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Tell us a bit about
yourself...
I was born in Montreal Canada and my father always loved
photography. He always had fabulous cameras and it was kind of his
hobby and so I enjoyed it, took it up from him. After high school
I went to artschool and I kind of stuck with the photography side
of things did pretty well and then I thought well I’d come to
England and best do something with my life. So I thought I’d best
go to photography college which I did and I went to Ealing
Technical College and there all I wanted to do was rock
photography really. I met a chap who knew Ian Dickson (check out
his excellent book 'Flash Bang Whallop' crammed with loads of cool
punk piccies) who said Ian was looking for an assistant. I had
done a few rock gigs in Canada and I went to meet Ian and he gave
me the job. So from there learning the technical side in the
darkroom, being his assistant and going on gigs I got a lot from
it and met quite a few people in the music business. Met people
who worked at NME and Melody Maker and it really just went from
there. It was a passion, a focus, a path. I was very lucky and I
think luck is really important. So once I started working for some
of the mags they kept asking for me and I was a rock photographer.
A female rock photographer which was really important as there
wasn’t very many of them.
Was it a general love of Rock or a
general love of photography?
Photography really and music. Probably music first and photography
second. Technique was pretty low down because really I didn’t have
any money, my cameras were pretty rubbish so I think it went in
that order. In those days going back 30 years you had to prove
yourself. You had to take the pictures, develop them and print
them and then you had to get them to whoever wanted them pretty
quick. So once you’ve proved yourself people ask you to do more
work. I made a lot of mistakes, that’s for sure. But I had to do
people like Barry Blue, Bay City Rollers to Queen at the airport.
All sorts of things before punk. I remember I had to go to church
to take pictures of a christening for the band Pilot. I did a lot
of work for Melody Maker, Sounds, Record Mirror, and NME. I went
on TOTP quite a few times, I had front covers with the band called
Mud and 10CC. You just went where they told you to go but normally
it was quite exciting.
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Those were the days
eh????!!! |
How did you
come to get involved with punk rock then?
That
was odd. I was kind of in the business by then and a knew people.
I had a friend PR business who worked for Tony Brainsby. She was
hip to the scene and heard about some bands who were playing at
the Hope & Anchor. That was the first place I went. Somebody
played 'New Rose' to me and I couldn’t believe it. It was so fast
and crazy and then I heard the Damned were playing the Hope &
Anchor so I went with my cameras to take pictures which I did.
I met Bryan
James and we went out together for a while. Once I met him it kind
of gelled and was very, very exciting. There was a camera crew
there. It was easy days. You got to meet the bands. There was lots
of other people hanging about sort of from the dinosaurs who were
already writers and journalists and they were sniffing about.
Speaking of
sniffing how did you come to be involved with the fanzine Sniffin'
Glue?
It
was one of those things where people met people met people. It was
a small scene, so you knew the bands and I guess Mark P. I met him
at a Generation X gig and I was taking photos. I was young and he
came up to me started talking. Harry his mate was there. Another
connection. I did a lot of work for a band called Curved Air with
Stewart Copeland and his brother Miles. Miles had a record company
and Nick Jones worked for him and they were getting involved in
this up and coming punk scene and it all meshed together. Mark P
got involved. Small intimate little group. Sex Pistols weren’t
involved or the Clash, they stayed away from these little groups.
Mark P asked to use one of my pictures and we became firm friends
and used to hang out together. He never paid me for anything. I
enjoyed the fanzine and being part of it.
We went down
to the Roxy a lot. It was easy to get to. I lived in
Knightsbridge. Very unpunk. I never had to pay to get in. all the
bands hung out there and I just started shooting. Why I did it I
had no idea. It just happened. Some got published. I never thought
that 30 years later that people would still be interested.
You had to
use different levels of flash and shoot shots differently. The
Roxy was very small in a basement and was very claustrophobic to
be honest with you. There was only one way out and up the stairs.
I wasn’t shocked when I first went there as the Hope and Anchor
was similar and I had been there. As the bands got bigger they
would get bigger stages and better dressing rooms. I followed the
Damned around so saw their beginning from the hope and anchor to
the Roundhouse and beyond. Alcohol riders, dressing rooms and
famous people. Marc Bolan was there.
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Crowd
shots?
They loved it, actually loved it. When you have people called
Dee Generate or Jerry Attrick. I mean they wanted to have
their pictures taken. They were dressing up and trying to be
other people not the little school kids they were and they
enjoyed it. Noone said don’t take a picture. The fans loved
it. In retrospect punks were just innocent little kids. They
were the sweetest little kids. You probably think they were
scary, kind of frightening, but they were just young kids who
maybe put some black liner on and sugar stuff in their hair;
nothing was very scary at all. I didn't see that much drugs or
alcohol. I was innocent too and I wasn’t looking for those
things. Everything was beautiful.
Me?
I didn’t look very threatening. I was pretty straight looking
and wasn’t very punky looking. That wasn’t my thing though. I
was a photographer. When I met Bryan we got invited to a lot
of things. |
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