Bristol International Balloon Fiesta and Grammatics

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta
Last week I was in Bristol for the Balloon Fiesta. We walked up to Ashton Court Estate on Thursday to see the Night Glow, which was pretty fantastic. I have to say that I think my photos taken during the walk up were more inspiring, though. We found a skip with an assortment of oddments in and Josh got out a pair of scales. Alex and I spotted a photo opportunity!



Here's a balloon picture:



More here.

Unfortunately the balloon flights were cancelled on a few occassions, but we didn't actually intend to head up to Ashton Court again since it was an hour long walk as Clifton Suspension Bridge is closed during at certain times during the festival.

Grammatics + The Heartbreaks + Kill Cassidy
On Saturday we headed to Start the Bus as Lis wanted to see Grammatics, since it was their farewell tour. I hadn't really listened to Grammatics before so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Kill Cassidy were really excellent; the whole band had a cohesive energy that was infectious. The violent nature of their music worked well in the small venue. Definitely a band to check out live.

As I was expecting more heavy punk-pop, The Heartbreaks were fairly disappointing. Generic, hipster indie rockers, The Heartbreaks' performance was mediocre at best. The drummer was incredibly over the top; it was as if he'd sucked all the energy out of the other band members, as they limply plodded through some uninspiring tracks. At one point the guitarist remarked it was a "tough crowd", which didn't help the atmosphere.

Finally, Grammatics took to the stage with a large dose of disillusionment. The bassist often made pessimistic comments, a detriment to those trying to enjoy the music. Some of the songs were phenomenal, while others weren't nearly as enjoyable. The cello seemed superfluous on a few tracks, but really added a lot to the performance on some of the songs. Vocalist Owen Brinley's somewhat theatrical demeanour added extra zeal to his delivery, which was hampered by the fact the band were crammed onto a tiny stage while the support acts had performed on the dance floor. Grammatics were really quite phenomenal at times, and a more discerning view when choosing the set list would have helped.

Overall ratings:
Kill Cassidy - 7/10
The Heartbreaks - 4/10
Grammatics - 7/10

London & New Lens Photos

Hallo again, I've just got round to processing the photos from the London photowalk I did last month with Sarah, her sister Anna and Lara.

Here's a generic taster:


We did an awful lot more walking than picture taking, but you can see more pictures I've taken in London here.

This next one is some roses in my garden, taken with my 50mm f/1.8. It's a nice lens, especially in low light, and does bokeh magic. Erm.



I was back in Bristol for a (long) weekend and we headed up to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta so I'm going to hurry up and process those soon!

A New Mission Review: 3 Colours Red - Revolt

3 Colours Red - Revolt
Revolt was the second album from UK rock trio 3 Colours Red. It was released over ten years ago and takes the frame of a standard rock record and raises it a level; a number of tracks are tempered with beautiful strings. "This Is My Time" is a modern classic, commencing with a quiet verse, swelling in volume to the epic chorus. It is a shame that the band broke up at their peak, but they created this excellent record and it is worth a listen.

Final verdict: 7/10, not something essential to a record collection, but well worth checking out.

Listen to them here.

More about A New Mission.

Something Exciting - Film!

I had a roll of Fujicolor C200 developed, yay! Unfortunately the double exposures Sarah and I attempted did not work; for some unknown reason none of my pictures appeared. You can see what Sarah took here.

Here are a couple of shots:





This one was taken at the YMCA Hawker Centre in Kingston; there was some sort of event to promote sporting activities for kids and Glo performed.

More from the roll here.

Later this week I'm heading up to Bristol Balloon Fiesta so I'll hopefully get some interesting pictures!