No more Heroes....Snow Patrol @ Brixton

Don t want to talk to anyone about football or to recieve anymore email from people who know me telling me how unlucky Arsenal were to only go down 2-1 to Liverpool. I know it could and should have been worse... Anyway enough of that.. I am off to Brixton to photograph Snow Patrol should be great fun.. I really like Snow Patrol.

Urghhhhh!

Felt really awful today.. Had a bit of a lay in as went to bed late and still feel very cold and fluey.. I dont want to get dressed today.. Its very grey and gloomy outside and I feel pretty rotten. Going to watch a big game on TV.. The boys (the mighty Arsenal) are playing away at Anfield today and we really need to win to keep pace with Chelsea who are playing amazingly well at the moment. This could well be Chelsea's year.. if it is then good luck to them.. Their suporters have waited a long time for this recent run and topping of the league. Anyway, in the meantime, come on you Gooners!!!

Lidgate's, Motorhead et al

Went to Holland Park to shoot some more at Lidgate for US food magazine. Lidgate on Holland Park Road, London is quite an amaing little store. It has a very unique style about it. You feel that the store must have been the same for over 100 years. I left Lidgate late afternoon and met up with David Peters. He is a great singer songwriter from LA. I have been over the past year or so, been taking a few shots of him. He is planning to relocate to London.. That I think would be a good move for his career. I head over to Hammersmith Odeon, now named the Carling Apollo Hammersmith. I shoot a few support acts, then shoot main act, Motorhead. Very very loud, glad I always wear earplugs. I suppose if I didnt, I would after all these years me tottaly mutton Jeff (deaf). the highlight of the evening for me was siting down in between the acts in the photopit and sitting nice a squarley on some ****king chewing gum..deep joy... Bang goes anothe pair of cargo's.. Old Navy here I come.. I feel really awful, a little bit like the flu, but really just a bad cold. Think about meeting up with Shane MacGowan for a quick chat, but decide to head straight home and edit the motorhead shots .. feel even worse after that, its about 4am and I am going to bed..

Nikon woes

Down to London, the Strand to be precise. I then head back out of town. I get home to find that Nikon have sent me a lens that is now going to be at the freight company's depot waiting for my collection. I have to drive to 25 miles to collect it, great, always happens when I have no time.

Guardian

Had nice shot of Ozzy on the front page of today's Guardian Newspaper..

Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne

Went out to Gerrards Cross and photgraphed Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. They had been robbed of jewelry at home yesterday of around 2 million pounds ($4m ).

NERD, Carling Apollo, Hammersmith

Photograph NERD at Carling apollo Hammersmith..

MTV Awards, Rome day 5

Get up early and get over to the Colliseum to shoot it as the sun seems to be coming up.. Quite amazing place.. James Quinton is with me we seem to be photographing from all angles. We take the very ancient Roman elevator up to the top level.. I thought the Romans back in the day invented quite a few amaing things...but eleveators? anyway we shoot every remaining brick from every angle and head off to the Forum. On the way out I find a few Roman soldiers standing around waiting for tourists to pose with, for money of course.. Anyway, I gather about four of them and shoot them with a very wide lens in front of the Colliseum. This takes about 3 to four mins.. As I finish, the cheeky bugger tells me I have to pay 50 euros to each man.. I laugh and tell him no way.. They slighty surround me and I give them 20 Euros to share.. Tell him to take it or leave it.. We glare at each other for a split second and I say bye bye and walk off to meet James Quinton.. off we go to the Forum.. We have to move it a little bit as we are both flying back to London together and our flight is later in the afternoon. We wiz around the forum.. Everywhere you turn there is reall history..Roman ruins everywhere.. My dad said to me after one of his trips to Rome " Rome is lovely, but it's quite run down" My dad has a very good sense of humour..we do have a laugh...James and I jump into a cab and head back to our exotic hotel, gather our bags and head off over the road to a nice hotel for lunch. We then jump in a taxi off to the airport. When we arrive at the Alitalia desk we are asked for our passports.. Straight away, I feel my pocket and realise that my passport is missing.. Off I go to the police at the airport and make a declaration.. We then head off through and fly over to London.

