For anyone with more than a passing acquaintance with the 1978-80 post-punk music scene, would there be any point in perusing 30 or 40 photos of some of the scene's bigger bands playing live (or doing publicity shots) in Los Angeles way back when? In other words, photos from nearly half a century ago? Genuine question. Sort of. At least, having popped into the
Picture This: A Public Image exhibition of Spike Waltzer's photos at the
Camden Open Air Gallery earlier today, I reckon it's the inevitable question.
Isn't it? Anyway, first off, what's in the exhibition? Basically, it's a bunch of framed black-and-white photographs (quite large, A2?, A1?) of some of post-punk's big - or fairly big - names. Plus a few of the original contact sheets. Yep, once you've darted through the tourist-trap hell of Camden High Street, you can check out a handful of pics of PiL, the Cramps, the Specials, Sham 69, X, the Clash, the Go-Gos, Madness, the Undertones, Blondie, the Selector, Stiff Little Fingers and others. Shots of bands who - for sure - made some great music. But, as I say, do these images of John Lydon or Jimmy Pursey or Terry Hall or Lux Interior really amount to very much? Right here, in 2026? Maybe I'm overly jaded when it comes to all this (OK, I
am), but I think the law of diminishing returns in this area set in years ago. Of the various punk/post-punk-era photography exhibitions I've attended in the past 15 years, I think the only one that stands out a little is
Simon Barker's Punk's Dead show from 2012. And this was precisely because the images were unexpectedly
non-punk: luxuriant colour not B&W, an off-guard intimacy (at least to some of them) not corny punk poses. With Waltzer's photos I personally don't think you're getting anything very much that hasn't been captured in one way or another in other photos. OK, maybe that exact shot of Lux Interior gargling on the mic as he freaked out on stage at the Whiskey A Go Go on 9 May 1980 hasn't appeared elsewhere, but the image itself still feels fairly generic. The action was virtually Lux's trademark. Ditto the live shot (Whiskey A Go Go again, 9 February 1980) of Neville Staple captured leaping mid-air as Terry Hall, as earthbound as ever, stands nearby, looking like he might be trying to remember whether or not he's forgotten to feed the cat. Once again, it's virtually the standard Specials shot. Slightly more interesting, I thought, was the John Lydon image from PiL's quite surreal television appearance on
American Bandstand (17 May 1980), where the stage set's bars create some interesting sub-framing and Lydon's expression seems to sit ambiguously midway between his habitual stage sneer and a genuine smile. Anyway, I've done it again. I've gone along to a music-related photo exhibition - which after all no-one has exactly
forced me to attend - and then I've promptly written a peevish blog about it. Er, yeah, sorry about that. I must admit I think the whole genre of
photos of musicians is a bit of a struggle. After all in general it's the
music that's genuinely exciting (when it is exciting, that is), and not
images of the musicians, whether on stage, backstage or - worst of all - in some sterile photo-shoot studio. I'll grant one minor exception from this basic premise at the Picture This: A Public Image exhibition: namely a few shots of Suggs apparently doing his "nutty boy" raised-shoulders-head-shrunken-down movements at an LA instore show. These sit alongside one or two shots of him
not performing - just mingling with the punters or something - where he looks very young and almost angelic. The photos make me wonder what the Californian audience must have made of Suggs at close quarters. With his (presumably) impenetrable London accent and his weird onstage mugging, I assume he must have seemed like a being from another world. And yes, I should have taken a few Suggs photos to illustrate this point but, er, I ... didn't. To sum up: at the risk of contradicting myself (god forbid), I'd say that while Waltzer's photos mostly didn't do much for me, I guess if you stare at them askance - so to speak - there are probably one or two interesting things to be gleaned from them. According to the exhibition notes, Waltzer was an instant punk convert who left behind his unfulfilling paparazzo life after listening to the Clash's Give 'Em Enough Rope album, thereafter throwing himself into the West Hollywood and Sunset Strip live music scenes. Fine. And apparently he now lives in Brighton and promotes gigs in Brighton and London, including at a place I go to regularly and really like. So again, fine, and it doesn't seem that Waltzer can easily be dismissed as a common-or-garden punk nostalgia merchant. Nevertheless, the exhibition is presented as part of a package called (groan) 50 Years Of Punk. Never mind that punk started 52
years ago with the
Ramones at CBGBs, the punk 50-year anniversary juggernaut is already hurtling along at full speed and about to crash into a cultural event near you. Watch out.
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