Talent ..

Nice to see one of my photographs getting a good airing this month. A shot from my archive - a rare colour photograph - is being used as the promotional image for a play called 'Talent' by the late, great Victoria Wood - currently being staged at the New Vic Theatre in Staffordshire. My picture features in two Box Office booklets and a postcard, and it's on a programme too but they haven't sent me that yet ..

The play's about two young women called Julie and Maureen, and I don't know what the girls in the shot are called but those names seem to fit them perfectly. They worked in a taxi office in Eccles and I took the shot on Boots Colour Transparency film in - I think - the summer of '78, just before I got my first job on a newspaper. I love the advertised fare from 'Anywhere in Salford' to 'Ringway' airport - as Manchester used to be called, for a mere £4.90. It's about £22 now ..

Back in time ..

I learnt yesterday that one of my photographs is being used as the advertising image for a play written by Victoria Wood, currently being performed at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme. How poignant ..

The shot, shown here and taken circa 1979, is one of the few colour shots in my early archive which, by sheer coincidence, I was trawling through yesterday in preparation for a talk I gave last night to a camera club near here. I'm pleased to say it went down very well and already - it's 9.30am as I write this - an email has gone out to the club members stating " .. it was a fun evening and Martin proved to be a fascinating speaker with a remarkable career story spanning people and places from the streets of Eccles and Manchester in the early '70s (historic images!) through Prime Ministers, Corrie characters and the Hacienda Club .... right through to Ayers Rock and the Twin Towers!.."

Please get in touch if you'd like to hear the talk ..

Gone ..

And so another one bites the dust. Poor old Prince, and just a day after poor old Victoria Wood. Actually, neither of them were old and that just makes it all the more sad. As soon as I heard of the death of Prince I hit my record collection and pulled out .. both .. singles that I own by him. I think it's true to say I wasn't his biggest fan but it's just the shock, isn't it? The suddenness, the surprise, the knowledge that the world of your youth has changed just another little bit ..

I'm afraid to say my only memory of Victoria Wood is a bad one. I was sent to photograph her at some charity thing or other, and she wouldn't play ball. Just wouldn't come on a picture, and who knows why? Busy day? Time of the month? Didn't like my ugly mush? Whatever the reason, she wouldn't pose for me and, as much as I enjoy her music and humour, and as funny and talented and nice as she was, I'm afraid I've never been able to forget that one negative impression of her. First impressions do count. Mess those up and the moment, like all the stars that are dropping dead around us, will be gone forever ..

Funny story brewing ...

Life threw me one last funny story to end my music photography exhibition in Eccles on Saturday. When I arrived to take down my photographs there was a young chap looking at the work, and the gallery 'boss' introduced me as the photographer. "Great pictures.." he said to me "Fantastic! Amazing! Brill..." Ok, he didn't go that mad, he just said he liked the work, and asked the cost of a 16x12. "It's not for me.." he added, rather too quickly for my liking "It's for my girlfriend, she's crazy about Morrissey!" "Well.." I said "She's not alone. Did she see him on that programme last week?" (Victoria Wood made a programme about the story of tea, and interviewed Morrissey over a cuppa in New York) "See it?.." he laughed "She's so nuts about Moz that now she knows he uses a tea-pot she's gone out and bought one!!..."

Hmmm... Tea! Photography in Eccles! How am I going to tie those two together? Aha, a nice old picture of me dear old Dad, clutching the packet of tea-bags he'd just nipped out to buy on his lunch-break - circa 1979! It proved to be one of the more popuar photographs in the recent Twelve for '13 exhibition. Dad used to drink tea like it was going out of fashion. With five sugars! Sweet!...