MTV Awards, Rome day3

MTV Awards in Rome.. We all met up for a small breakfast. Then headed back to the hotel to gather our gear. Some had cameras and others had all of the laptops and computer equipment. At 12:30 a nice tour bus arrived at our hotel to take us to Tor Di Valle, Via the Sheraton Hotel

MTV Awards, Rome

Met up with Jeff Kravitz at the Tor Di Valle. I shot the press call with Xzibit, ( Rapper), then headed back out to meet up with Kevin Mazur at another hotel. I got all credentials at this hotel for the main event tomorrow. I then took my gear back to the hotel. Tried to check my emails at my hotel. I had to hang out of the window to get a signal. Must have looked very odd to any local's watching me from below.. We all then met in reception and headed of to a returant Perluigi, where Kevin Mazur joined us. It was really nice food... Tom Jones had just beaten us there apparently. Also, Eminiem.. So they say ey! Well, I didnt see them.... We jumped in cabs after dinner and headed back accross Rome to our exotic hotel. We have got a busy day tomorrow..

MTV Awards

Going to Rome to cover the MTV Awards..Get picked up at 9:45 taken to London, Heathrow airport. Meet up with the boys.. Then we jump on Alitalia to Rome.. Get to Rome and we negotiate a large Mercedes V Class to take us all to our hotel in Rome and what a hotel it is!! Must remember to never stay there again.. However, may well recommend it to people I don't like..

Nick Cave, Brixton

Not having a particularly nice day....just to make matters worse it's not even a nice day..Grey skies and generally horrible here. Anyway, Shot Nick Cave at Brixton.. Lighting was awful.

Busy Busy Busy

Got up at about 10:30am Got to work on the Joss Stone shots.. Seemed to take all day.. there were loads of them. The rest of the day was crap..Was going to shoot Nick Cave at Brixton Academy..not going there now today. I am quite glad as I am too busy on other bits. Will probably shoot Nick Cave tomorrow..

Joss Stone

Got up late, did the usual.,check emails.. respond to as many as possible.. Late afternoon got on my way to Brixton Academy to shoot Joss Stone. The place was mobbed..Just shot the first three songs and legged it back to my car. Then raced up to Oxford Street, London to the 100 Club.. Glen Matlock & The Philistines were playing. They are a great band, with great songs.. Micky Mocca 'King of the Jungle' was there taking snaps.. After running around dropping a few people off got home at about 3am. I was to shagged out..


Copyright 2004 Danny Clifford

Corrrrrr!

Loads of catching up to do. Loads of pictures to get out to people. Back to Wembley Arena to photographed the Corrs at Wembley.. Good show, quite a big crowd there as well. When I was shooting the gig, I wondered where the 3rd sister was. When I left I looked up at the bill board advertising the show and saw three sisters. I though, what a twat, I missed one of them somehow. I spoke to my mate Malcolm who told me not to worry as she was away on maternaty leave. Phewww....

Nicko McBrain

Nicko called me who is back in London. He has been in Germany for a few days. He goes back to Germany tomorrow. He will be back in the UK Tuesday. I have invited him and Andy Matthews down to the 100 club, in Oxford Street, London. Glen Matclock & The Philistines are playing there. Should be a great gig.. Photographed the living legend himself, Andrea Bocelli at Wembley Arena, London. Big thank you to Matt, Andrea Bocelli's PR guru..Still got some thing out of it. Even though I was quite a distance from the stage. Didnt have much shooting time though. Oh well could have been worse. For example, I was allowed about 30 seconds earlier this year with Beyonce. Strange old game at times !! After the gig, I gave Mickey Mocca 'King of The Jungle' a lift home. I then headed home and edited up the shots of Mr Bocelli. After looking at them whilst editing I have decided that I am not too happy with them. The lighting was static and boring. Well, I supose that is what you get with this type of performer. It would have looked slightly odd if he had a lighting rig fit for Iron maiden floating above him. However, the photos might have had a bit more drama about them..

Polyphonic Spree

Up to London to photograph Dallas based 27 strong, The Polyphonic Spree. Well they are very different.Seem to remind me of a 70's musical. They were very dramatic. Met up with Micky Mocca after the show had brief chat in Cafe Nero, Charring Cross Road, London.. Then headed home. Listend to the radio in my car and heard the horrible news that there has been yet another fatal train crash. This one in between Reading and Newbury. Spent most of the night editing shots with news on in the background.. Finally went to bed at about 4am. It seems that I am becoming nocturnal again.

Digging Ditches

Spent nearly all day editing photos. Would like to say it was a relaxing day.. But, I found it quite stressful. Still I supose its better than digging ditches..

