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 ..

A lot in store ..

December, and it's time for the final installment of my Twelve for '13 project. Blimey, I've finished it .. and now there are over 1, 000 of my archive photographs online for all to see. I've really enjoyed the work, and I hope it's brought a little pleasure and some great memories to anyone that's seen it. One of the photographs for December is this one - shot in front of the Virgin store in Manchester. Today, by sheer coincidence, sees the release of a sneaky preview of the Being Frank film - about Timperley 'character' Frank Sidebottom. It's a coincidence because when he was with The Freshies he sang about being "in love with the girl on the Virgin Megastore check out desk!" (Ok, this shop wasn't the megastore but I did take a PR photograph of Richard Branson opening it a couple of years later!) Another poignant thing about this shot is that you can see, in the window reflection, the wavy roof of the old Marks and Sparks store - the store that was destroyed in the IRA bombing. One snap .. such a lot in store!

Turned out nice again ..

Wow, what a weekend! It started with a feature in a magazine and ended with me being filmed for a forthcoming documentary! In between that, another Wedding booking for next year and an enquiry for one in .. 2015!

Yes, I had one of my Weddings featured in 'Real Weddings' magazine and I'm really pleased with the results. They used six images from Dee and Ian's Wedding in June - made 'special' by the fact that an amazing thunderstorm caused all sorts of problems on the day but, ultimately, didn't spoil the Wedding or the mood of the day. Oh, and I was described as having a 'jolly personality'!

So, I then met with Liz and Ben, who've booked me for their Wedding in Rochdale next April. I knew I was dealing with 'my kind of couple' when Ben suggested to Liz they had Slayer's 'South of Heaven' as the music to their first dance!

After that it was off to Static Records in Wigan, which had been turned into a 'movie studio' for the day. I was being filmed for the forthcoming documentary film 'Being Frank', about the life and times of Timperley's own Chris Sievey! I photographed his band The Freshies in  ... ah, you read all that in Sunday's blog! It was a really enjoyable experience, and the director described my piece as 'self-deprecating and humorous'!

So, as the magazine says, it all turned out nice again!

#culchethstudio
www.studiofivefour.com

Mick in the middle..

My good pal Mick Middles, erstwhile music writer and red wine drinker of this parish, got hitched to his beloved Vicky at Sale Town Hall in Manchester on Saturday, and they picked me to take their shots for them. I am so flattered! The funny thing was that, when we talked about their photography, I mentioned a shoot I'd done in Sale in 1979 with Chris Sievey and his band The Freshies, and thought it would be fun to replicate as we were so close to the location - ie: The Tesco car park! Well, as you can see, the plan worked and all the more so because, after that one frame, Mick decided it was too dodgy to carry on and get any more shots - Hey, it's not my fault people were driving up and down the ramp to do their Saturday shopping! Imagine!  Anyway, here's the amazing thing. The Wedding was a small one - 9 guests - but guess who was one of them. Tosh Ryan! The guy who owned The Freshies' record label! Small world, eh?

PS: Ok, I realise there might be one or two of you readers out there who haven't heard of Chris Sievey, so I'll tell you he was the man behind  - inside! - Frank Sidebottom, and he sadly succumbed to cancer a couple of years ago. The Freshies played Bowdon Vale Youth Club in the same series of gigs as Joy Division in 1979. You can check out the shots here...

Joy Division? They're just one of the bands Mick has written a book on. He's also written about The Fall, Arcade Fire, Stone Roses.. oh, the guy's a genius! (That ok for ya, Mick?)