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There are two roads to choose between in life. You can choose the safe route for a life that offers no high points and few memories.

Or you can take the risk... and follow the road to the Fermain Tavern to celebrate 30 years of high energy performance by The Risk. High points and memories will come aplenty along the way.

So no decision to make then. The Risk it is.

The band marked their three decades anniversary with a gig that did a good job of reproducing the vigour and verve that distinguished their early years. Mark even found himself rolling around the stage on his back. Why change a habit of a lifetime!

However three things have changed over the years... but they can all be counted as positives.

All the benefits gained over time are technological and each plays a part in raising the standards of a live performance.

Firstly, today's stage sound production is fantastic and really enhances the live experience.

Then you have two more improvements that a photographer appreciates.... that'll be me!

The latest LED stage lighting is a huge enhancement. Combine this new illumination with the latest digital cameras and the photographer is able capture pics that were never possible only a decade ago.

So there we have it. The Risk played an impressive set that reminded their supporters what had made them great... and modern tech rewarded the fans for hanging around for three decades!

The support acts were a varied mix of duo Blue Mountains (very good) and Citizen-X who showcased how much things have changed in thirty years of music production.

Definitely a night that memories are made from.
VIEW PICS OF THE RISK HERE
VIEW PICS OF BLUE MOUNTAINS
VIEW PICS OF CITIZEN-X

I wonder what are you getting for Christmas?

....read on to find out what I received in my early Xmas sack!

But first, can I tell you that I am having to keep quite a few secrets at the moment as I know (shhhhh) what dozens of you are about to receive under your Christmas tree. (Hint) I hope you have a little space on the wall above the fireplace ;-)

This festive period has been my busiest yet for picture sales with Framed Montages and Canvases proving to be extremely popular.

Christmas is almost like a 'harvest-time' for me as the twelve months of cultivating interest in my photography pays off. It also illustrates very well just how hard-working and consistent you have to be to nurture a large and loyal following. For this festive season I have been selling pics from across the whole genre of my work... everything from Elevated Panoramic shots to Sports, Racing and Band pics.

I'm very, very lucky that I've established myself as a photographer who specialises in the subjects that I really love... namely Motorsport and Music performance and it is incredible how many people also share the same love. I know there are many other photographers who pursue these same interests and regularly visit my galleries to comment on and critique my work. Maybe even pick up a few tips? ;-)

But what really amazes me is how many people are simply interested in viewing my picture galleries. The total number of picture views is amazing and I thank all the regular visitors.

So now I had better reveal what I have just received as an early Christmas present. The pressie takes the form of my web-site total views smashing through another mile-stone number.

The total views of this web-site have just topped 8,000,000, EIGHT MILLION, WOW!

This new record comes after just four years from the very first upload. The 'year one' views were recorded at 1,000,000 and have consistently grown up to today's annual count of around 2,500,000!

As the new year approaches I remain encouraged by the interest in my work and my New Years resolution is to work even harder at what I love.... oh, and to drink much more Real Ale!

.....consistent, reliable and predictable, that's me :-)

Thanks for your continued support. Have a very Happy Christmas and a fun New Year!

You can read about some of the previous 'mile-stones' here:
CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT SOME OF THE PREVIOUS MILE-STONES

Andrew

The School of Popular Music got the festive celebrations off to a good start with their Hootenanny last weekend featuring Subversion, Thee Jenerators, The Secret Smiles & Last of the Light Brigade.

The venue was the Fermain Tavern and I had an uneasy feeling about the gig as I drove through town towards St Martins. St Peter Port resembled a ghost town! Where was everyone? Were they all saving themselves for the next weekend when Christmas would really be upon us?

I also knew that there was a lot happening around the live music venues on this Saturday night. As it was also a cold and wet evening the worry was, as always, that people wouldn't make the extra effort to find their way 'up the hill' to the 'Tav.

However the formula of a successful night of music never changes. If you promote the right line-up of talent the crowd will follow.

OK, 'a crowd' might be a slight exaggeration but the punters who did make the effort to get to the Hootenanny were the right ones... the true followers of the local music scene. These enlightened souls knew that the line-up was a guarantee of a good night... and that is what we enjoyed!

Unfortunately I missed Subversion but pics of Thee Jenerators, The Secret Smiles & Last of the Light Brigade are now in the Gallery:
VIEW PICS OF THEE JENERATORS
VIEW PICS OF THE SECRET SMILES
VIEW PICS OF LAST OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE

This meeting always lives up to its name. For the annual 'Fun Meeting' the Guernsey Motor Cycle & Car Club Trials riders are offered the chance to wear 'fancy dress' if they make a donation or buy their outfit from a Charity shop.

I have a feeling that you can't have more fun with an old dress and a bike... however if you know better please e-mail me the answer (it doesn't have to be clean!)

