God bless Kath Smith ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do any of you remember the indomitable Kath Smith, the wonder-swirl of a fund-raiser for the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital? She raised something like a million and a half quid for equipment used in the treatment of kids there. Not bad for someone who didn't even begin her charity work 'til she was in her late 60s. (She even convinced Cliff Richard to donate a pair of his trousers to raffle!) Poor old Kath died many years ago, but she lives on in a photograph I've just unearthed, in which she's roped in a couple of elephants for a PR stunt ..

God bless you, Kath Smith! 

Spring has sprung ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 My calendar tells me today is the first day of Spring, even though I've always thought of that as being March 21st. But hey ho, an extra day of the new season is always a good thing, eh?

Today's shot was taken on 6x6cm colour transparency film, from a series of landscape photographs I was working on in the 1980s. Hard to imagine now, isn't it? A mere twelve shots on a roll of film, a trip to the processing lab and a wait for the results to see if you'd 'got it right'. I was a really slow convert to digital photography, but now I can't imagine shooting any other way. Like the arrival of Spring, it really did bring in a whole new way of life .. 

Joy Division ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's now forty-six years since I took these pictures of Joy Division, and I post them again in memory of Ian Curtis. Here's a little video I made of my photographs ..

Read on ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today is 'Je lis' day in France. (I read!) And it has delighted me to see that my blog is still read a lot (3.7k visitors last week), even though I don't put up as many posts as I used to. But why do I blog? I was asked the question over a lovely dinner this weekend. "Because I like writing," I answered, and I felt for the most part that was true. However, just a few years back, my response would have been 'To promote my work' and I realise now that's still true, too. What Princess Anne has to do with it I have no idea, but I thought I'd show you one of the earliest 'Royal' pictures I ever shot - Autumn, 1978.

Anyway ..  (Here comes the commercial break) .. can I interest you in reading one of my books?

Getting fresh ..

 

 

 

 

 

It was forty-six years ago today that eighteen-year-old me spent a couple of hours walking the mean streets of Sale with The Freshies. This was the band fronted by Chris Sievey, who transformed himself into Frank Sidebottom a few years later. On February 28th, the group had played Bowdon Vale Youth Club - scene of my 'famous' Joy Division photographs - and, after the gig, I asked if I could do a shoot. Why I didn't ask Joy Division I will never know!! ..

Anyway, here are three of the lads, larking about in Tesco's car park and outside the Blue Rooms disco in Sale. Great memories, great times ..