Mark McNulty Photography

Summer Pops

It's Summer Pops time again and the busiest one ever with gigs being hosted at O2 Academy, The Philharmonic and The Bluecoat as well as the Echo Arena.  I'm not doing all of them but the list is still quite long though, as per usual, we're waiting on management permissions with some of the bands though confirmed for Thursday is John Mayall at the O2 Academy.

Here's a few favourites from last year.

Walking With Dinosaurs

Walking With Dinosaurs is a multi million pound spectacular featuring life size dinosaurs that will be arriving at the Echo Arena in Liverpool this August. The show, which is being shown in the UK for the first time, has been rehearsing at the Echo Arena before heading off on tour and this morning I got to check out some of the 'live' dinosaurs as they roamed around the venue scaring journasilts and t.v. people.

 

Kanda Bongo Man part 2

Some final photographs from Kanda Bongo Man's show at Africa Oye last weekend before.  I'm now off Walking With Dinosaurs!

Liver Buildings

Taken whilst working at the new Beatles Story/Mersey Ferries terminal at the Pier Head.

Commercial Break

This morning I finished some commercial work very early in Liverpool and I shot this panoramic image of the new Chavasse Park in Liverpool ONE when I'd finished. 

Kanda Bongo Man part 1

It might have been a grey and overcast Sunday afternoon and the rain had just started but when Kanda Bongo Man hit the stage it was like a ray of sunshine coming from out of nowhere and the atmosphere was amazing as the crowd danced in the drizzling rain to the sounds of the Soukous superstar. 

Kanda Bongo Man

This is Kanda Bongo Man who was the main reason I wanted to go Africa Oye this year. Apart from the fact that it's just a great day out no matter who is on of course.  Loads more from this set tomorrow when I've finished the edit.

Last OMD at The Phil photos

These are the last photos from the OMD with The Phil show on Saturday.  In the meantime keep an eye out on the official OMD site for news of the dvd and for talk of any further orchestral manoeuvres....

'I told you they were good didn't I?'

Saturday's much talked about collaboration between OMD and The Liverpool Phil was amazing for all kinds of reasons but the best of it was that all of the songs had been reworked by different orchestral arrangers and it was far removed from being just an orchestra backing a band and making them sound bigger. The night started off with a performance of The Energy Suite by the orchestra without OMD and this was accompanied by the film that was shown alongside it when it was part of the Ding>>Dong exhibition at FACT in 2008.  Energy Suite itself is a collaboration between the band, film maker Hambi Haralambous and designer Peter Saville.  

The second half saw OMD's Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphrey's join the 75 piece orchestra for a set that included hits such as Messages, Joan Of Arc, Maid Of Orleans, Souvenir, Electricity, Talking Loud And Clear and a great version of Enola Gay that saw the whole of the audience up on their feet and dancing.  With the hall lit up and constantly changing colour and with Hambi's visuals filling the 30 foot screen behind them it was well impressive and I'm sure there'll be a good few pre-orders on the promised dvd as the whole event was being filmed for future release.

There were a lot of highlights to Saturday's gig but I think my favourites were Joan Of Arc and Maid Of Orleans and I think it was after these, when the audience were screaming that Andy McCluskey turned to the audience saying 'I told you they were good didn't I?'.  And that appreciation of the orchestra alone was shown later on at the very end, when OMD and conductor Clark Rundell had already left the platform, and the orchestra got up to leave and got their own massive standing ovation.

OMD

I'm still working on Saturday's edit and will post a full set of OMD photos tomorrow but this is a quick handheld panoramic stitch made from six frames. 

Orchestral Manoeuvres

Here's a very quick photo from last night's OMD gig at the Phil with the full orchestra. This was taken during the last song of the main set with the band playing Enola Gay.  The night was incredible and it was amazing to see people up on their feet in The Phil and dancing to an orchestra!  I'll be posting more photos over the next day or so!

Daby Touré

I only got to catch one act down at Africa Oye yesterday and that was Daby Touré, who is also on this afternoon along with another four artists, as I had to get back to town to photograph OMD performing with The Phil which for the record was the best thing I've seen in a long time!  I'll try and post a quick photo of that this morning but there's a lot to edit so they'll be going up in the week as well.

Altiplano

For those of you looking for something to do in Liverpool tonight then you might want to consider Antiplano at NOVAS with the Idjut Boys and Kelvin Andrews.   I did some photographs at the venue and it's amazing aside from the fact that all those playing are class acts!  This is Kelvin playing years ago (he hasn't really changed though) at Golden in Manchester! There's also a pre club party at Peacock on Seel Street.

Broken Records

This is Broken Records who played Barfly last Saturday along with Sparrow and The Workshop.  

And today I'm off to check out OMD in rehearsals with The Phil before going to Africa Oye for a bit and then heading back into town for OMD's show tonight with the full orchestra!  Think this could be something special!

