Most people who are given the chance to photograph a famous band would usually turn up early, wear them smart jeans and smile throughout when meeting the band backstage… but this went all wrong for me when I recently took photos of Bombay Bicycle Club.
The band were performing at my University for a NME tour in which many students found out weeks before – because it was free! So i turned up on the night ready to go, I had everything sorted from my camera settings to figuring out the best locations for shots. Once i 
walked into the venue, something didn’t seem right… the place was completely empty! I had turned up to the venue over two hours early for when the band are due to turn up.
So here is where the night went wrong, there was a free wine function going on within the University for another event that was being held. As i was passing this function i noticed the sign “Photographers will be taking promotional photos at this event” i then smirked at the camera on my shoulder. I had my cover, now all i needed was my free wine. So six wine glasses later I was getting quite drunk, so i decided to drink more – just to pass the time.
After my eighth glass of wine and a bit of posh nosh i decided to carry out the job in hand – photograph this band! I got to meet the band first and i was drunk so I just said Hellllloooo – they seemed like knobs so i couldn’t care less of about their status.
So i started to photographing the live performance, but I was so hammered by this point and making many mistakes from under or over estimating camera settings to not framing photos correctly. I just decided to press the shutter button and hope for the best! I took over 200 drunken photos that night and about half of them were good. This was my first ever job for the University newspaper and i totally failed the chance of proving myself by getting hammered – but it was a good night so i reflect on this as a very steep (and drunken) learning curve. Two of my photos were published (Including the one above of the lead singer) in the second edition of the University newspaper!
PHOTOGRAPHY + CHEAP NASTY WINE = TERRIBLE PHOTOS! (BUT A FIT NIGHT)
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