Empire 35 Call It A Day

Sad news last week, with alt-rockers Empire 35 calling it a day.  But, with Jeff going travelling in Malaysia, and James planning to move to Japan(!), I guess it seemed like a natural break point.

My (brief) involvement with them was one of life's nice little coincidences.  Earlier in the year, I wanted to do some photography at The Doghouse in Nottingham.  On clicking through the event pages, I happened across this lot.  Some cracking tracks on SoundCloud made it a very easy decision to go and see them, and they didn't disappoint.

Shooting at that gig also introduced me to Ed Medhurst, and The Invaders.  Daryl of The Invaders subsequently invited me to the Wadstock 2-ish event in August, where all three of these acts were also playing, along with a whole host of others.  And, keeping track of Ed's gigs resulted in me shooting at the Acoustic Gathering at The Maze in September.

Empire 35 @ Wadstock 2-ish

Finally, inquiring about shooting Empire 35 at Macmillan Fest got me a press pass to that event, and my first chance to shoot in Rescue Rooms and Rock City Basement.

So, a brace of great gigs this summer, meeting some fantastic people, and the opportunity to get some shots that I'm really proud of can all be traced back to that rather sparsely attended gig back in June!

My best wishes to James, Jeff, Rich, and Sean in whatever they're off to do next.  One thing I won't miss for the time being though - waiting for the rare moments when Sean's hair isn't in front of his face so that the camera's auto-focus stands any chance of locking on to him! :P