On Tour with the Philistines

Got woken up at 8:30 by a tosser room cleaner. He had the TV on in the room oposite mine with a music channel on so loud. He was also attempting to sing a long, ummm. I was really pissed off. I opened my door and expalained in my own way that he was a FURKIN CNUT and that I was somewhat disspleased with his early morning singing and if he continued I was going to remove his voice box. I hate getting woken up like that.. I had a shower and made sure all cameras were OK. went down to recepetion and waited to see if the chaps were surfacing at all..I waited around in reception for a while. Then decided to go for a walk around the area. Our hotel is with a security zone. The roads have retractable bollards in the middle of the road with security gaurds everywhere. Makes us kind of feel a little tense. If there was ever an easy target for terrorists it was the small group of hotels within this security zone only really used by Westerners. Had my brief walk about then headed back to the hotel.. Saw Mike Crawford who was looking after all of the equiptment on this tour. Had a coffee and bite to eat with him in the resteraunt. He started to tell me about the history of Istanbul formerly Constantinople. Not only interesting, but a proper geezer, really nice guy. Time was rolling on as we were being collected at 1pm for our trip out to the airport. We left just after 1pm and headed out through Istanbul to the airport, we stopped for a final photo shoot. We found a pedestrian bridge over the main road. From up on the bridge we could see the port out in the distance. We spent all of 2 mins up there taking photos, then legged it back to out tour bus and off to the airport.


As we were boarding the plane, we were offered a newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, The Mail or a Turkish national paper HURRIYET. That happened to be the paper with us in it....Nice flight back to Heathrow. Simon (it's in the bag) from Red (a Video Company) seemed to be having fun. He was totally pissed (seems to be a pattern forming here with him). He was about 10 rows behind Glen, Chris, Koozie and I, but still managed to constantly shout above all other noise to ask funny questions. Luckily all other people on the flight thought he was funny. It could very easily have gone the other way...

Istanbul

Alarm call at 9AM. Supposed to have a continental breakfast delivered to my room. It appeared after a phone call from me at about 9:55 it was supposed to be there at 9am oh well. It was worth the wait, not.. It was crap.. Anyway, shot down to meet the lads as we were going to get out and get some photos around Istanbul. Off we went in two Taxis. First off the the Blue Mosque..



We didnt go inside as they had just started praying.. We did some shots outside. Then moved on and walked to the Bazar. This was amazing, very middle eastern.


The legendary Ray McVeigh trying on a new hat.


Lots of people trying to sell us things and also loads of them spotting the lads and asking for autographs. We spent about and hour in there and the jumped in a cab and headed back to our hotel. Glen had to be there as he was being interviewed by CNN and a radio station and a couple of magazines. One of the magazine also sent a photgrapher to do a quick photoshoot.



I then shot up to my room to down load all of my shots from earlier today and get ready for the live gig. I only had 15 mins to do this. We need to be at the sound check for 6pm. We will be on stage at The Roxy in Istanbul at 11:30 tonight, Deep Joy !!




The gig was great. The Roxy was pretty much crammed with a great crowd. Finally left the gig and got back to the hotel at about 3:30. Went to be at about 4:30. We agreed we should meet in the morning and go off for some more photos. Well we will see if that happens....

Glen Matlock & The Philistines

Up early. Driver arriving at 8am to take me to Heathrow. I am off to Istanbul with Glen Matlock and the Philistines for a few days. Met The Philistines at Terminal 2, Heathrow, Ray McVay was late... Anyway, made it onto the plane. As we were boarding, Glen Matlock and myself were upgraded..leaving the rest of the boys in their normal seats. Sorry lads and a Big Thankyou to Malcolm. Arrived in Istanbul, fist things first, we had to buy a Visa before passport control. Then off we went through passport control, well all of us except Ray. He was quizzed and questioned by a rather interesting and susspicious Passport Official. Mind you, Ray's passport photo does look Charles Manson. Finaly he was passed through.. We got our bags and were met by representatives of the promotors. We were then taken to our hotel. Slung our bags in our rooms and then headed off to meet up with more people from the promoters who took us out for dinner near the fish marklet in old Istanbul. Really nice people and very entertaining. Glen was spotted by loads of people wherever we went. We had a photgrapher from one of the national papers turn up at our table. He took a shot of us all and told us it should be in Thursdays edition. We then left the restaraunt late and walked round to a bar to watch a live band. As soon as the band came off stage, on went 'God Save The Queen' by the Sex Pistols and written by Glen. Watching one member of our touring party, Simon "Its in the bag & "its a done deal" (he knows what I mean), pogoing was entertainment enough, but, it was also his birthday and he was by now well pissed. So, all in all quite funny. Glen and I had had enough and both were very tired, so, we decided to head off ahead and walk back to the hotel. As we did, nearly all of the team came with us.

Jamie Crompton

Finally had a min to send Jamie Crompton the photos. Better late than never.