tomworman's diary

Okay so i've been lagging in updating my blog, sorry guys, but i have been struck with the dreaded "Freshers Flu" so been feeling pretty rough recently. Anyway, to make up for it i'm gonna write one massive blog for you all to read (and i know you do cos people have said they do). 

Purple Wednesday 

Well what can i say, Wednesday was busy, but what do you expect for the first PW back after the summer break. It took me an hour to get from home (nr fratton station) to the union, when i asked the taxi driver why, he said i would see when i got to the union. I arrived and the queue was round past Balfour, to the cash-points, and back up towards the Nuffield centre. You may ask why i didn't walk but, to be honest, i refuse to take £3500 worth of camera equipment through the heart of Sommers Town in the dark. So anyway, i arrived, jumped the queue, signed in and immediately got to work. Lux opened at 8pm with Ali and the Pure FM team keeping the house music flowing pretty much all night long. I'm not quite sure what the music policy is for the Union now-a-days, i thought it was student anthems and cheese in Lux and House mixed with RnB in CO2 but the two seem to be blending now - i'm not sure this is intentional but i'm not sure there's such a marked difference between the music policies of Lux and CO2.  Apparently capacity (which i have now learnt is in excess of 2000) was reached by 8:45pm, which by any stats is a huge achievement, Waterhole was so rammed you could hardly move there was so many sporto's in there, whereas, Lux and CO2 were remarkably quite. Although the two clubs were busy there was room to move, which i admit i was surprised at.

Apparently i missed the safety briefing so wasn't allowed on stage to get any photos what-so-ever, which is ridiculous considering i wasn't informed there was a safety briefing hence the reason the photos lack any kind of stage shots from this night. But anyway, we move on... so PW flew by as normal with the usual snakey-b being necked in copious amounts, and alot of freshers who can't quite "keep up" yet - you will learn. The jungle theme fancy dress was well adhered too, loving the sexy lions although you told me you would find me at freshers fayre (still waiting for you to find me) - i expect to see the quality of fancy dress to remain high for a while to come people. Oh and big shout out to the guy who dressed as a tree. Very amusing. 

On a side note, if you are drinking in the queue outside the union, please use the bins, the state outside was left in was atrocious - seriously disgusting, broken glass all over the place, beer cans just dropped on the floor. Have some respect!

Fun Loving Criminals

I've not got alot to say about this as i had freshers flu and really needed a night off so got a friend, James Dare, took over the role as photographer extraordinare.  Although by the sounds of it, i didn't really miss much as hardly anyone showed up to support them, shame on you - or maybe u were all feeling as crap as i was ?

Orange Fridays - 999 theme.

You can arrest me anytime, or i'm sure i can find ...

Okay, so this is my first entry for my Freshers Fortnight Photographers Diary. Hopefully a little bit of an insight into UPSU events from the UPSU photographer. Firstly, i have to say what a great bunch of freshers you lot are already - and freeking incredibly attractive too - obviously my opinion is leant towards the lovely ladies, but my female friends say there are alot of "hot" guys around too. But just remember people looks are only skin deep - its what's inside that counts - right?!

So my day started with a bit of an introduction to new staff and some smiles and friendly chit-chat with old staff. Its good to see a fresh blend of new faces who will hopefully help the Union to develop.  The new look lux is great (although didn't last the onstage game test - more later) its purple and white rather than just a white box, the lighting actually has a dude controlling it rather than presets and it feels alot darker and more "club like". At last the DJ booth isn't just a box tucked behind a massive stage - the DJ's are able to interact with the Crowd now from the booth. 

All the staff were in for 7pm although i don't think doors opened until 8pm, by 9pm (before lux opened) we headed outside to see the queue and wow, it was round to the cashpoints already, and for a "Pre-freshers" event that is awesome !!!  By 10pm two queues were formed one past the cash point and the other around Via Lattea towards Scandals Bar. Its great to see so many people supporting the union and out for a good time, and surprisingly both queues were moving fast into the union, very little hanging around outside !!!

So, a little after 9pm the doors to Lux opened and the eager beavers that are the freshers all piled in, mostly in there PJ's too which is great to see everyone getting involved, DJ's Mark and Wobbie G were banging out the tunes and everyone was in a great party mood.  So my job started with the first of many circuits and weaving in and out of the crowds taking photos, I had alot of 'odd' looks as obviously freshers probably weren't expecting a staff photographer.  Lux filled out quickly and soon it was becoming not a 10 minute circuit around Lux, CO2 and Waterhole, but a half hour trip to make sure everyone possible had the opportunity to have their photos taken ! 

After 3 hours of great tunes from the DJ's it was time for our game, well, luckily we had a group of gorgeous and up-for-it student nurses in the house who started off giving the crowd a few songs of dancing on the stage and then got involved in the great game we had planned. 2 beds, 2 sets of pyjama's - 2 problems, the beds weren't made and the Pyjamas were frozen solid (some might say too frozen!) so we set the 4 girls a task of making the beds and changing into the frozen PJ's. The 2 teams of girls went head to head in front of a crowd cheering with great enthusiasm and made there beds before wrestling to tear apart the frozen PJ's. The winners taking a bottle of bubbly each of there troubles. Awesome game and please can we have a bed on stage more often because they are actually quite comfortable.

The night went on through various music sets; RnB, Indie, Dance, and the good old cheese with a capacity crowd of 1800 people filling Lux and CO2 all having a great time. Hard working Meeja officer Alex 'needs-sleep' Harries joined us on stage and proved he's full of hot air (see photo) and promptly put himself to bed on the stage. The crowd were having such a great time dancing and meeting new people no-one really noticed. It was an exhausting night, but a great bunch of...