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New updates with live performance shots, backstage photos, journals and lots more can be viewed on Buzznet and Friends Or Enemies websites. There will be no further additions on here. New clothing and jewellery designs are also pictured on my Buzznet page and will soon be rearranged into a separate web page to avoid confusion with the music related features.
www.sophiecalifornia.buzznet.com More live photos of All American Rejects, Motion City Soundtrack, Gym Class Heroes and Fall Out Boy will be added onto Buzznet in the next few weeks. Live shots of Fall Out Boy in Mexico City from October 20th are on Buzznet, plus latest t-shirt designs and journals.
30th August 2006 My 15th year at the Reading Festival was the usual blast but I never made it to the site on Saturday due to my feet being incredibly sore from walking around all day on the Friday. The weather stayed dry all week-end. Highlights of the two days I made it were performances by Panic! At The Disco and Fall Out Boy on the Friday afternoon. Both fantastic on the main stage, luckily PATD front man, Brendon Urie, survived a nasty bruising from a flying bottle which came hurtling through the crowd! The best band of the day on Sunday was My Chemical Romance on the main stage, yet another band who survived the usual Reading bottle throwing to the extreme but proved that they could win the crowd. Photos from the two days will be in the Galleries soon. Sorry, but there will be no more updates until at least October when I will be back in Los Angeles. Expect more photos from live shows in LA.
News from West Hollywood, July 2006 Sorry about the lack of updates, I have been very busy here in Los Angeles and return home to England for about five weeks in August. Before then, I will be going to the Warped Tour show in Salt Lake City on July 22nd, so look out for live photos from the day in the Festivals section in August. I wish I could afford to go to more events, but there won't be any more until the Reading Festival in the UK at the end of August. It will be my 15th year at the festival, so I couldn't possibly miss it! My clothing line Toxic Glamour is now available at The Cosmo Show boutique on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Owned by designer and fashion stylist Cosmo Lambino, the store has been on Melrose now for twelve years. Check out the website at: www.thecosmoshow.com Despite me being out of the UK for almost all of the past year, my clothes and accessories are still on sale at Flares in Guildford, Surrey and in the other stores listed on The Fashion Page.
Sydney, April 24th, 2006 Only one more month to go until I leave Australia, but not for good, as I plan to be back in Sydney again at the end of this year. It's been fantastic living here, but it's time to go back to Los Angeles and I will be there until August. A few weeks ago I went to Adelaide to see Funeral For a Friend at the Thebarton Theatre, support band was UK emo rockers Fightstar, fronted by ex-boyband member Charlie Simpson (yes, the tall good-looking one from Busted!). Funeral For a Friend were fantastic and luckily Matt Davies's voice was back on good form, which was a worry after the band were forced to reshedule their UK tour when he got laryngitus. I got to hang out with guitarist Darran Smith and bassist Gareth Davis after their performance, when we went onto another venue in town to see the Suicide Girls strip show. Funeral For a Friend will tour the UK throughout May, then play at the Download festival in June before taking a well-earned break and record the follow-up to 2005 album Hours. Photos of Alkaline Trio and Adam Lazzara from Taking Back Sunday are now in the Reviews and Features section. I was going to see Korn in Melbourne, but simply can't afford it now! Not that it's the end of the world, because Korn have announced their Family Values Tour of the US and there's a chance I might go to one of the shows. Also, Ozzfest is on while I am in the States and the Warped Tour. I am planning to go to shows on these tours, but it's all up to the press people on whether they want to give me a photo pass or not for me to get photos to go onto this site. Wait and see in the next few months!
