Live-r Than Ever...Finalae

It is with great pleasure and a little trepidation that I present to you the last video from my Live-r Than Ever Trilogy!!

We've caught some acoustic rays on the rooftops of Queen of Hoxton whilst Giving Up; then ducked into it's under belly for a sultry Glory Box performance - claws and all lol! And now its time to turn it up a notch with a rocking rendition of Metal Man complete with behind the scene snippets from the day! Enjoy!!

MASSIVE thanx to all parties involved in making it happen!!
The Band: Joel Ison-Keys, Kieran Dougall-Bass, Gibbi Bettini-Guitar, Steven Raman-Drums. Camera 1: Zee from Braver Darker Productions and Jonathon Hockley on Camera 2! Sound: Jason Robinson! Make up: Prisca Hofer! My mother dear Millicent Ashley for co-designing my Metal Man costume and helping me get dressed on the day lol! Amber Lincoln for taking photos! Special thanks to Tomo Kembery and Dan Spinney @ Queen of Hoxton for making the venue possible - as well as Jack McLoughlin @ Neil Raja Studios and Pat @ Gee Productions for editing these bad boys together! :D

Please comment, share, critisize and generally opinionise...at will :P
On to the NEXT lol!

@sh.x

The Comedy Run Around:...

I've played many gigs in the last 2 years! I've played to full houses in Shoreditch and Camden, apathetic punters in Hoxton and, an energetic crowd in O2 Islington and near empty rooms in New Cross and Central London! The truth is you never quite know what to expect when you agree to stand up on stage and bare your soul!
My last gig at The Comedy in town was equally surprising lol! The night was a little dis-organised with soundcheck running uber late...and on top of that the venue drum kit didn't have a SNARE!! This means nothing to most...but all you drummers out there must be feeling it for my drummer Steve who went on the play the gig without one (after much deliberation lol!). Check out some of the pics - courtesy of GEE Productions Miroslav Jesenky!


The look on my face says it all! lol

It can never always be a GLAMOROUS gig :( . There will always be one or two events that leave you feeling deflated...leave you questioning 'Why the hell am I doing this'! It's a thankless task, and it's very rare when you're starting out that you can get a return on all your efforts. I was soooooo close to walking out on this one (in full diva style lol) but with a little word from manager Raph and the massive support of band memebers: GibbiGuitar, KieranBass, JonathanKeys and SteveDrums - as well as from those who came down to show love I finished the gig! It was definitely a release to belt my way through my set lol...worked up a nice thirst for a massive glass Rose lool!



Black peoples time my ass...look who finally showed up too lool! My cousin Lucinda.
I sure hope the next couple of appearances work out better than this one...but I'm glad to of added an extra layer to my thinkening skin lol...Sing you soooooon!
@sh.x

Styling Miss Annastasia Baker:

You might remember this chica's name from 2010's Xfactor?! Click here to see her audition. Like most REAL talent that graces Simon Cowell's stage Annastasia proved too much for the Xfactor to handle lol...she made it all the way to the round before the live shows before leaving the show! I've got nothing but admiration for this young mums determination...and it was an absolute pleasure to meet her on the off chance at Flavour Live in September 2010!
Scrolling forward a couple months...I'd kicked in the full time job to sing and style for a living...and Miss Annastasia was continuing to gig, and entertain audiences around London! One November night we found ourselves performing in the same arena we had met (details in Ashleigh Ashley Flavoured)...check out Anna's interview from the night:



We got talking...as us girlies do and I told her a bit about the styling malark I do hehe! Good thing too, because a few months later we were planning her 1st proper promo shoot! Annastasia Baker is reborn...AA styleeeee hehe!!
THE PROCESS:
Well as with any styling gig we had loads of little hiccups, but the themes for the three costume I had planned finally came together in the week before the shoot! *PheW*. Here are the three 'looks' and some of my fave pics from the research stages!
ANNA-RELLA:
This look saw Anna dressed as a chained 'goddess'! My vision was a soft white Grecian dress with a full-ish skirt...feirce, dark eye make-up and copious amounts of chains to dress her. Soft angelic white with hard cold iron/steel could only make a dynamic combination!

COLOUR:
This 'look' was to be infused with POP! Bright colours, striking make up and candy sex appeal! Just to add a bit of a twist Metal Man reared his metallic head again in the form of shoulder pads, modelled here by our gorgeous photographer Leah Jude-Porter!

NAUTICAL:
This was just a simple and natural look for Annastasia...(who did an amazing job picking the perfect/versatile hairstyle for this shoot). I must admit I had to back down on this one... Anna had been patient enough with me and my outlandish idea's of African print trousers and lengths of chain. We went simple with a nautical jacket and jean combination. And I think you'll agree that the final shots look absolutely stunning! These are a couple of cool refs:

FINAL SHOTS - Well my faves anyway:

We're so proud of the results...and I think you'll agree Anna looks FEIRCE! Well done girly...Go Team Annastasia!
Photographer: Leah Jude-Porter
Make Up: Amanda Graham
Styling: Ashleigh Ashley

Holla at me on ashanneash@gmail.com for more info...or indeed if you want a shoot of your own!

