All hail, Bowdon Vale

Two packages have arrived in the post this week - a DVD in one and a magazine in the other - and I'm pleased to say they both feature some of my music photographs from Bowdon Vale Youth Club in Manchester. It was there in 1979 - aged just 18 - that I photographed Joy Division and The Freshies - two 'up and coming' local bands. The rise and sustained popularity of Joy Division is known to all - the 'oh-so-near' failure of The Freshies not so well documented ..

'Louder Than War' magazine features one of my shots on its cover and two other images of Joy Division in a celebration of the 40th anniversary of one of their albums, and I have several of my pictures of The Freshies used in a brilliant new documentary film about their lead singer. 'Being Frank' is a fascinating look at the life of Chris Sievey, the man inside the head of the comedy character 'Frank Sidebottom'. He turned to 'being Frank' after getting nowhere with The Freshies but it was whilst he was still trying to make it with the band that I set up a morning's photography with them on the sunny streets of Manchester. One of the stills is featured here - the lads running down the spiral car-park entrance to Tesco's in Sale. Gosh, what memories ..

The magazine article is really good and the DVD is incredible. I highly recommend them. Sad to think that Ian Curtis and Chris Sievey are now both dead but lovely to think my work is playing a part in keeping their memories alive. Thank God I went to that little club all those years back.
All hail, Bowdon Vale ..
  

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!..

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 .. 

Oh, Joy ..

I'm throwing in a fun photo from the weekend! Talk about taking the p*ss!..

No, actually, I wanted to tell you about something new that I'm trying. Joy Division place-mats and coasters! The finest tableware in the land! Your choice of images within the frames and just £40 for four place mats and £25 for four coasters. Buy six and get two extra mats for just £7.50 each and two coasters for £5 each. Order now:-

Limited edition of 1,657, 844!!....  

BUY!

Hello, blossom ..

It's a funny old day today, mainly because a portrait session I was supposed to be shooting at the studio has been put on hold because the lady forgot she'd made the booking! There's a first! I phoned yesterday to confirm, but it had completely slipped her mind! At least she's going to re-schedule it for next week!..

Time for Plan B, and what I am going to do today is use the time to go through my extensive collection of slides and get some more of those babies digitized! I have boxes and boxes of the little blighters - mainly 35mm but quite a few on medium format - and it'll be great to get them into the archive and used in future projects. Here's a shot of cherry blossom from the Spring of .. well, who knows when?..

I can't mention the 'archive' word without talking about Joy Division, and I'm delighted to say that one of my images of Ian Curtis has been chosen to be part of an exhibition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the PRS -  The Performing Rights Society : The people who make sure musicians get paid for the use of their work (God, we need a body like that for photographers, don't we!..) Apparently my shot is going to be printed onto aluminium and displayed alongside a number of other images at a show I'll be going to in London next month.

Looks like 2014 is blossoming already..

Double whammy ..

I've just come back from a meeting about a possible exhibition of my Freshies photographs, and I've come away scoring a rather tasty double-whammy! I want an exhibition of my photographs of Chris Sievey and his band to tie in with the opening of the 'Being Frank' film, but that looks like it's at least a year off yet so, to tide me over, the gallery I've been to has offered me space to show a selection of my other music photography - the director there was enthusing over my shots of Toyah! - so I've come home all excited about which shots to pick! Toyah? Siouxsie Sue? Henry Rollins? Ah, sod it .. one of everything! Why not?...

My shots today show The Freshies on the same stage at Bowdon Vale Youth Club, two weeks prior to the Joy Division gig. Makes me wonder now why I asked Chris and his cohorts to come out for a shoot rather than Ian Curtis and his gang! Damn!...

#culchethstudio
www.studiofivefour.com

Download as wallpaper ..

If you're a Joy Division fan you'll have almost certainly seen the Anton Corbijn film 'Control'. It's about the life and times of the band and their lead singer, the late Ian Curtis. Anyway it was, once again, the DVD of choice for Lesley and I over the Bank Holiday although, as usual, she had to plead with me not to cry at the end. I know, I know ..

Much to Lesley's annoyance, though, I still get a kick out of pausing the film when they show the band supposedly playing The Hope and Anchor in London. The top shot is a photograph I took of the screen. Look familiar? Yes, it looks uncannily like my shots from Bowdon Vale, and I'm so flattered! When I went to the film's northern opening at Cornerhouse I met Orian Williams, one of the producers of the film, and he told me that yes, the scene was based on my photographs. Seems the late, great Tony Wilson took him to see my exhibition when it was on at The Rampant Lion pub in South Manchester, and he got his inspiration from my shots! Let's hear it for dodgy wallpaper! ..

(PS: If you'd like to see some of the self-same prints from that Rampant Lion show, they're on at the Deli-Lama cafe in Salford for the next two months!)

#culchethstudio
www.studiofivefour.com

The Generation Game ..

My Dad, and my Dad's Dad, for no other reason than I found these negs whilst going through yet more boxes of film the other day! The shots really strengthen my memories of both men. My Grandad always seemed to be sitting in that chair, puffing his pipe and picking horses that he never bothered to bet on, and the apple-core key-ring that my Dad's wearing as an earring sums up how he was always good for a laugh - always hamming it up for yours truly and his new-fangled Zenith E!

Off to Salford today to put my latest Joy Division exhibition together, and it's funny to think that Ian Curtis has been dead even longer than my Grandad! I was listening to Jeff Buckley last night - another artist taken - or purposely gone, depending on your views - before his time. Younger people often say to me they wish they'd seen Joy Division but, of course, they weren't born when the guys were doing their thing. Jeff Buckley is my 'wish I'd seen'  .. though that's entirely my fault. I just wasn't into him when he played Manchester. God, I'm into him now!

I think I've lost the thread with this blog! I'll stop now ..

He's Back.....

When routine bites hard...go on holiday. Just remember to come back in time for your exhibition opening! Yes, folks...I have returned..fresh, enthusiastic and ready for the opening of my Joy Division exhibition at Bury Met. Nice and hot where I was...but don't worry, I didn't wear any of these Limited Edition T-Shirts to stay/look cool! I only have 15, and they're all available to purchase for a lovely Limited Edition price on Saturday..Prints, too..oh, and a booklet of all the images.

All very timely as I was told today that Bowdon Vale Youth Club has re-opened. Different building..same name. Must check it out and report back!

Catch you later...gotta get my smalls in the wash!!