2nd March, 2006, Sydney I've been very busy designing new clothing (lots of t-shirts and tank tops with crazy designs on!) for alternative shops in Sydney and I'll be doing the same for a couple of shops in Melbourne soon. Toxic Glamour clothing is only available to buy in the shops listed on this site; sorry, but you can't order anything online! I am not at that stage yet! I'm gutted that the European festival line-ups are so impressive, especially for events in June when I'll still be in Los Angeles! Metallica, Deftones, Korn and Guns 'n' Roses (or rather, Axl Rose and his new band!) are all playing at Download at Donnington Race Track in England and at Rock Am Ring in Germany. I am hoping that the August events in Europe will be just as good, as I am going to be back in the UK by then. As for the music scene here, it is lazy compared with Europe and the US Press and photo passes aren't organised by the record labels like everywhere else in the world. It's up to the Australian promoters to arrange all that and so far On The Guest List has been snubbed and they're only interested in national Aussie magazines (which are bad compared with what we read in the UK and the States). So sorry, but while I am still in Sydney there won't be any live photos at all, but obviously it isn't my fault these fools won't bother helping me out! No live shots doesn't mean there won't be any new aftershow photos of bands and the usual meet and greets! Next week I'm off to Melbourne to see Alkaline Trio, then again the week after for Taking Back Sunday. Funeral For a Friend are also back in Australia the first week in April, so luckily there are some great bands coming here before I leave to go to LA.
News January 4th, 2006. Happy New Year everyone! A new year means lots of plans for me, there will be a lot more reviews, live photos and usual rock 'n' roll gossip on here like always! However, there won't be any new additions until February now, as my web designer in the UK is away on holiday until the end of January. There are new photos in the Meet & Greet page of fans with Green Day in Sydney and Melbourne and me (looking rather worse for wear!) with Vince and Mick from Motley Crue and Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters. I am staying in Australia until April, when I return to Los Angeles for three months, then go back to the UK ready for the Summer festival season. I am hoping to attend more big music events this year than ever before, but of course it all depends on money and how busy I am with the clothing line. Toxic Glamour clothing will soon be available in more stores worldwide. Once I've produced the designs by the truck load, check out the list of shops on here for info. Some of the new designs are now pictured on the Fashion Page and will be available on t-shirts, vest tops, hoodies and even bags.
5th December 2005, Sydney. Holy Fire and Smoke! - I partied with The Foo Fighters and met Motley Crue! Oh yes, it was one hell of a rock 'n' roll weekend for me here in Sydney. Not only did I see the fantastic Foo Fighters again (for about the 14th time since 1995!) at the Sydney Superdome, but I managed to go to the band's private aftershow party at the chic W Hotel. It was an awesome evening, especially as it was bass player Nate Mendel's birthday party, too and there were some delicious cakes! Great to see some old faces from the music biz who I hadn't seen in a long time and I never thought would be in Sydney. I also got to meet British rocker Lemmy from Motorhead who were the support band for the Foo Fighters on the Australian tour. I didn't get home from that party until 4.30am and suffered the consequences the next day, but had to wake up ready for Motley Crue at the same venue. Rock's premier wild boys are still on fine form twenty years on and it was the ultimate rock 'n' roll circus, complete with fire fountains, stripper dancers, motorcycles, a midget and a 'titty cam' (see the upcoming review of the show to find out more!). I managed to get photos taken with Dave Grohl, Vince Neil and Mick Mars. Tommy Lee was ushered away to be 'put to bed' at the hotel (well, what do you expect?) and Nikki disappeared so fast that we didn't get a chance for a picture. He wasn't actually allowing pictures at all that whole day. Two is better than none. Dave Grohl is great and the photos will be in the Meet & Greet section soon.