Having spent the afternoon out in the chilly wind taking pics I think a few of the guys were just a little too comfortable in their dresses! Maybe a little black 'designer number' will be an addition to their Christmas list?

If you want to see how gorgeous some of the riders looked check-out my gallery:
CHECK-OUT THE TRIALS TALENT

If you need something done then I think you should always go straight to the experts.

So if it's a party you need organised... forget Ghostbusters... call Chaos Events :-)

Once again the Greenman turned the Fermain Tavern into 'party heaven' last Saturday when they organised the aptly named 'Light to Dark'.

The bands that made up the evenings line-up covered a wide spread of colourful shades... from lighter to heavy.

True to their ethos of always finding a great cause to support the Greenman had singled out the deserved Jonah Gillingham for a little pre-Christmas aid and my fiver donation was my best outlay of the week.

I couldn't resist taking a few pics of the Bands as the lighting by Lloyd and Lasers by Gareth were amazing!

If I had to make a choice, I think the Band that really stood out on the night were BLAKALASKA who were truely amazing... aided by great sound and lighting, thanks guys :-)

My Band shots are now online. Follow the links to see pics of BLAKALASKA, Demise of Sanity and Buffalo Huddleston:
VIEW PICS OF BLAKALASKA
VIEW PICS OF DEMISE OF SANITY
VIEW PICS OF BUFFALO HUDDLESTON

The fresh air in Petit Bot valley was the perfect antidote to the hang-overs that were the result of a late night/early morning at the annual Guernsey Motor Cycle and Car Club Dinner Dance.

The usual venue of St Pierre Park Hotel was packed for this years customary celebration of the Club's packed calendar of Motorsport competitions.

You only had to look at the amount of Silverware on show (that's not the sort the ladies like to adorn themselves with) to see how busy the year has been.

Of course the Silverware was in the form that Racers love - the Cup & Trophy kind!

There were competitors from all the Club's Classes of Motorsport collecting the reward of their endevours. Every Class from Autotests, Trials, Hillclimbing, Sandracing, Grasstrack racing and Sprints had a bit of 'bling' on the table. If you've never attended one of these nights, take it from me, there had been a LOT of Silver polishing done:-)

So, to get back to my original point. This annual 'do' is the perfect chance for many competitors to let their hair down - maybe not you Tom Scott ;-)

But Tom was one of the riders to benefit from the therapeutic fresh air at today's Trials and from what I saw he was bang on form.

You have to hate how well the youngsters can recover from a heavy night. Sadly those days are long gone for me :-(

I've added a new Trials Gallery featuring today's competition:
VIEW PICS OF TODAY'S TRIALS

I hope every Motocross rider found the time to thank their MX Captain on Saturday for the amount of effort he is putting in to ensure the Championship races take place.

Jason King has had to battle against the untimely heavy rainfall which has turned the track into deep muddy puddles. The thought of pumping, sweeping and creating drainage channels in those conditions is not a very appealing one... but some-one has to do it if the Championship is to reach its intended climax.

Of course there are many other people who donate their time to allow the racers to have their fun (not that I would consider it fun to get so muddy!)

My experience of being involved in various other Clubs - usually ending up on the Committee - is that most members seem to consider it their right to turn up to an organised event, have their fun and leave without offering a thank-you or having a thought for those who make it happen.

Can I suggest that the next time you have a chance to say thank-you... just do it :-)

If the guys who organise your fun decide that they have had enough of the unrewarding work you might just have to do it yourself. Now there's a thought!!
VIEW PICS OF ANOTHER VERY MUDDY MOTO-X MEETING

The Guernsey Donkey can be a bit stubborn when you try to get it to move.

However if the carrot is big enough and it starts down the road there will be no stopping it!

I have a feeling that the Facebook campaign under the heading of 'Enough is Enough GSY' is building that unstoppable momentum :-)

The turnout for the demonstration on North Beach against the threatened new General Sales Tax, Paid Parking and increased Refuse Collection costs was fantastic.

But the trigger for the organised protest was the threat of the introduction of a mixed bag (and poorly judged) range of Vehicle Width and CO2 emission taxes. Maybe this was the final straw that broke the Donkey's back?

The Donkey's came out in force... and we're a stubborn lot :-)

I took a few pictures of the protesters. They are now on-line:
VIEW PICTURES OF THE ENOUGH IS ENOUGH PROTEST

A few more updates today from the Vale Earth Fair.

I hadn't realised how busy I've been since the VEF (way back in August) but having found a couple of missed folders with VEF pics in I'm now sorting through the last of the Festival shots and there is just a glimmer at the end of the tunnel :-)

Today's picture updates feature Robert J Hunter and his band, Citizen X and one of my favourite live acts, Static Alice.

Check-out the updates here:
VIEW PICS OF STATIC ALICE & ROBERT J HUNTER PLAYING AT VALE EARTH FAIR

We welcomed an Aussie band to the Fermain Tavern recently. They proved that our mates from the underside of the world know how to rock and have a good time... but we knew that anyway cobber :-)

Tropical Zombie were well received and they became 'token locals' when they agreed that Breda lager hits the right spot!

I have added pictures of Tropical Zombie to my Galleries together with a few of supporting band To the Woods. We know that like like a bit of the Breda too!

Click the links to view the pics:
VIEW PICS OF TROPICAL ZOMBIE
VIEW PICS OF TO THE WOODS

Following the theme of my last Blog... this is also short and sweet :-)

I've been working through a couple of old photoshoots that didn't make it on-line at the time they were shot.

Today's additions are all from the Vale Earth Fair. This is a fantastic annual festival held within and around the historic walls of Vale Castle in Guernsey.

The new galleries feature The Crowman, Subversion & Jawbone. More to follow...

Subversion...

Jawbone...
VIEW PICS OF THE CROWMAN, SUBVERSION & JAWBONE

The next couple of Blogs will be short and simple.

Good, I hear you say!

I've discovered a few old folders of pics that didn't make it to the web-site at the time they were taken.

So it is time for a tidy-up. First up are Karting updates:
VIEW PICS OF ROUND-9 OF THE SUMMER KART CHAMPIONSHIP

I do love technology. It's just a shame that I find some of the new stuff a bit confusing... it's an age thing :-(

But every now and then I discover something that is really useful and amazing at the same time. If you've seen it all before then sorry if I'm about to bore you!

What I am referring to is the technology that I am using to type this Blog. I am in-putting this text on my Apple iPad using the web-site Admin system for my web-site. Nothing special there I hear you say.

However that Admin program is actually running on my main computer, a computer running Microsoft Windows 8. The remote Windows computer is using Firefox to access the web-site admin.... all directly form my iPad!

Oh and I forgot to mention that I'm not even in the same building as the office computer... thanks to the Internet :-)

*Just for your information*
These updates were completed whilst I was working from my 'Town Office'..... the Cock & Bull pub. Now that's worth two smiley's :-) ;-)

So all these different systems are somehow talking to each other for me. I even completed the edit of today's pics remotely. In fact I can operate all my Windows programs directly on my iPad. I'm impressed! Photoshop anyone? Or how about Lightroom?

There is just one thing left to do... now to upload this Blog.

If you are reading it then you know it all works :-)

Today's pics feature the GMC&CC Trials at Portelet. Click the link to view them:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE LATEST TRIALS PICS

VIEW PICS OF A RARE OUTING OF CHOKE
I think that the 'Halloween Metal Mayhem' on Saturday was the nineth.

I reckon that qualifies it as a local tradition. Don't you?

The Fermain Tavern was full of ghouls, ghosts and more than a little fake blood (at least I hope it was fake blood!)

There were some amazing fancy dress outfits too (at least I assume people don't wear that gear all year round). Surely these guys 'n gals don't only come out at Halloween?

Anyway, the photo-opportunities are just too good to miss so I lurked in the shadows and cobwebs to capture some of the atmosphere ;-)

I've added a couple of new Galleries featuring those pics...

VIEW PICS OF THE JERSEY BASED MASTICATED

Last weekend saw the final round of the Guernsey Kart & Motor Club Summer Kart Championship at The Track.

With some of the Classes still up for grabs it was bound to be a lively meeting and indeed the Rotax Max Classes Champion wasn't finally confirmed until the flag dropped and a double-check was made of all the seasons points (allowing for dropped races). I think there was just a point in it giving Matt Corson the win.

After the action had completed I took pics of the four Champions and also the successful 'Karting Guernsey Team'.

Those pics are now on-line:
VIEW PICS OF THE 2014 SUMMER KART CHAMPIONS & RACE 10

Today it was back to the Moto-X track for a bit of muddy action. I've already made a quick edit and the pics are on-line here:

VIEW PICS OF THE MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 7

CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICTURES OF BUFFALO HUDDLESTON
Now I'd love to think that I had that sort of influence... but of course I don't :-(

Shame.

It is just a coincidence that, after having had a moan in this Blog just last week about Guernsey's 'gig-goers' not making enough effort to support the live music scene, we saw perhaps the liveliest gig of the year at the Fermain Tavern on Saturday.

Could I really have made people get off their behinds.... as easily as that?

No. What we experienced was the golden mix of 'The Tav' booking a band that is well known (locally) with a special guest band that rocked this years Sark Folk Festival (that is if a folk band does actually 'rock'?)