Sparrow & The Barfly

I've said it loads before but I'll say it again and that's that Sparrow & The Workshop are one of my new favourite bands and this is them live at the Barfly last Saturday where they were supporting Broken Records.  Barfly has recently been taken over and now has new local owners so things are starting to get better there as the place was a bit of a mess to say the least. First up is a properley stocked bar with beer that actually gets refrigerated and I'm sure there's a long list of other changes though speaking from a photographic point of view I'd like to see better lighting as these were shot under the dreaded dark red glow that needs converting to mono to get anything out of it.  Of course, I could use a flash but at  a not overly busy and very laid back folk (ish) gig the last thing I want to do is to start blasting light about the place.

I'm obviously avoiding editing

This is another photograph I took whilst down at the Pier Head the other day on the Beatles Story commission.  It's incredible but Liverpool is truly starting to look like an international tourist destination which is funny because later on the same day I met a real estate agent, called Bert Javelo, who was on holiday from California and he'd apparently kissed the ground when he got off the train at Lime Street as he was so happy to be in the city!!! Thoughts of kissing the floor at Lime Street aside, we met Bert and the lady he was travelling with at the Albert Dock in the afternoon and his visit happened to coincide with one by Cythia and Julian Lennon to The Beatles Story along with the Mayor of Liverpool who not only posed with them for photographs but invited them to visit him the next day at the Town Hall.  Needless to say they were very very very excited and I left as the mayor's assistant was taking their numbers  and arranging a time for them to visit. 

New museums

Just working on more of the new Beatles Story images and this is the view towards the new Museum Of Liverpool.  The new Beatles Story site is in the same building as the Mersey Ferries terminal but their original museum is still open at the Albert Dock.  Right then, it's back to the edit!

Alabama 3 part 2.

More from Alabama 3's gig last Friday at O2 Academy.

May Pang

One last photo from last night's White feather launch and this one's of May Pang who is a former assistant and girlfriend of John Lennon and is here seen taking a photo of herself with her daughter.

The Liverpool Lennon

Just a few more photographs from yesterday's White Feather launch with Cynthia and Julian Lennon who for the record are very very nice! Lots more to edit so I'll hand you over to the official exhibition website for more information!

White Feather

I spent yesterday photographing the new exhibition down at The Beatles Story's new 'second home' in the Mersey Ferry Terminal on the Pier Head and the show consists of material drawn from the personal collections' of Julian and Cynthia Lennon.  I'll post images from the launch later but in the meantime here's Ringo and a ferry.  The show opens for general viewing from today!

Alabama 3 part 1

Had 2 nights of gigs last weekend and both were brilliant and very very different from each other.  Saturday was Sparrow & The Workshop at Barfly whilst Friday was Alabama 3 at O2 Academy.  And whilst Saturday was badly lit, the venue often is, and a laid back but great affair, Friday was full on with both lights and action!  Only ever seen Alabama 3 once before which was years ago and I don't remember them being this good and the effort made onstage meant there was tons to photograph, in just 3 songs of course, and the only problem I had was trying to get the edit down from 400!  Actually some people think that's not a lot as they shoot  thousands during a gig apparently but I started off shooting bands at a festival 20 years ago and I'd average out at about 3 bands per roll of 36 so I still try not to overshoot.

O2 Academy have also gone and gotten themselves some fancy new lighting kit which makes things easier so there's no more excuses from photographers moaning about the lights as it's like daylight in there at times!  Well, at least not until The Bunnymen play again and ask for them all to be turned back down again!

There'll be a part 2 to this set of photos!

Emily Lansley

This is Emily Lansley photographed recently as part of a set of promo photos for her band Emily & The Faves.  This shoot is to be continued as Emily is 'making something' for the next part of the shoot! Meanwhile I'm stuck in commercial editing backlogs and still haven't managed to download the weekend's gigs. 

Flickr and out

Today I finally ended my love hate relationship with Flick and have posted my last image there as well as deleting all other images from the site. This 1992 photo of Bjork is the image I uploaded as I've still not edited my recent photographs and they keep piling on up and there's loads of great gigs and other events coming up with the next 6 weeks looking like being some of the busiest of the year.  Roll on Africa Oye and the Summer Pops!

OMD

Photographed Alabama 3 last night at O2 which was a brilliant start to the weekend and tonight is Sparrow & The Workshop at Barfly which I'm well looking forward too.  Not got the Alabama photos edited yet but here's some photos I did a while ago for OMD on the dock road in the middle of winter. It was freezing from what I remember. I'm posting these as next Saturday sees OMD playing at the Liverpool Phil with the full orchestra so that's going to be a busy weekend as it's also the Altiplano party at NOVAS featuring Kelvin Andrews and the Idjut Boys as well as being the weekend of Africa Oye in Sefton Park. Nowt like a bit of variety.