November 2005 - from Sydney! A DOUBLE DOSE OF CHAOS! Sorry for not getting this updated sooner, but I've been extremely busy. Good news is that I've just returned to Sydney, after having been in Germany to catch My Chemical Romance and Every Time I Die on the last show of their joint European tour at the Elser Halle in Munich. Then I went to the last two shows of the Taste of Chaos tour 2005 at Munich Tonhalle and Cologne Palladium. The Germany trip has definitely made up for not getting any live photos at the Sydney Taste of Chaos concert. A big THANK YOU to Nicole at Warner Music in Hamburg, who made it possible for me to capture all the heavy rock 'n' roll action on film! The live photos from all three shows can be seen on here within the next couple of weeks, just check the Reviews section for the My Chemical Romance pictures and Taste of Chaos 2005 in the Galleries section. So there will be extreme close-up shots of all the guys in My Chemical Romance, Every Time I Die, Rise Against, Story of the Year, Funeral For a Friend, Killswitch Engage, Bleed The Dream and The Used. Taste of Chaos 2005 may be over, but music promoter legend and Warped Tour creator Kevin Lyman (who I was lucky enough to meet in Munich) has already organised Taste of Chaos 2006! For the full band line-up, go to: www.tasteofchaos.com As for more Australian shows, I will be seeing Every Time I Die again, here in Sydney and My Chemical Romance are here in December with Green Day, as well as doing a one-off headline show. I've applied for a media pass for Big Day Out, which takes place in Sydney on January 26th, 2006 (Australia Day). Big Day Out is Australia's biggest touring festival and takes place in various cities around Australia, as well as in New Zealand. For more information, go to the official Big Day Out website for all the cities involved and bands line-up at: www.bigdayout.com New t-shirt designs are now on the Fashion Page. Check out Reviews for live photos of Kisstroyer & Appetite for Destruction at the Gaelic Club in Sydney.
October 30th 2005, A Taste of My Chaos - from Sydney! I am currently in Sydney, Australia, until early 2006, and so far things have been great here. Good news that my clothing label, Toxic Glamour, is to be mass produced and my designs will be ready to be on sale in lots of cool stores around the US, Australia, in more UK cities and maybe all over the world within the next year or so! More details will be on this site once it's all available. My new designs will be pictured on the Fashion Page within the next couple of months. I got to have plenty of fun with Simple Plan and All American Rejects again, who played two awesome shows at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney in the first week of October. Backstage photos of my friend Nikola with each member of Simple Plan are now in the Meet & Greet section and more of Simple Plan in Sydney are coming up! I wasn't considered important enough by the promoter to be eligible for a photo pass for the Sydney Taste of Chaos show so, unfortunately, I have no pictures of the bands. However, I did get into the show in Sydney for free last night and it was a blast! Funeral For a Friend, Rise Against, Story of the Year, Killswitch Engage and The Used certainly created a collective load of chaos onstage to a sold-out Sydney crowd of excited moshers and wild metalkids. It was a mighty screamo scenario, consisting of a couple of memorable duets with Killswitch Engage frontman Howard Jones sharing the mic with The Used's main man Bert McCraken! There was plenty more of the roaring action from other rising US bands Story of the Year and Rise Against and popular Welsh nosiemakers Funeral For a Friend were as fantastic as ever. Utah boys, The Used, who have become a massive success in Australia, after selling out the Hordern Pavilion within minutes back in May, are always a big treat to see live. I Caught Fire is the latest single to be taken from the critically acclaimed album In Love and Death and has been getting a lot of radio airplay in Australia. Obviously it got a massive applause. The Used played a 9 song set which was: Take It Away, Listening, I Caught Fire, Taste of Ink, All That I Got, Box Full, On My Own, Say Days Ago and Memories. Bert dedicated one song to new his new finacee Alison, who happens to be from Sydney! In the end, what's a photo pass when I can meet the bands after the show anway in a hotel bar? Because luckily I did! As a result, I'm feeling very rough today as I write this! I managed to speak to members of Funeral for a Friend, The Used and Killswitch Engage vocalist Howard Jones after their great performances at the Superdome and everyone said how much they've really enjoyed Taste of Chaos and look forward to the UK shows coming up in November. One VIP missing from this tour was Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz. Adam had to have surgery on his back the day before yesterday and is still getting over the operation. He was upset to miss the tour but will be back in action as soon as he's recovered. The Used will take a short break after Taste of Chaos, then start work on the follow-up to In Love and Death. Check on www.pollstar.com for tour dates for all bands and on the bands' official websites for latest news.
