Papping the punks: Spike Waltzer's LA photos
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, A3?, A2?) of some of post-punk's big - or fairly big - names. 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 oth...
