Help For Heroes

On Saturday, I ventured down to Twickenham with Ellie and her family to watch the Help For Heroes charity rugby match - featuring an England XV captained by Laurence Dallaglio against an International XV captained by the legend that is Scott Gibbs. Given the unbelievably good weather I took my camera along, and managed to get a record of the day - my first visit to this stadium.

We got there in plenty of time, and so had a wander round the outside of the stadium to see if anything was going on. Typically, on the way home the next day I found out that I'd missed the Sun Newspaper's stand - complete with Page 3 girls! Gutted, that WOULD have drawn plenty of hits to this page now wouldn't it?

For some reason unknown to me, I wasn't allowed in here...maybe next time.

Now, I know this was a Help for Heroes match, but these heroes weren't exactly what I was expecting to see...

The Army were kind enough to drop in before kick-off.

Here's a shot of each team after the game, the England XV in black, Internationals in white. On the international pic, look out for Jonah Lomu in the background on the right wearing a white t-shirt - he was due to play but had to pull out with a foot injury.

Ellie and I then went into London afterwards to stay with a Uni friend, and we were greeted with quite an amazing sunset. These shots were just grabs - no filters and hardly anything done to them in Photoshop, but just look at those colours!

Only problem is now, Summer is offically over, despite the fact that it never actually started. Oh well, I'll to spend the long nights going to more gigs instead!

Getting Loaded with Duff McKagan

Of course, I didn't ACTUALLY get loaded with the legendary bass player from Velvet Revolver and Guns N Roses, no no no, thankfully he gave all that up. In fact, Duff's other band is called Loaded and I interviewed them on Friday last for the November issue of Powerplay Magazine. After the interview, whilst keeping the many, many Duff fans (and possible stalkers) at bay outside, I managed to grab this band shot.

I really like the shot, especially as my flashgun failed on me completely just as I tried to take the first shot! Friday was the second time I've interviewed Duff, and he remembered me this time around which was very cool considering how many journalists he must meet, and just the fact that he's Duff McKagan. Last time around I grabbed some portraits of him, my favourite being this one.

All in all, another great experience for me, and the thought that one of lifelong musical heroes recognised me was pretty massive really! Now if only I could arrange a chat with a few more of them - anyone have the numbers for Messers Slash, Hetfield, Iommi, Cornell, Perry, Page??