Tom Martin

On New Years Eve I travelled down to London to shoot British Sea Power who were playing Club NME at the Koko Club in Camden. The, rather dazzling, review is out today in the NME so keep a look out for that. 

My girlfriend Charlotte (who can be seen top right corner scratching her head in this!?!) and I had a great time and the band put on a really great show. Anyway British Sea Power have released their forth studio album 'Valhalla Dancehall' this week so I thought I'd do a bit of a BSP photoblog....

This shot was taken at Glastonbury 2009 -the first time that I ever shot the band. I remember they played in this weird little tent quite hidden away, the stage set-up looked stunning and the set was really well received by everyone who'd be fortunate enough to find it.

On the first weekend in May 2001 BSP curated their own festival in conjunction with my friend Boone's production company Calling Out. Sing Ye From The Hillsides II took place at Tan Hill in the 'highest pub in Britain'. The whole line up for the 3 day event was hand picked by the band. Here they are sound checking before anyone arrived on the first afternoon - before the carnage began. Full galleries from Tan Hill can be found on my flickr HERE and HERE.

Literally swinging from the rafters. SYFTH II was such an amazing three days, really special, the music was great and the location and all the entertainment that was put on was breathtaking.

Halfway through the bands headline set on the Sunday night, they stopped and everyone went outside to watch the fireworks! They then continued to completely destroy what was left of their set and everyone partied all night long afterwards.

Later in 2010 at Kendal Calling another Calling Out event BSP played what was basically the highlight of the weekend for an awful lot of people. Full gallery of the set can be viewed HERE.

British Tree Power. Some die hard fans on the front row at KC 2010.

Guitarist Martin Noble pestering the security guards with branches - much to the complete delight of the crowd. This set was so much fun to shoot, there was so many things going on I hardly knew what to shoot or where to look!

And then of course rounding off the year in style at club NME with ballon's, pyrotechnics and 11ft bears...

 

Have to again say thank you to the band and manager Dave for their hospitality on NYE. The guys had their own D.I.Y cocktail buffet set up in there dressing room - complete with recipes and set list here. Charlotte and I had a lot of fun mixing things up!

As did these ladies. More hardcore BSPers!! Great way to end 2010. Cheers guys.