We start the day feeling a little sorry for ourselves. My hangover was pretty rough I won’t lie. I blame Chris for being King Sambuca. Sambuca doesn’t like me. We set off for London from Southampton. Probably about 3 hours to the venue. We arrive at the Islington O2 Academy. Learning the maze of the backstage and the hundreds of steps to get from there to the stage. I must have gone up and down those stairs like 30 odd times that night. Last time I was in this venue I was working with a DJ alongside an Afrobeats artist and never ventured backstage properly. The green room was great, had a full-on shower set up. You woudnt’t believe how great it is to have a venue with a nice shower.

While the boys chilled after load in and soundcheck I was trying to work out where I should be for parts of the set. There’s a barrier photo pit. The room was the largest cap venue of the tour. I decided I would start the set from the balcony and get some overhead shots. So tonight was a buyout instead of catering so I quickly popped to Macdonalds before the show started. The queue was so long, Sadly they were letting in people so slow that my friends who got in line an hour early even missed half of Caskets set.

So I started from the balcony. This was a very different angle from the other venues on the tour. It was okay but nothing groundbreaking in my opinion. the balcony hung over the stag too far, it would have been nicer if it was set back further. I then shot from the back and then head to the photo pit. Manoeuvring on the stage was tight. Trying to get behind Normandie’s drumkit to get shots of James on the support kit off to the side was a mission. Erratic lights and trying not to step on any cables, it’s not always easy getting into some positions. It was well worth the crowd shot of the boys and the crowd though.

After Caskets Set I hung out with my friends and partner, and actually watched full sets of Thousand Below and Normandie. It was nice not running to the green room to edit straight away. After my friends left I went and joined the boys backstage for some drinks with lots of their industry friends. Safe to say I was of the soft drinks after the night before. After we loaded out went to mine to sleep for the night before the last night of the tour in Birmingham.

Hope you enjoy the highlight video and the photos below!

Charlie