I'd hate to be a gig promoter as clearly gig-goers are a fickle bunch. Killamonjambo, who were so poorly supported last week, are a great band and well worth following but the word simply hadn't 'got out there' locally with the resulting poor turn-out.

However it was all change on Saturday!

The popular Buffalo Huddleston were launching their Album 'Sunrise' at a party and it seemed like everyone was on the guest list. The Fermain Tavern was packed solid with a mass of fans. The contrast could not be greater. This is what a live venue should be like... and we all LOVED it!

The inspired booking of the night was to invite CC Smugglers along as special guests. This UK band is on the way up towards greater things and, as previously stated, they impressed the Sark Folk Festival crowd in the summer. In fact their set on Saturday was one of those that most other bands on a bill wouldn't want to follow. This band is really good live!

But of course it was Buffallo Huddleston's night and they more than justified their headlining status. They revelled in the attention with a familiar set of songs from 'Sunrise'.

So all the ingredients were in place and the dish was served. We gorged ourselves and went back for seconds.

Live music lives, and I'm a happy man.

Maybe I'll also kid myself that I had something to do with it too ;-)

CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICTURES OF CC SMUGGLERS

Saturday saw me standing in a field near Icart taking pics of the Guernsey Motor Cycle & Car Club's second Grass Track meeting.

This event seems to be a perfect end to another busy Sand Racing season. Most of the Sliders made a showing. The Motocross boys enjoyed the grass/dirt track... much more like their chosen surface. And the few Grass Track cars that reside in Guernsey completed the list of competitors.

So that was day one sorted. View the Grass Track pics here:
VIEW PICS OF THE GRASS TRACK RACING

Then today the same Club hosted a Trials event.

Now you may have noticed that there are very few landscape pics on this web-site. In fact I haven't been serious about taking landscape pics since my Camera Club days. Somehow I don't seem to have the time!

But today I got as close as I have in recent times. It was only whilst editing the days shoot that I realised that I had taken a few 'landscapes' (at least they feature the countryside and autumnal colours).

However there is one other small detail. There is a Trials bike in every one of the pics!

Maybe next time I will leave the bike out, but for now that's all I've got to show you.

Take a look at my Trials pics here:
VIEW PICS OF AN AUTUMNAL TRIALS EVENT

You can't beat a nice afternoon on the beach. And that was nothing like a nice afternoon on the beach!

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining about the entertainment. Autocross racing will never disappoint on that front.

No, it was the fact that it poured down for the whole meeting!

I wont labour the point why it is so frustrating to work with cameras in heavy rain as I will only be repeating (many) previous Blogs. Suffice to say lenses, water, misting!

I'm pleased to say that I've now dried off, had a fantastic roast dinner (thanks to 'she who must be obeyed'). Add to this a couple of glasses of red wine and I'm back to being a happy chappy.

The editing has all been done in the warmth of my studio office and pics are now online:
VIEW PICS OF THE VERY WET AUTOCROSS MEETING

Friday night at the Fermain Tavern was an embarrassment.

At least I felt embarrassed as a local follower of live music when I spoke to members of Killamonjambo and their tour manager.

These guys are near the end of an long and successful tour of the UK. They have played to many full-houses... but not on Friday!

The band deserved a good crowd for what they call 'England's leading barnyard funk ska reggae intergalactic dance band'.

That seems to cover a good selection of musical genres... so why didn't people turn up?

Paul Staples has to be credited with not giving up (yet) with his efforts to maintain the 'Tav's' legacy as a live music venue. But he finds himself having to finance too many nights when the punters simply don't bother to turn up.

OK, nobody is obliged to attend any of these gigs and I know there are often bands playing in other pubs. However it is only The Fermain Tavern who regularly promote established original artists. This decades long record may not last for much longer if you guys don't offer your support.

When it's gone it will be too late... Use it or Loose it!

By the way, Killamonjambo were brilliant. They were also total pro's as they raised their performance for the very select few. Even though it was 'the worst gig they had played for years' (tour managers quote).

I took a few pics:
VIEW PICS OF KILLAMONJAMBO

If there is any truth to the rumour that Motocross riders like to get their fun when it is wet and slippery then today must have been a bit special!

The heavy rainfall that heralded the change to the autumnal season meant that the dusty conditions of earlier races where a distant memory.

However for the race day there was a clear sky and quite a nice warmth to the sun that when combined with a gentle wind meant it was very pleasant standing at the side of the track taking pics.

There is no way though that I could be convinced that it was fun out there on a bike! Certain corners were simply churned, liquid mud... it was axle deep as well!

But of course this is all part of the sport and it can make for a few dramatic pics :-)

I've already completed the edit and a new gallery can be viewed here:
VIEW PICS OF THE MUDDY RACE-6 OF THE MOTO-X CHAMPIONSHIP