@sh.x

L'Oreal...Metal Man Take Over:

So we've seen Metal Man grace the pages of Flavour Magazine so whats came next for this intrepid explorer?
Well, meet the Kennady's...so to speak! A top rate hairdressing salon in picturesque Ingatestone! An hair-stylist friend of mine - Timmi Norman (the guy responsible for my hair in my featured photograph...which helped create the 'Ashleigh Ashley' look)- is a head stylist at Kennady's and he called in the cavalry after they were selected to showcase their talents at the prestigious L'Oreal Fellowship hairshow! Now these guys are the 'parliament' of the hair industry so Timmi called me in to style these girls in Metal Man...adding edge to their innovative hairstyles!

It was definitely an eventful evening! Having settled down to prepare for the show...our team (along with several others) were unexpectedly kicked out of the Fellowship building :o and ushered speedily to the local hotel lobby. We later found out that there were just too many people attending the show...in short...we were a fire hazard lol! Anyway...true professionals that we are lol...the preparations continued...:
Katie & Lizzy (Kennady stylists) get crimping:

Timmi doing his thing...

Once the girls were dressed and ready we were then ushered back to the Fellowship building in a bit of a hurry ready for the Kennadys slot on the runway! Tension was high as there was a lot of stiff competition from 6ft models with 3ft hair lol...but I caught this snap of the girls backstage (JUST before they went on) and I was confident they would stand the test of the fickle L'Oreal crowd!

And this is a snap of the girls doing thier thing on stage! Sticking to the BB camera for this it seems - I never did get the proper shots from the Kennady's camera man...(you know who you are lol)! I tell you the stage lit up like a Christmas tree the second the girls stepped out!


Team Kennadys after the show:

It was a fab February night guys! Metal Man meets the Kennady's meets L'Oreal...what a sexy combination! The Fellowship picked up on the hype too...a sneaky picture made it to print on page.11 of their monthly magazine! :D Click link below for a digital version!!

L'Oreal Fellowship Digi-Mag

Special thanx to Katie and Timmi for thinking of me ;D
@sh.x

Metal Man HAS Landed!

Metal Man has well and truly landed people...and it seems he's here for the long haul! I blogged about the origin of the MM concept a while back (click here to re-install), and I've spent the last couple of months intermittently developing the Metal Man artillery for one project or another! As some of you know, I am mental enough to actually wear these pieces out lol...but even I didnt' think the look would actually catch on!?! In this post (and the next) I'm proud to reveal that Mr Electro has made it from the junk corner in my living room - to print and to the catwalk :D

I happened to meet Denise Brown at Miss Flavour whilst wearing a mini-disc or two as you do! I soon found out that she was a stylist and she expressed interest in perhaps using one of my pieces in a shoot for Flavour Magazine!! A month or two later I got the call! Denise was styling Britain's Next Top Model runner up - Alisha White. Check out the results:

I couldn't make it down to the shoot because I was off working on some ad or other...but my mum had my back and escorted all the pieces (Thanx Mum lol). And I'm soo chuffed with the out-come which was published in the movie-themed Feb '11 issue of Flavour Magazine. You can see the rest of the issue, including interviews with Jessie J, P Diddy and our very own Jay Auburn HERE:

Noice!!
@sh.x

METAL MAN you feeeel like ElectrO...

We've all heard the track "Last Night a DJ Save My Life" haven't we?! Random I know but bare with me as I try and break down the Metal Man concept into bitesized chunks! Metal Man is a Hero...no wait...a Superhero who posses the same powers as our life-saving DJ (rescuing the hearts of all those who've lost their groove!). He is made up of hardware from a golden stereo...he's fired and wired with more magnatism than CAT's MBX speakers, and since his closest living relative would be Iron Man...lets just say being 'fly' runs in the family lol!
Can you see him yet?? Oh fudge it...just listen...Introducing METAL MAN:





This imaginary super hero came to life while I was researching my demo photoshoot and though I mentioned him briefly in my post Who is Ashleigh Ashley, he's been in hiding ever since! Now that the Metal Man song is finished and our imaginary Superhero has a theme tune I thought it was only fitting for him to have a suit of armour! Crazy bitch that I am...I really brought this concept to life by rigging up these bad boys:





Made from the nuts and bolts of Metal Man himself (and a few re-configured pieces of stereo hard-ware) pulling on one of these pieces transforms the wearer into a Warrior of Sound!! Not REALLY lol...that bit is still just a figment of my imagination :o But they don't look half bad on:


Me and my girl Petrina @ The Factory earlier this year.



My boy Alex aka. ALEX PRINZ rocks a Metal Man chest piece DJ-ing at MTV Sweet 16 Party!

The Metal Man artillery continues to grow with more designs in the pipeline...including masks ... Hit me up on ashanneash@gmail.com if you want yours ;D!