Shooting a Bad Horse
Ive been waiting impatiently to blog about this shoot for a few reasons really.
One is, that its one of the best shoots Ive been on and done to date due to lots of reasons really and also that I have some epic images I wanted to share too.
Also, I asked Joanne Ostrowska from Bad Horse to write the piece for the blog since she has much more control and elegance over words than mere button pushers like myself!
She's also a friend and fab model that you may have seen on a few of my posts! You see, we arty folk stick together , bounce ideas and much creative happiness occurs!
So here it is.
None of the images shown have been used for the EP covers, thats the joy of having so much to choose from from this shoot!
Enjoy and hope to see you there on Friday!
What do you do with a Bad Horse- or rather four of them- on a shoot for the perfect EP cover? Perhaps the Coundon Wedge you might say? Where there is many a fine equine beast roaming the terrain. Or instead you could take them to the most wild west-esque location that Coventry can possibly offer…
That’s why the talented and endlessly supportive photographer Andy Baines, to whom we’re forever grateful and zealously in awe of for his amazing and captivating camera skills, and who we cannot praise enough in the hopes that he’ll capture the Horse on many occasions to follow; marched us on over to the Electric Railway Museum- which appears to be one of the city’s best kept secrets. It’s up there with the Midlands’ largest undercover cowboy sanctuary… Has anyone spotted that one yet? We’ll probably go there for our next shoot. It’s somewhere in Binley Woods.
Myself, Luke, Tom and Martin hauled ourselves, our guitars, sticks, top hats, old suitcases (including the very same once belonging to the illusive J. Freeman), peacock feathers and Lucky Strikes etc to the most archaic looking bunch of carriages I think I’ve ever seen. And best of all we could clamber into them, up them, through them- without any ‘do not touch or climb on the trains’ notices that would get in the way of all that in a normal museum. Instead we could board them at our risk, and if any of us were to end up injured or dead, none of the remaining members could sue or claim compensation. Blissful.
None of us did end up falling off a train, impaled, or dead (though I‘m sure this would have made for some great realism)… but we did get 233 shots thereabouts with a good amount of useables ready for the picking. With every member of the band favouring a different shot for the cover of the forth-coming debut EP, it was simply a case of taking into account and ignoring certain suggestions completely. You don’t get to be a Bad Horse for nothing- there is actually some hard work and much tyranny involved. There’s more to it than simply writing songs and engaging in good old fashioned tomfoolery… Though Mr Simkins does a good job at the latter above all else.*
Joshing aside we had a productive and enjoyable day. We shot (a Horse always quivers at this word) within two old carriages, and upon one pretty damn old wooden platform which quite conveniently looked like a stage-come-saloon. It was on here that we captured the money shot - the front cover of the EP. Extremely film noir in style; the shadows add suspicion, our stances invite intrigue, and our expressions show intent- especially as I’m lain across the floor with bottle in hand and three highly dubious bastards standing overhead.**
The featured image on the reverse of our EP came from the final set of pictures where we’re in a carriage built in the 1960s, which was obviously renovated in the ‘80s. In was in here that we dug out about 12 random old yellow telephones, and placed them surreally throughout the carriage. Having a big fuck-off steam engine effect over the mid-section of our track J. Freeman, it seemed that this location and everything it has to offer provides the perfect theme for the EP.
All in a day’s work. Nothing but polo mints and oats could suffice as reward after that- whereas in reality it was actually a beef burger that concluded an awesome day. Is that cannibalism?
The EP launch is on Friday the 28th of January at the Tin Angel, where you can come along for free to catch the Moonbears and Terror Bird performing along with Bad Horse, and see the results of our day at the railway museum first hand across 100 copies of our CD. We’re looking forward to seeing all your wonderful smiling faces and dancing bodies- thanks to all of you who have attended gigs and joined our facebook group etc (and of course to B72 Imaging) for your support so far. See you soon,
Joanne x
*Every suggestion was in fact taken into account, and utilised appropriately. There is no evidence of totalitarian behaviour at play.
** Not really.
