Wednesday 20 August 2014

That was then.

I found a couple of old discs in the studio yesterday that I'd forgotten about for about 10 years, I used to carry a little digital camera in my pocket (before mobile phones) and take a lot of random pictures - I also used to go out a lot too, in Brighton I was out pretty much every night.

This is me, at a Buzzcocks gig, aged about 35, I was probably about 2 stone heavier then - I was obviously having a good time - I bought that badge while I was still at school in about 1978.


It was easy to go out all the time then, I was earning a lot of money, I had no pets, I owned a house in the middle of Brighton and I had a lot of friends, I was much more social - alcohol s a very good social lubricant, although I wasn't particularly happy - I tended to meet a lot of really dreadful people. Anyone still worth talking to from that time is still a friend. Oddly enough - discovered yesterday that someone I know now was at that gig and was probably standing next to me.

Here's another random shot - this is the scene when Jack Straw invited Condolezza Rice to visit Liverpool and took her to a concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic. I've never seen anything like it, apart from the massive police presence - the city pubs were full of CIA agents with terrible English accents trying to fit in. Literally all she had to do was get out of her car and walk through the door.



This is another shot of Liverpool - New Years Eve, 2005 - I had a very good little Fuji Camera that never let me down, and understood the value of point-and-click. Liverpool Cathedral has always been one of my favourite buildings, as a child I used to look at it from above the hill where I lived and pretend it was a spaceship that was going to take me away. Still waiting.




Here's another shot of the cathedral - these are the front doors p- they look like cast iron or bronze, but actually they are a type of very hard resin - they are pretty magnificent.


I found loads of photographs of gigs and events I have been to - I used to go to at least one every week - there was always something to do in Brighton and Liverpool - occasionally I'd manage gigs in both cities on consecutive days - and once I saw Arab Strap on Monday in Liverpool, Morrissey on Tuesday in London and Grandaddy in Brighton on Wednesday. I dread to think how much I must have spent - but in those days I earned much more and had a credit card. My mortgage was also about £200 per month less and I wasn't burdened by an overwhelming sense of dread and fear - I think 9/11 changed all that, I don't seem to remember enjoying my self so much after that. These were taken at about that time - I was in Liverpool and working from home in a huge studio on top of my fairly massive house overlooking the Mersey - it was so big that I could draw the floorplan of my house in Hastings on the top floor floorboards and measure out where my furniture would go. The bedroom was massive - I could ride my bike in a circle around the studio, seems absurd now - thinking about it. This is a nice shot of Alfie after £3000 worth of medical expenses and a blood transfusion after standing on a broken bottle.  He actually quite enjoyed being an invalid, it was the start of his relationship with large, comfortable chairs.




I'll spare you countless pictures of bands, crowds, drunk people, flashing lights and people playing guitars - and leave you with this rather unexpected and frankly quite grim shot of Steve Diggle from The Buzzcocks, who probably shouldn't have worn white jeans that night...




No comments:

Post a Comment