Kerrang! Awards 2008 winners and photos of arrivals and departures

Below: Lacuna Coil vocalist Christina Scabbia arrives at the 2008 Kerrang Awards.



Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich while he was signing autographs for fans before the show.
Rage Against The Machine vocalist Zack De La Rocha signing autographs for fans.

Brian "Synyster Gates" Haner from Avenged Sevenfold and Matt Tuck of Bullet For My Valentine after the Kerrang Awards show (yes, they had already drunk quite a lot by then!)

Zacky and Matt from Avenged Sevenfold after the awards show, looking for an AWOL Johnny!
Below: Slaves to Gravity vocalist Tommy Greeson proudly showing off his K Award for Best British Newcomer.



30 Seconds to Mars members Shannon and Jared Leto and Tomo Millicevic before the show.
James Hetfield from Metallica looking like he was asleep standing up!

Lin Z from Mindless Self Indulgance chatting to fans after the awards show was over.





Slipknot members Corey Taylor (lead vocals) and Jim Root (guitar) arriving.
Alkaline Trio vocalist Matt Skiba outside the venue before the awards show.
Below: Trivium lead singer Matt Heafy talks to fans before the show.

Below: Trivium bassist Paolo Gregoletto signing autographs for fans outside the venue.

The 2008 Kerrang! Awards was the usual drunken and lively event it has been over the years and as usual, I was there to catch some of the action on camera as everyone arrived and left. Poor Johnny Christ from Avenged Sevenfold left the show before the rest of his band, and collapsed at my feet by the entrance to venue where the event was held, as he walked out! He had to almost be held up by people when he approached patient fans waiting outside! It was quite an amusing scene and I wish I'd captured it on video. Bands who attended this year were Metallica, Rage Against The Machine, Bullet For My Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, 30 Seconds To Mars, Funeral For a Friend, Slaves to Gravity, Black Tide, Gallows, Alkaline Trio, Cancer Bats, Mindless Self Indulgence, Elliott Minor, Bring Me the Horizon, Biffy Clyro, Trivium and Cristina Scabbia of Italian metal band Lacuna Coil co-hosted the show. Slipknot were forced to pull-out of their performance at the Reading and Leeds festivals because Joey and Sid both broke their ankles (which came as no surprise!), but Jim Root, Paul Gray and Corey Taylor showed up to pick up their K Award for rock Icons. System of a Down frontman and now solo artist Serj Tankian also made an appearance to present an award and Machinehead frontman Robb Flynn returned to the awards again this year to collect the award for Best Live Band.

The winners were:

Best International Band: 30 Seconds To Mars

Best British Band: Bullet For My Valentine

Best International Newcomer: Black Tide

Best British Newcomer: Slaves To Gravity

Best Rock Video: Coheed & Cambria for Feathers

Best Live Band: Machinehead

Best Album: Avenged Sevenfold for Avenged Sevenfold

Best Single: 30 Seconds To Mars for The Kill

Hall of Fame special award: Rage Against The Machine

Inspiration award: Metallica

Classic Songwriter award: Def Leppard

Rock Icon award: Slipknot

Video captures of some familiar faces arriving at the Kerrang! Awards 2008 can be viewed here:

www.youtube.com/sophiecalifornia

In a trendy hotel in London the night before the Kerrang! Awards...

The bar in a trendy West London hotel where I've stayed many times before in the past was packed out on Wednesday August 20th, as almost every band attending the annual Kerrang! Awards and Reading and Leeds festivals arrived in town and made the most of seeing old and new acquaintances and friends from other bands.

On the night before the Kerrang! Awards, Avenged Sevenfold did a headline show at the University of London Union venue and Alkaline Trio played a show at Camden Koko, but all the bands happened to be staying in the same hotel as us and joined in the usual late night bar frolics. Also in attendance were Taking Back Sunday, Bullet For My Valentine and various other known faces.

It's my birthday today and Madonna's birthday. Happy 50th Madge!

It's my tenth consecutive 21st birthday today! Ha!Ha!Ha! Many happy returns to myself and especially to Madonna who is 50 today. Yes, hard to believe that the queen of pop is half a century already, but lucky for her she can have the help of the best cosmetic surgeons to help her look the way she does now!
Perhaps when I am 50 years old I will also be able to afford a little bit of help with erasing the wrinkles and eye bags, but that's not for a long time yet (thank God!).

Next week is the annual Kerrang! Awards in London and the day after, it's the Reading festival. This year will be my 17th year at the festival, so obviously I am praying for the weather to be good. Photos, videos and reports of what happens next week will be on here the week after, as I won't have any time to update everything until I get home.

I'm still in Montreal, but fly back to London tomorrow evening. It's been a lovely day today and the best day this week, after an usually wet Summer in this part of Canada. The photo uploading from the Soundtrack of Your Summer show is taking me ages, so I am going to wait until Monday to finish uploading everything.

Soundtrack of Your Summer show last night at Metropolis in Montreal

Oh boy, I'm exhausted today. I went to see several bands last night, on the Soundtrack of Your Summer tour, with Boys Like Girls, Good Charlotte, The Maine and Metro Station.

I hadn't seen Boys Like Girls live yet and I was looking forward to seeing Metro Station, who have been talked about a lot in the press, mainly because guitarist and co-vocalist Trace Cyrus is the half brother of Miley Cyrus, star of Disney's hit television series Hannah Montana. Having read very good reviews of their shows, I was excited to see whether they lived up to the hype and after having seen them onstage at Metropolis last night, I know that fans going to the shows on the Simple Plan Canadian tour that starts next week will be in for a treat! As Metro Station are one of the bands supporting on the tour (they actually go straight onto the Simple Plan tour next week).

I last saw Good Charlotte at Brixton Academy in London back in April. Drummer Dean Butterworth told me that the band are going into the studio within the next month to work on their next record and hope to be touring again as soon as they can. He said "sometime around April next year" that they will probably be back touring Europe.

Boston quartet Boys Like Girls have gained a huge fan following recently and their live performance has plenty of audience participation and action along with catchy tunes. I am glad that this lot will be in the UK again soon to support Fall Out Boy.

Boys may like girls, but girls don't like boys - girls like cars and money... ha!ha!

For more information on these bands, go here:

http://www.metrostationmusic.com/

www.myspace.com/boyslikegirls

http://www.goodcharlotte.com/

I have yet to upload all the live shots I got from this show, as there are A LOT of them!
Once all of them are uploaded, they will be featured in the Member Galleries under SophieRockshots here:

http://www.virtualfestivals.com/

There are also some live video captures of the bands mentioned which can be viewed on my YouTube page.

Back in Canada and it's raining, but Bullet For My Valentine were awesome last night!

I'm back in Montreal, which is where I was exactly this time last year. The only thing is, last Summer it was beautiful sunshine and this year the Quebec Summer has been a disappointment, with rather a lot of storms and non-stop afternoon rain. I really did think I could've spent all day outside after this morning, which was hot and sunny, but no chance!

Last night I went to see the No Fear Tour show at the Metropolis in downtown Montreal, featuring Bullet For My Valentine, supported by Cancer Bats and Bleeding Through. I was such a fool not to check my e mails just before I left, because I actually got a photo pass left for me and never read the e mail from the promoter on time to tell me that the pass would be left for me at the Metropolis box office. Bullet For My Valentine's tour manager kindly got me on the guest list, but this was two hours before the doors even opening and he didn't yet know I was on the list for a photo pass. Situations like this are so annoying. To think that I could've got lots more great live shots of the bands on last night and I missed the opportunity entirely. Still, at least the No Fear Tour comes to the UK soon anyway, with Lacuna Coil also added to the line-up, so I won't miss out on photographing that.

I did manage to get some live video captures of Bullet For My Valentine and some rather amusing shots of Jay James being beseiged by fans by the tour bus after the show. Shame on Matt Tuck for not bothering to come out and get a few things signed and photos with the fans who waited patiently outside afterwards! I hope things work out better for the Soundtrack of Your Summer show at the same venue this coming Thursday, when Good Charlotte, Boys Like Girls and Metro Station are playing.

