And it wasn’t until my dad died and I cleared out his garage that I realised how much stuff he kept. So there was always a mix of me and him writing in there. My brother put stuff into my scrapbooks as well. I’ve always kept scrapbooks from day one. I was still at school and the highlight of the week was the Friday Night Disco in Knaphill – so when I started to go up to London to the Vortex Club and the Marquee and see all these mad punks, this was like another world. “So it’s been a bit of a cottage industry for all of us. I was 13 or 14 and I was a member of the David Essex fan club – which for £5 a year was pretty crap, to be honest. I started the fanclub because there was piles and piles of post coming through the letterbox. We had to be the first ones to get up and dance. Me and Mum were the sort of rent-a-crowd in those days. My mum used to look after their clothes and make sure they were smart and washed and ironed. “My brother started playing guitar at an early age, and my dad, who was a builder and worked taxis at night, got them a few gigs and stuff,” says Weller. We asked Nicky to tell us some of the stories behind the exhibition. And it’s taking place In The City of Brighton until the end of August. Nicky Weller at the new exhibition in Brighton We can even step into a re-creation of the cover photo of The Style Council’s brilliant second LP Our Favourite Shop and so much more. We can see Paul Weller’s school books and reports, the first ever photoshoot of The Jam (with handwritten comments by the singer), original handwritten lyrics, The Jam’s 1982 Subbuteo team, Weller’s iconic Whaam guitar, torn trousers given away as a fanclub prize in 1977, and a talent contest trophy the band won as teens in Woking. Now, Nicky is curating a new exhibition, This Is The Modern World, featuring music, clothes and incredible ephemera offering a new view on The Jam and The Style Council. It became the family business – with their father John managing the band while Nicky ran the fanclub. Then her brother Paul Weller became a teenage sensation, as singer and driving force of The Jam. There’s also a 40th anniversary photography book out this year.Nicky Weller was a teenage pop fan. The exhibition, True is The Dream is open at the Barbican Music Library Monday to Saturday until 16th May 2022. It’s much more personal than that, as much about the bands as it is the photographer.Ĭhair of the City of London Corporation’s Culture, Heritage and Libraries Committee, Wendy Hyde, said “These photographs are extraordinary glimpses of an astonishing band who, almost 40 years after their break-up, still have a huge influence and loyal following.” Oh, and the cluster of Stingray and Thunderbirds in the exhibition? They’re just mementoes from when D’Souza was growing up.Īs such, it’s not your usual pop photo exhibition. The exhibition also shows off early drafts of some album covers, highlighting the design process that goes into the end product. There are some remarkable challenges to the job, from the shot he had seen an opportunity for at a previous concert, but could only be taken by lingering by the front of the stage longer than was officially permitted, to get just the right effect of spotlights and performers, to the time he had to climb up a rear balcony to get a wider stage shot. ![]() In many cases, he was invited in as an official photographer, but quite often he came in as a fan and slipped a small camera into his jacket. It cost him £21 to do the shoot, so this was never a lucratively paid role for the fan turned photographer. But more than that, as here’s the stuff that fans would not normally see, the photography passes handed out to those officially permitted to take photos, letters to and from the band, small collectables not usually seen, entry tickets, signed documents.Ī copy of his first cheque, paying £29 for photographing the band is in there, and the Midland Bank logo will be familiar to those of a certain age. Several cases are packed full of the sort of ephemera that any hardened music fan will recognise from their own box of ticket stubs collected over the years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |