Forget-Me-Not ...

It occured to me yesterday that the lovely little blue flowers surrounding Ian Curtis' headstone are Forget-Me-Nots. Isn't that incredible? In a shot taken on the 35th anniversary of his death he's surrounded by Forget-Me-Nots!
How appropriate!..

There were a couple of other nice little Joy Division touches yesterday, too. I popped back to Macclesfield to put up some of my prints from Hooky's recent 'So this is Permanence' gig at Christ Church and, as soon as I got on the train, I plugged in my ipod and hit Play. First song that came on? Joy Division's 'Twenty four hours'. First line of that song? 'So this is Permanence'...! Eeeek....!

Second thing? A rather frail-looking old lady walked into the gallery as I was up the ladder hanging prints. She must be lost, I thought to myself but, no, she asked where the Ian Curtis exhibition was and Julie, the exhibitions organiser, led her into the room showing my pictures. Turns out the lady was Ian Curtis' primary school teacher and taught him when he was nine years old! How fantastic!..
Her abiding memory of him? "Very quiet and very clever"..

Now I didn't ask, but she volunteered her age. She said she was 78, so we're talking probably 48 years since she last saw Ian. She hasn't forgotten!..

Hooky & Peely and the passage of time ..

Back to Macc today to put up a selection of shots from last Monday's Peter Hook gig. They'll compliment the Bowdon Vale photographs perfectly, and it's lovely to be able to span 36 years of a guy's career in the space of a few photographs. I hope the shots will please the many fans who weren't able to get tickets to the event..

Thirty six years ago the Radio One DJ John Peel was in his prime and, to my delight, I've just found out that there are entire shows of his available to download. As I sit here now I'm listening to a show from 1980, replete with weird music, wacky music and superb music ..  all interspersed with Peely's droll observations and introductions. Takes me right back! When I worked for the Warrington Guardian I was invariably still busy in the darkroom until 11 and 12 at night, so would always listen to John's shows as I printed my photographs. I find it delicious that I can, once again, work on my photographs as I listen to John Peel. A great way to pass the time ..

What time do you call this? ..

I photographed a Wedding once involving a bride who was so meticulous about everything going to plan that she had a big list of timings printed up on the back of her kitchen door..

Along the lines of : 10.47 - Start make-up. 11.14 - Photographer arrives (I was early, of course!) 12.12 - Get into dress...  that kind of thing! Anyway, she was really late to her Wedding. The make-up artist dropped red lipstick down the front of the bride's dress and the panic that ensued ensured she was never going to get to the church on time. You can't plan that kind of thing into your timings..

Similarly, you can't factor in a VW Campervan that breaks down en route to the bride's house. That's what happened on Friday and poor old Sue was 45 minutes late for her Wedding!! It had a knock effect all afternoon, as you can imagine, and my task wasn't made any easier by the fact that, as the guests all came out of the church, it began to drizzle in a most insistent way. I managed to get a group shot of all the guests and then ... phwit! .. they were gone! Everyone bar Sue's parents scarpered off to the reception meaning most of the shots on the list Sue had provided went by the board. Check out here what I did manage to shoot ..

Anyway, just take that into account all you brides to be. Be chilled about your Big Day. What will happen will happen and it'll all add to the memories afterwards..

You must be the bride ..

Well it's raining, so it must be time to photograph another Wedding! If you don't live in England then I can't tell you how bad the weather has been this May. It's cold and wet and 'orrible! Brr...

Anyway, off to a lovely chapel under the flight path of Manchester Airport this afternoon to shoot the Wedding of a couple I haven't yet met! It's quite unusual these days for me not to have a meeting with a couple before I photograph their Big Day but, for whatever reason, it just hasn't happened this time. Never mind, I'm sure I'll be able to spot the Bride and Groom when I get there!..

Laters ..

Will the real Mick Middles please stand up ..

What's better than a night out with Mick Middles? A night out with two of the buggers..

That's what I had last night when I went to see the Joy Division play 'New Dawn Fades' at Bury Met. I went with my erstwhile mucker Mick, who's described as the 'quite brilliant writer' when he actually features in the play as a young journo interviewing Joy Division at the start of the 80s. I wonder what the audience would have felt if they knew the 'real' Mick Middles was in da house. (Don't answer that!) The actor Sean, who plays him, is pictured on the right, just to avoid confusion, ho ho ..

It's a great play though, with warmth, wit, wisdom and a well-handled ending and I'd advise any JD fan to catch it if it ever does the rounds again..

Seeing it at the Met added a certain extra poignancy to the evening, as that was the actual stage Joy Division played on on the night of the infamous 'riot' when Ian was too ill to sing. Adding that to the feelings I had on Monday, being in the actual church he used to attend, rounded off a really rather good celebration of his short and spectacular life. And now my life must turn towards 'other stuff' ..

Weddings, for example .. as I have my next one tomorrow afternoon. More memories to capture..

Capturing memories! Ah! One last thing, then. The shots I took at Hooky's gig on Monday are now online. I chiselled 150 shots together as a good illustration of the night and they've had 487 views since they went live yesterday afternoon. I've had lovely complimentary messages from as far away as Lima, Peru! Even Mick Middles likes' em .. 

Stop press .. here's Mick's interview with the band!

So that was Permanence..

Blimey! It's all over!..

The gig has gone and the only things that remain are the images. Ironic that the show was called 'So this is Permanence'! (Ok, I know they made a CD of the gig but let me have my moment!) ..

What an incredible event. Peter Hook sang every single one of Joy Division's songs in 3 hours 15 minutes to a mere 470-odd lucky people in an audience in an old church! It was really poignant to hear the songs live, especially with Hooky's voice even often sounding like Ian Curtis.
Spine-tingling .. 

For my part I shot over 1000 frames and have just finished narrowing them down to a delicious 150 images which I've now added to my Flickr site. The key for me was to try to replicate some of the shots I took of Joy Division in 1979.

I think I succeeded ..

Man! It's almost hard to go back to 'normal' life again! Even tonight there's more Joy Division 'stuff' to do as I'm going to see the play 'New Dawn Fades' at Bury Met, where the band were famously involved in a riot in 1980! ..

Tomorrow, I'll get back to normal tomorrow ..

Love tore him apart ..

The clock-tower on the skyline is the church where it will all happen today. Every single one of Joy Division's songs will be performed at Christ Church in Macclesfield to celebrate the life of Ian Curtis, the band's lead singer, who committed suicide exactly 35 years ago today..

Peter Hook, the band's former bass player, has taken up the challenge of playing something like 48 songs over the space of almost four hours as a way to mark the occasion and to raise money for charity. I wish him well! (You can listen to him talking about it on Radio 4 this morning .. go to I hr 47 mins) For my part, I will be documenting the day and trying to replicate some of the shots I took of 'Hooky' at the Bowdon Vale gig over 36 years ago! Visitors from all over the world will be converging on Ian's home town of Macclesfield today, and I'm going to cover as much as I can of the event - from what I'm sure will be large numbers visiting Ian's memorial stone in the cemetery to Kevin Cummins' talk about his iconic shots of the band and, of course, the massive gig this evening at the church. I'm then going to create a Flickr album for everyone to view the work and, if anyone wants to download images, I'm going to donate 50% of the fee to the charities..

What a poignant day .. 

What Joy! ..

Well, it's all getting very exciting around here!..

The next few days are the 'Big Ones' as far as Joy Division is concerned, with two Open Days for my exhibition before Monday night's .. Big Gig!

If you're not aware of it, May 18th will be the 35th anniversary of the death of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis, and Peter Hook - aka, as you can see, my bezzy mate Hooky - the former bassist of the band will, with his new group The Light, play every Joy Division song at a gig for charity in a Macclesfield church. I'm one of only four or five photographers being allowed to shoot the gig and it's been arranged for me to shoot a few frames from backstage to replicate a couple of shots I took when I photographed the band in 1979..

Those shots are up at Charles Roe House in Macc until June 28th and this Sunday and Monday there'll be Open Afternoons for fans who'll be flocking into the town for the event. I've already had one long and very pleasant chat with - and arranged to meet - a guy who's coming over from Denver, Colorado just for the gig!..

Oh, and don't let me forget I've got a Wedding to shoot on Saturday, too! What joy ..

Silly old Mayor ..

One of my PR jobs for next week has had the time changed because the local Mayor has decided he'd like to attend. Amusingly, once the new time was confirmed, I then received another email from the PR company involved. Attached was a leaflet explaining the protocol for .. addressing the Mayor! Now I'm all for people being helpful but I couldn't resist replying to the young lady who'd sent me the info. "You do know.." I politely posited "That I've been photographing Mayors since 1977!!.."

Actually, it would have been useful if she'd been able to send me the stuff way back when, as this shot of me in 1979 reminded me of one of my earliest newspaper memories. No more than a week or two into my press photography career I was hauled into the editor's office as there'd been a complaint made against me. The Mayor of Trafford  - the one before this dapper chap - had objected to me asking if he'd wear a Manchester United scarf. I wouldn't mind, but the shot was of him collecting for charity outside Old Trafford! You can guess how I wanted to address him, after that!..

News Update..

I'm using someone else's picture on my blog today, but it's a picture of my pictures, so that's ok! Some of my archive work 'Made in Eccles' is having another little trip out, this time to the Art and Craft House in Monton, Eccles. It's part of the 'Celebrating Eccles' Festival but, as I was at a funeral, the lady at the gallery did the hanging for me. That's why it's her photo! I wasn't being lazy or anything ...

A couple of amusing memories from Saturday's Wedding. At one point in the ceremony the bride's Grandma - a sprightly 80 odd year old - boomed out 'Is she getting married?' to the lady sitting next to her but, best of all, the vicar asked the bride if she would take the hand of Paul in marriage. Paul was the Best Man!..

I must tell you about a 'tie-in' with a rather large local business. You may or may not have heard of Bent's, but it's supposed to be the biggest Garden Centre in Europe, and they've just begun to promote my studio as part of their Customer Benefits Club. Members get 10% off a shoot and 10% off all finished products on production of their card. I just hope I can handle the rush!!...

Big smiles ..

My 'Wedding Season' is now up and running again proper, and it's great to be back at the coalface of creative, quick-thinking photography. Saturday's Wedding was a blast. You can have a look at it here. Could you get a happier looking couple than Adele and Nick? They had a ball! I was at Rookery Hall, near Nantwich in Cheshire, and thank God the weather played ball or I'd have been unable to use any of the beautiful landscape and backdrop for my photographs. Actually, after Saturday's Blog about bad weather, I think my smile was just as wide.

It certainly was after I was 'photo-bombed' by the cheeky little flower girl..

You have to laugh ..

It's freezing cold, blowing a gale and raining on and off. The ground is soaked, the skies are grey and .. I'm off to Rookery Hall to shoot a Wedding!  Never mind, the show must go on. It'll buck up later, and all those other clichés ..
Still, you have to laugh!..

PS: It's half an hour since I wrote today's blog. The sun is out, and blue sky is beginning to dominate. I'll be complaining soon that's it's too bright for my photography! Then I'll definitely have to laugh ..

The Winds of Change ..

As their Big Day approaches, a lot of 'my brides' tell me they've consulted the Long-Range Weather Forecast to find out what the weather will be doing on the afternoon of their Wedding. I smile and nod my head and make reassuring 'Hmmm' sounds as they try to convince me of sunshine or a light breeze or - heaven help us - a pea-souper .. and then I tell them that a forecast is just a guess! It's a possibility and a might-be and, even with all the technology in the world, it's always going to be just what 'they' think! When I open the church door at the end of the Wedding ceremony - I tell them - that's my weather forecast!..

After today's election results it shows you the political know-alls were only guessing, as well .. 

Fate ..

I thought this would make a suitable blog shot on the day of the General Election in the UK 'cos, after weeks and weeks of long, drawn-out, bloody boring canvassing, the big day is finally here and we - the people - can have our say at last..

The sign - pointing towards the town of Fate, Texas - is one of the shots in a show I'm part of in Eccles. I'm showing 'It's a Sign' at the Eccles Community Art Gallery for the next couple of weeks. As you know, tomorrow sees the opening of my Joy Division exhibition in Macclesfield and then - believe it or not - I'm nipping over to Eccles to put up yet another exhibition as part of the 'Celebrating Eccles' festival. If you didn't get to see my shots of the town when they were up at The People's History Museum then this is another chance to catch them! They'll be at the Art and Craft House in Monton..

Now all I need is a sign that says 'Put your feet up, Martin' - or is that tempting fate?..

Dream on ..

The sun dropped below the horizon and the warm, tropical waves lapped around his ankles as he paddled, without a care in the world, across the long, golden beach - heading for the ever-so hospitable bar and that first cold beer of the evening...

Or, I spent all day putting up my new Joy Division exhibition in a cold and rainy Macclesfield yesterday and now I'm off to shoot a PR job in not-quite-so-tropical Cheetham Hill in Manchester! More brolly than parasol, I'm afraid but, hey ho, we can all have daydreams..

 

10 years - 25 years - 35 years!

My Joy Division photographs are going on display in Macclesfield this week to mark the 35th anniversary of the death of lead singer Ian Curtis. It was only as I was checking through all the work this morning that another date dawned on me. It's exactly ten years ago to the day that the photographs went on display for the very first time in a show I'd wanted to stage to mark the 25th anniversary of his passing. Until then none of this work had been seen .. by anyone! - and I'd decided I wanted to do something on such an important anniversary. I'd hoped to stage the show in the actual Youth Club in which the band performed but, after much searching, came to the conclusion that it didn't exist any more. The nearest venue with space available - at a time nearest to the anniversary - was Hale Library, and they actually only had a five-day slot for me to exhibit. In the end that went down to four days as the library was used as a Polling Booth on the Thursday!
Bloody elections!..

The work that's going up at Charles Roe House is the original set of prints and frames from that first Hale Library exhibition. I hope you can get down to see it ..    

Stories ..

A writer who's just had a play performed on Radio 4 was in touch this week asking to see more of my work. Apparently she's hoping to get 'inspiration' for new stories from the characters in my photographs. At the same time, this photograph from my archive popped up on a Facebook 'Eccles' page, and a stream of posts began to flow following its appearance. The thing is, the comments weren't about the cheeky chappy in the shot - rather, they were about the graffiti in the background. The word ROGUE had been sprayed or chalked onto the concrete that forms part of the multi-story car-park and, for me, it works simply as a humorous 'label' for the man, who seems to be smokin' a fag in sheer defiance of everyone around him. It turns out that this word apparently appeared all over Eccles, and it was written by a glue-sniffing young lad who, it seems, sadly subsequently fell/jumped to his death during one last graffiti session! Jeepers! Who needs to make up stories?...