3rd September 2005 The Reading festival this year was great, as always, but unlike last year when rain ruined the first day of entertainment, we were blessed with sunshine. It was amusing to see sunburnt goths walking around waiting to watch Marilyn Manson on the main stage on Sunday, which was the hottest day! The line-up was good, even though several bands I'd wanted to see cancelled within the weeks leading up to the event. Finch, Jimmy Eat World, The Transplants and Simple Plan were all due to perform, but pulled-out due to other commintments overseas. The big let-down was the unnecessary increase in security, which was so ridiculous that even though I managed to get a production pass, separate passes were needed to get into various areas and this time metal barriers were put up backstage before headline bands walked onto the main stage and everyone who wasn't in a band was forced to stand behind the barriers like at a movie premiere. It was so pretentious! (and I thought that 50 Cent's arrival on site last year was a joke!). Therefor I didn't get to photograph many bands backstage like I originally planned. All the photos I did take are in the Festival Galleries. Highlights of the festival weekend were meeting Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio, bumping into the All American Rejects boys again (I last saw them in Orlando the day before the Good Charlotte and Simple Plan show), seeing lots of old friends I hadn't seen in years, being able to smuggle in my own alcohol, the sunny weather on Sunday and watching Marilyn Manson, who gave the best entertainment out of all the bands. My top two bands from each day were Queens of the Stone Age and The Killers on Friday, Razorlight and Juliette & The Licks on Saturday and Turbonegro and Marilyn Manson on the Sunday. I am already thinking about next year's event, which will be my 15th year at the Reading festival, so obviously I intend to be there and make the most of it! At the end of this month I am off travelling yet again, this time I will be going to Sydney, Australia, and will probably reamain in Australia for at least 4-5 months for work, before heading back to Los Angeles for a few months. So any new reports will be from gigs Down Under and there are quite a few big names scheduled to play while I'm in town, so check out the Reviews page sometime at the end of October for new additions. All photos of Reading 2005 are now uploaded. Click Galleries and then Reading 2005.
29th June 2005 The Greenfield festival in Switzerland (Interlaken) was a fantastic event, even when a freak storm interrupted Friday night's entertainment! Unfortunately, due to the main stage being damaged in the storm, Queens of the Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails were unable to perform! It was a big let down but the festival itself was amazing and in the best location I've been to - in the beautiful Swiss mountains in Interlaken. A shame about the bands who were cancelled, but I still got to see others. The review is under Reviews and the photos from are in the Festivals section. Also, I travelled straight from Switzerland to see Simple Plan live at Cologne Music Hall. The review of the Simple Plan concert, with live photos, will be in the Reviews section in the next day or two. There won't be any more live reviews or photos of music events on here until August.
2nd June 2005, Los Angeles, CA. I have just returned to Hollywood from Orlando, Florida, having spent an awesome three days staying at the Hard Rock Hotel in the Universal Studios theme park. I went to see the fantastic Simple Plan and Good Charlotte at the Hard Rock Live on 31st May; the show was filmed for MTV and will be shown on TV in the US sometime in September or October. There are no plans (yet) to broadcast the event on MTV Europe but, until it may happen, you can read all about it here within the next few weeks! Plus I have several photos taken with the band members backstage after the concert and pictures of various rock'n'roll memorabillia on display in the Hard Rock Hotel. Unfortunately, due to cameras being banned at the Hard Rock Live because of the MTV taping, I was unable to take any close-up live shots of the guys (although I did sneakily snap Good Charlotte a couple of times!). See the report of my Orlando Adverture online soon, with photos to follow, once I am back in the UK. Simple Plan have had to cancel their support slot with Green Day in Milton Keynes due to promotional commitments in Italy, so the next reports will be from the Greenfield Festival in Switzerland at the end of June. 9th May 2005 Check out the Reviews page - Simple Plan at Vinyl Factory, London, on 26th April 2005 - Review and Photos are now uploaded.
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