New Years Eve. Fine by me though, so I'll play there whenever I'm not booked to work elsewhere.
Spent today downloading some new music and discovered what could become my favourite album of the year, Silversun Pickups' "Carnavas". I'm absolutely loving it. Also downloaded Cold War Kids' album and a few other bits.
At 3 o clock I met up with The Horrors in Birmingham for a quick photoshoot. They were on a tight schedule and we didn't have much choice of locations but I found an empty car park behind the venue and managed to get some nice moody shots. The singer, Faris, gave me his email address and asked if I could send him some of the pictures for their MySpace site. They were nice guys actually, and expert posers with their big hair and brooding stares. Much better than some boring indie bands who just look scared in front of a camera.
Here's one of the shots I got..
Tonight I'm back DJing at Birmingham Uni. Last one of the term so I hope they're up for a bit of a party. We'll see...

Was gonna try and have a bit of a day off yesterday but predictably that went out of the window as important jobs fell in my lap. Visited the printers to discuss our brochures for the photography business. I'm confident they're gonna look great. Our friend Neil has done a fantastic job on the design and, being the impatient person I am, I want them NOW!
Fused magazine emailed asking if I could do a shoot with new band The Horrors on Saturday afternoon. There's quite a buzz on them at the moment, thanks to the NME mainly, and they're very photogenic with their big hair and rock n roll attitude. I'll only have 30 minutes with them but I'm sure that'll be enough.
Ade from Salvo also called saying he's sorted my photopass for Iron Maiden on Tuesday night. Seeing as they're one of those bands I loved when I was 13 I'm pretty chuffed I'll finally get to photograph them properly rather than sneaking my throwaway camera into the Manchester Apollo. Just need that classic shot of Steve Harris with foot on monitor playing his bass. Trivium are supporting too which is a bonus, although I'm still not convinced by their Metallica-karaoke routine.
Still no luck with my passport and I'm meant to be DJing in Slovakia tonight! They say I can't even go to the offices to collect it. I feel terrible but I'm gonna have to contact the promoter and explain I can't leave the country. He'll probably never book me again and the money would've been nice. Bugger!
Finished the day with a quick meal at the Harvester round the corner before catching Peep Show's Mitchell & Webb at the Wolverhampton Civic. We managed to blag onto the guest list at the last minute. It was a good show but a few of the sketches were pretty average if I'm honest. "Oh.. and that's a bad miss"
Woke up this morning and had an email from Stef saying the site's nearly finished. Hopefully we can launch it this weekend..

The new Rock Sound mag has my photos of Stone Sour and Senses Fail in and I'm pleased with the way they turned out. Not sure why they made the Stone Sour photos black & white but that's up to them I guess. Hopefully they'll be pleased with my pics of Enter Shikari from last night too. It was a small sweaty gig and my lens was fogging up every 30 seconds but I reckon I got some great shots. They're a good live band as reported, mixing screamo rock with techno and pulling it off well.
It was interesting going to that gig straight from the corporate arts do, where I was photographing guest speakers in front of a painting by Monet while invited guests sipped champagne. I then dropped Evelyne home (she was a great help on the shoot as ever) and bombed up the M42 to Nottingham, getting to Rock City 10 minutes before Enter Shikari came on stage.
From there it was back into the car, straight back to Birmingham to play a few tunes at Island Bar which was pretty quiet despite the stirling DJ skills of Tony Hackett (I know he's gonna read this so best keep in his good books).
We're gonna throw an Edwards No.8 reunion party at Island on the 28th of this month. Edwards is the club I started out my DJ career at, working there for 8 years. A few weeks ago it burned down which is a real shame. There was a lot of history there. I personally saw Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine, Smashing Pumpkins and others play there and it only holds about 400 people! It'll be interesting to see who shows up at the party.

Today's gonna be kinda hectic again.
I'm photographing an event for the Birmingham Artsfest people which is gonna be one of those corporate events with lots of networking and small talk while a small orchestra plays in the background. Not exactly very rock n roll eh? I should be there about 2-3 hours and then I have to jump into the car and head over to Nottingham Rock City to photograph Enter Shikari for Rock Sound. They're meant to be good live apparently. We'll see...
Trying to get my passport back from the home office so I can fly to Bratislava on Friday. I had to send it off to get a Certificate Of Approval for the wedding as Evelyne's Canadian. I'm losing hope I'll get it back in time.

After checking in regularly with Ross Halfin's diary I've decided that something similar will be a good way for me to remember what the hell I've been doing with my days which sometimes seem to come and go extremely quickly.
This also ties in with a time in my life and career which is very much in a state of flux.

At the beginning of 2006 I was making my living primarily from promoting a club in Birmingham and Bristol called Ramshackle. I was doing regular gigs with my DJing, playing places all over the world as well as occasionally at Ramshackle. My interest in photography had taken a massive leap in the previous 12 months and I had recently started to do shoots for the NME as well as local mag, Fused, but photography was still more a passion than a genuine career option. I had launched the Rock Photo website (www.rock-photo.com) and my portfolio was starting to look pretty decent and I was enjoying shooting bands as well as capturing images during my travels.
My girlfriend, Evelyne, was off on one of her travel marathons, taking in places like Asia and Australia, and I was doing my best to catch up with her where I could. We met up in Jakarta, Bali, Bangkok, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand. It was a fantastic time that's for sure. Evelyne's home was still in Montreal.

Fast forward to December 2006...
The venue that we used for the Ramshackle club nights decided they could do it all themselves and make more money. They're a multi-million pound corporation and did a fine job of proving that all they care about is the bottom line, ignoring my 9 years work establishing the night. It was a shock to the system at the time and forced me to think about what was really important to me and how I wanted to live my life in the future. It also had a surprising effect of proving who my real friends were. Some people who I considered close friends when I was running the clubs have not spoken to me since I left Ramshackle, and some people have disappointed me greatly considering what I've done for them in the past. It's weird and eye-opening but I'd rather know how people really are. On the other hand, of course, I now have a fantastic group of genuine friends who I value all the more.
After Ramshackle was effectively pulled from beneath me after 9 years, my attentions were much more focused on my photography and it's been an absolute pleasure concentrating on something I'm so passionate about rather than just doing something for a regular (albeit a very good) salary.

So in December 2006 I'm here in Birmingham, now living with my fiancee, Evelyne (we're marrying in February hopefully) and in the process of setting up Steve Gerrard Photography as a full-time occupation. I've now been working for NME over a year and have recently done work for Rock Sound and had conversations about working with Metal Hammer. One of my goals is to work for Kerrang! as I've bought that magazine since Issue 1 (I still have the first issue in my loft). It's a tough mag to get into though, but it's important to have goals eh?

As of today, Steve Gerrard Photography has a new logo and the website should be live any time now. My friend Stef has been working like a dog on it and what I've seen so far looks very very classy. We're aiming at high-end clients doing lifestyle portraits and eventually weddings, which is quite different from the music side of things obviously. It's all exciting, scary and if Evelyne wasn't here I might go a bit mental, but I'm loving every minute of this new life. I may not been earning the money I had from Ramshackle just yet but I've never been happier. I still do occasional DJ gigs but my focus is closer to home now. Maybe I'm growing up finally.

Wow! I've written an epic already!

So that's where we are right now. It'll be interesting to see where we are in a year once the business is up and running and I'm a married man!
Watch this space...