Beanphoto | Offstage

Offstage is one of my ongoing personal projects – portraits of musicians taken away from the performance arena.

The project is a key one for me, it began back in 2012 when I was asked to exhibit some photos of local bands in a joint exhibition “Onstage/Offstage”
at The Dukes in Lancaster with another local photographer, Pauline Clark. It was pretty much the first time I’d exhibited since 1989! Pauline and I agreed a plan for her shots to be of live bands and mine offstage – hence the title!

I set up a Crowdfunder campaign to help me with exhibition costs and thankfully exceeded my goal. The first show consisted of 10 images of 5 local musicians, Matt Black, Katy Pickles, ‘Boogie’ Bill Roberts, Lucas Button and Mia Wilson in both local landmark locations and in close up.

One of the shots, of ‘Boogie Bill’ on China Street, crossing the road on a keyboard has served me very well, it captured a fair bit of local interest and even took me to the finals of the Professional Photographer Of The Year awards in 2013.

Katy Pickles, Lancaster singer-songwriter, later used one of the exhibition outtakes as the cover for her firt EP release.

Katy Pickles in the Music Room Cafe, Sun Square, Lancaster
Katy Pickles with Umbrella, on Sun Street, Lancaster
Katy Pickles, EP cover image

Lucas Button, Matt Black, Mia Wilson & ‘Boogie’ Bill Roberts…

Lucas Button, in Dalton Square, Lancaster
Lucas Button, in Dalton Square, Lancaster
Mia Wilson, singer, performer
Mia Wilson, singer, performer at The Dukes, Lancaster
‘Boogie’ Bill Roberts
‘Boogie’ Bill on China Street, Lancaster
Matt Black with double bass
Matt Black at the Millennium Bridge, Lancaster

The show returned in 2016 in an expanded solo show format thanks to Morecambe Artist Colony, when it was shown at The Hothouse in Morecambe, augmented with new images of Roger Obertelli, Maja Bugge, Kermit Leveridge and Jay Diggins, and some of the shots that didn’t get included in the first show.

‘Kermit’ Leveridge of Black Grape/Ruthless Rap Assassins
‘Kermit’ Leveridge of Black Grape/Ruthless Rap Assassins
Jay Diggins
Mia Wilson ‘cracked’ face
Mia Wilson double exposure montage
Roger Obertelli – ‘The Tippy-Tappy Man’
Boogie Bill & The Billionaires band shoot
Maja Bugge, Cellist

I’ve added a few other names to the rosta since then, some just caught candidly whilst out and about working, others a little more formal. It’s an ongoing thing, hopefully lots more to come yet.