Looking backwards and forwards

This month marks the 20th anniversary of when I started surfing the web, as we used to call it back then, and you’d think that by now I wouldn't be surprised of what I find out there. However when I stumbled across Anglo Saxon Oil Rigs 'Evergreen' [Or Oilrigs as we used to call them] I am very surprised. Here, uploaded on YouTube, are some of the photographs I took of the band between 1981 and 1983 and a track recorded at Fret Music Studios in January 1983, which I also had the pleasure of photographing. Best of all the video is topped and tailed by one of my favourite photographs of those years which was taken in the small road next to The Joiner’s Arms pub in Southampton, where they were playing. I had even made a poster of it using a microfiche printer and taping together the 6 prints of the 12mm x 12mm sections of the negative! I think I can remember which large, blue box the negative must be in, but for now it’s simpler to find the album and re-photograph the print. The original was shot with an Olympus OM-10 on 16-Mar-1982 and here I am 32 years later with a Canon 5D Mk III and I think times have changed. Then I check out The Joiner’s Arms and find out that not only do they still have live music (times haven't changed!), but they even have a Wikipedia entry and then I realise I’m back in time surfing again!

As I write this we’re just over 3 days away from 2015, I wonder what other nice surprises will come for all of us. Happy New Year to you all!

For more pictures like this see my Music & Bands gallery.