Six video snippets of Bullet For My Valentine from Montreal can be viewed here:

www.youtube.com/sophiecalifornia

Lots of new jewellery and accessories made in the last month!

Oh yes, I've been very busy being arty again in the last few weeks and I'm working on new stock that will be for sale on a market stall called Rumblefish at the Reading festival in England in a couple of weeks during the August bank holiday weekend. Above are a few of the latest creations. I am also selling my designs in the first proper alternative shop in Portsmouth, Hampshire (well, it's in Southsea in fact) and that is Folio. Anyone in the Portsmouth area will have heard of Folio. as it first opened at the same location as it's still in now, back in 1987! Here is their website:

http://www.folio-gothichippy.com/

Photos of some tops I've designed in the last two weeks will be pictured on here soon, but you an view all of them on here:

www.myspace.com/toxicglamourdesigns

Visits to Madrid, Spain and Luxembourg

I got back from a weekend in Luxembourg yesterday afternoon and have caught a nasty feverish cold, probably from the air conditioning on the small plane I flew back to London on. I rarely ever get sick like this, so it's a real pain, but that's life. The trips away were worth it.

In the last week I have been to Madrid and Luxembourg for shows and to look around the cities which were first time visits for me, so there was loads to do. Madrid is a great city and of course, the weather was hot and sunny which meant I made the most of lounging outside in the sunshine by the swimming pool at the luxury Wellington Hotel, which was just ten minutes walk away from the Palacios De Deportes arena where the Under 18 Festival was last Thursday, July 10th. Several bands performed, but I was there to photograph Panic at the Disco and Simple Plan. Typical that I happened to walk past Pierre. Jeff and Seb from Simple Plan sitting outside a cafe while walking to my hotel from the metro, they had flown into Spain from Montreal and had a rare two days off at home. Later that evening, it was an evening off for the bands and I was at their hotel when Panic at the Disco and Simple Plan all met for the first time. Of course, I'd met all these guys before, but I hadn't spoken to any of Panic at the Disco since August 2007 when they were in London for the annual Kerrang! Awards. David from Simple Plan watched some of the PATD performance from the side of the stage and I was lucky enough to be able to watch from standing in the photo pit for all of the show. It was the first time PATD had ever visited Spain and you could tell that they were enjoying themselves from the brilliant show they did. Brendon's voice sounds better than ever and there was plenty of crowd interaction and talking in between songs.

Just three days before Madrid, I went to see Panic at the Disco at Southampton Guildhall, but didn't have a photo pass, I only managed to get some live captures on video from that show.
I missed the Panic at the Disco press time and meet and greet at the Under 18 Festival which was a let-down, because I was out with a friend having some food, but I did get lots of photos of Simple Plan together backstage. There are a lot of live photos of both bands, too.

The day after I got back from Madrid I flew to Luxembourg for a rare Simple Plan show in a small club venue in Luxembourg city. The venue was only 800 capacity, so everyone got a good view and it was a lot more fun and intimate than any other shows I've seen this year. The band performed a random cover version of the Guns 'n' Roses classic Don't Cry before doing their usual fun made-up song about the city they were performing in (this time it was in French) and it was just brilliant. I managed to get that performance by Pierre on video. Lots of the really dedicated Simple Plan fans I know from England, Holland, Belgium and Germany travelled to see this gig because it was in such a small venue. I'd never been to Luxembourg before, either and walked all over the main old city centre and along the bridges and the views were beautiful.

All the Simple Plan photos and videos will be featured here:

http://www.simpleplanonline.de/

http://www.simpleplan.cz/

www.myspace.com/ontheguestlistbiz

All videos from the Panic at the Disco show in Southampton, the Under 18 Festival and Simple Plan in Luxembourg can be viewed on here:

www.youtube.com/sophiecalifornia

For all the photos from the Under 18 Festival, go here to the Members Area and to SophieRockshots:

http://www.virtualfestivals.com/

I've been experiencing problems with the photo uploader on Virtual Festivals, but it should be resolved soon, as this is the site where all my big concerts and festivals photos go into.