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I was fortunate to get a couple of opportunities to photograph Frank Turner for The Record, my new bowel cancer fundraising book. I photographed him from the photo pit at the Southampton Guildhall in May 2018, and before that I got to meet and chat with Frank before his gig at the Reading Hexagon in November 2016, which all made for a great chapter in the book.

As you can see in the above photo Frank was great fun and happy to do a photo wearing the bowel cancer tie to help raise awareness about this awful illness. The reason why Frank agreed to meet me was after I’d contacted him after my mum died of bowel cancer in August 2016. The Record has been written in her memory, and all proceeds raised from sales of the book are donated to Bowel Cancer UK, with over £600 raised so far. Bowel cancer is the second highest cancer killer in the UK with 16,000 deaths each year. However, if detected at the early stage 1 over 90% of cases can be successfully treated. There is a dramatic drop in survival rates with later diagnosis. At stage 4 only 7% of patients currently live for five years or more. Only 15% of patients are currently diagnosed at stage 1. Raising awareness about bowel cancer plays an important part in trying to increase early detection rates.

Going back to the Reading gig, I met Frank in one of the rooms back stage. I was told that I would have five minutes with him, so I knew I had to be ready with my camera and that every second would count with him. There was a itinerary sheet on the wall which showed just how busy a day he had. And I saw my name on it, which was a nice touch knowing that I was a very small part in his day.

Frank couldn’t have been nicer. I made sure I got the name of his first record, which has an interesting story behind it. He was extremely nice and was happy to chat and do the photos. We crammed in quite a bit into those five minutes. When he found out that I didn’t have a ticket for the sold out show he put me on the guest which was a very kind and generous gesture.

The gig was outstanding. This was my first experience of seeing him live. I knew it was going to be good, but seriously it would not be an understatement to say that this was one of the best gigs that I have been to. Quite brilliant! Over the last three years I’ve been to a couple more of his concerts, which also did not disappointed.

The photo pit experience in Southampton was show number 2163 for Frank. I was very kindly given a photo pass, and spent the first three songs snapping away. and this enabled me to complete the photography for the chapter in The Record.

I can’t thank Frank enough for his support and giving me such a unique opportunity to put such a great chapter together on him. The Record is available as an eBook, paperback and hardback. Please click here to see all the ways to get hold of a copy of the book.