Ray Burmiston
Just before Crimbletime I went off to the outbacks of Reading to photograph the album sleeve for the new Gareth Malone Album, “A Great British Christmas”.
The concept for the cover came from Gareth ,so we had full reign to go as over the top with the Christmas lights as we wanted.
So, at about 7am we turned up at the location house with the prop team who unloaded a huge truck load of lights as myself and art director Paul Chessel did a lot of “can we put that there, and all those up on the roof please." We then headed off to the dizzy heights of a Reading industrial estate where we hooked tip with Mr.Malone and commenced the studio side of the shoot.
In the late afternoon we returned to the house to find the Propped Up team had turned a quiet suburban cul de sac into the magical sight that you see above. This sight was of particular amusement to the assembled locals who watched patiently as we all waited for the delicate balance between the fading daylight and the thousands of brightly coloured little lights to manifest itself for my camera.
Many thanks to Dave Meyer for the excellent snapshot of the day which he filmed for the record company, Decca.
You can see it by clicking on the attached link: