Helen Lawrence’s blog, Popstar Feets, is one of the most unique blogs on the Internet. When getting an opportunity to take a photo with pop star, most people like to shoot from the waist up. Not Helen. She prefers to angle her camera a little lower and just wants to checkout their celebrity footwear. Then she blogs about it. Helen has cleverly laced up the world of blogging, feet, the music industry, and then called it Popstar Feets.
Here’s an interview with Helen Lawrence from Popstar Feets complete with an exclusive 😉 picture of Adidas sneakers that belong to Chris Martin from Coldplay.
You have a photo blog of musicians feet. How did you get started?
I started a basic blog at Christmas and got bored of it really quickly. I was thinking of ways to make it more exciting and had the idea of taking a picture of the shoes I was wearing each morning and putting that on the site. About the same time I went to go and see Comanechi, a london band, who have a song called “My Favourite Shoes”. At the end of the gig I asked their singer for a photo of her shoes, thinking it would be a good way to kick start the new blog. But thinking it through, I realized that as I go to 3 or 4 different gigs a week I could quite easily have a blog exclusively of musicians feet.
The name of your blog, Popstar Feets, is a cute play on words.
Yeah, I hate it when people change the title of the site from Popstar Feets to Popstars Feet. Loads of people keep doing it, I don’t think they get the pun.
Idiots. I know your website is fairly new, but you already have a ton of pictures online. What is the most famous set of feet on your site right now?
Probably Chris Martin from Coldplay, I ran into him on only the second day of starting the site. I really couldn’t believe my luck. I reckon it was some kind of sign saying that Popstar Feets was a good idea.
The adidas shoe on the left belong to Chris and the very cool green boots on the right are Tim Wheeler’s from Ash.
Are you a fan of The Album Leaf? We just did an iChat interview with Jimmy LaValle? We could ask him for a show photo.
Er. Afraid I’ve never heard of him. But I’m always up for submissions, so that’d be great if someone could send me a picture. If anyone visits my site and reckons they can get a photo of someone’s shoes I’d be more than happy to put the photo up. I need of course, a full length photo too – just to make sure people aren’t cheating!
Have you considered putting both pictures online – the full length photo and the foot shot? Maybe your readers would like to see the full-length photo as well??
I was thinking of doing a mix and match the shoes to the celeb game but I like the anonymity of it all. The stars can’t be told apart from a list to z list when you can only see their shoes. It puts everyone on a level playing field. I love that aspect of it.
What’s your favorite foot shot online right now?
I think it has to be the one of the Chalets, all three of them have very colorful shoes on. I think everyone usually owns too many dark coloured shoes.
Would you consider posting a photo of a barefoot celebrity or do they have to be wearing shoes?
Eddie Argos of Art Brut took his shoes off for his photo, brave really seen as it was taken in the middle of the night on a wintry east London street. He had horrid socks too, full of holes. I don’t think I’d insist on any type of foot coverage, maybe only if they had fungus infected, wart covered monstrosities, in which case I think its probably better if they stay hidden.
One of our writers (Spider) wants to know, which male pop star had the largest shoe and did you get their address?
I haven’t noticed large shoes but one man did have a rather large amount of excitement going on in the crotch of his trousers. You can see it very clearly at the top of the photo. In some ways I guess the site could be used for groin staring as much as shoe staring.
Perhaps your next blog could be Popstar Crotches? It kind of has a nice ring to it. But getting celebrities to pose for groin shots might be a little tough. Asking them for a picture of their shoes sounds hard enough. Have you ever been refused a shot of someone’s feet?
I actually had my first refusal last week courtesy of Martin Tomlinson from the band Selfish C*nt. I waited until he was on his own, politely explained the site to him, and asked for a quick photo and he just looked at me with pure disgust, said no and walked off. He was very rude, but has a reputation of it, so I was hardly surprised.
It sounds like feet are a way of life for you. Do you have a foot fetish?
Not so much feet as shoes, though I’m not sure I’d go so far as to call it a fetish. Shoes are quite a large obsession for me, though clearly not for some of the band members I’ve taken pictures of. There are some truly shocking shoes out there, ranging from those covered in duct tape and those that have almost the entire sole hanging off the shoe. It wasn’t until I started the site that I realized how big the foot fetish world is. Looking at what some people type into search to get to my site is often hilarious. There are some odd folk out there.
Yeah an image search with the word “foot” can be dangerous. Your site is probably the only non-pornographic celebrity foot resource on the web. That’s quite an honor. Has being the creator of a foot theme blog changed your daily perspective? Do you now walk around all day looking at people’s shoes?
Definitely. I can’t relax at gigs anymore as I’m constantly on the look out for pop stars lurking in the corners of venues. I’m also quite disappointed when I run into someone whose shoes I’ve already taken and find them wearing snazzy shoes, though when I photographed them they had scraggy old Converse shoes on.
That’s probably just the nature of your subjects. How did you decide to specifically focus your photos on alternative and indie rockers? It’s an interesting twist because these types of musicians are usually less concerned with fashion than your average pop star. Was that the whole idea?
A little. You always see the fashion glossies critiquing the shoes of the red carpet a listers and so many people condemn your usual pop stars for being materialistic and over stylized. I thought the same concern with style was sure to exist in the rock world, no matter how much people deny it. It seems the indie world makes as much of a concerted effort to wear Converse sneakers as the likes of girls aloud do to wear stilettos. It’s all exactly the same. It also helps of course, that I spend 3 or 4 nights a week at rock gigs!
What’s next for Popstar Feets? Can you make a career out of this yet?
Popstar Feets is about to become a featured column for a new music magazine called Toaster. It’s a quarterly publication in the UK, launching in spring 2005. It’s very exciting. We have ID badges now too, its really all go.
For more information about Helen Lawrence and Popstar Feets, check out popstarfeets.co.uk or keep an eye out for someone in a music club with a camera pointed a little too low.
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