Eric Clapton's Helicopter

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Eric Clapton Arrives at Blackbushe 1978

Here is a photograph that shows the level to which Rock Stars are pampered. It is taken Backstage at Blackbushe Airport at the Bob Dylan Concert.

Dylan was quite happy to arrive in a coach with his Band, he enjoyed looking out if the window at the surrounding British countryside, but Eric Clapton had a different idea, he wanted to excerpt the minimum effort to get to the gig, and wanted it done in the shortest time possible.

So a Helicopter was sent to his Country House where it landed in on his lawn. Eric walked the short distance from his house to the waiting Helicopter.

After a journey of less than thirty minutes he arrived at the Gig, the Helicopter landed about 200 yards from the Backstage area, but to save him from any physical exertion and to keep him in the luxurious style he was used to a Rolls Royce was parked nearby.

Eric then walked over to the waiting Rolls, got into the back seat, and was driven to his dressing room, a journey which took less than a minute to complete.

How nice it must be to live inside a superstar bubble, to have everything at your disposal, to simply have to walk about twelve steps from Helicopter to Rolls Royce.

But, to me, as well as documenting one of Rock's more surreal moments, it shows off the impeccable style of the British Roadie, just take a look at the guy's shorts, it's living proof of why Roadies often got more girls than the Band.

Dr Feelgood in Belfast

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Dr Feelgood in Belfast 1978

The Feelgood's were pretty much the NME house band back in the mid seventies, we would review them at any opportunity and I had become friends with them via Jake Riviera. They had an animal intensity about them, but also a purity, a raw, sexual, hard and intense kind of purity. Lee in his white suit doing the splits and jerking off with the microphone, Wilko machine gunning the audience with his guitar and zig zagging around the stage like a maniac, plus with Sparko on Bass and the Big Figure on drums they had a magnificent and stoic rhythm section. 

A couple of the most memorable gigs were actually parties, Led Zeppelin made the mistake of inviting them to play the post gig party they threw after the dates at Earls Court in 1975.

Playing in quite a large room somewhere in the depth of that huge semi deco building that bands like the Zep's and Floyd somehow made intimate, the Feelgood's turned a lot of heads away from the bar, it was a short set but a lively one, I often wonder if the short set was because Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin's manager did not want people to forget the real reason people were there, to see Page and Co give an American sized show in the UK. Plant preening and Page with his Violin bow and laser was impressive up to a point, and eighteen thousand punters went home happy but it was the other four piece, the ones from Canvey Island I enjoyed the most, they played their hearts out, just like they always did.

They also played the NME party in 1976 at Dingwalls, packed to the rafters they ripped the place up with their own brand of Rock and Roll. That night Ian Dury arrived with a razor blade on his earring, Punk was just around the corner.

 They also played the benefit to Save the Hope and Anchor, an awesome venue in North London, playing in a basement with sweat dripping off the ceiling, it was so crowded you could hardly breathe, they put in one of the best live shows I had ever seen.

Thanks to Jake I often went to Feelgood's gigs when there was a spare seat in the bus or on the plane, one time we flew to France and came straight home in this little light aircraft, not even bothering to spend the night there.

Despite knowing them so well I only shot them offstage the once, and sadly this was after Wilco had left the band. It was in Belfast, and I was not really prepared for the shock of seeing the true side of Northern Ireland.

Nothing prepares you for Belfast in the 70's. You begin to realize it's going to be different at Heathrow, no carry on bags whatsoever, triple checks on your luggage which is then wrapped in a plastic bag. Then as you go to board the plane you see your luggage again, sitting on the tarmac ready for you to identify before its loaded into the hold.

At Belfast Airport you see the Army everywhere, and that's how it is for the whole trip, no matter where you go the British Army is always just around the corner.

You have a choice of places to stay, the most Bombed Hotel in Europe, or the second most Bombed Hotel in Europe. We chose the latter.

On the way to the Soundcheck I asked if we could stop and take photos at one of the many fortified .pubs that we passed along the way. It was the Crescent Bar in Sandy Row which had been bombed in 1974, notice all the windows are bricked up and the cage covering the entrance so you can't firebomb it. This shows the grim reality of Belfast, the feeling of a city under the occupation of the British Army.

The show went well, Irish audiences are always supportive but I reckon these people in Belfast were even more passionate than usual.

The Hotel was located outside the city and on the way back our van was stopped by a patrol, a bunch of squaddies emerged and ordered us out of our vehicle. We were told to stand up against a wall, our legs were kicked apart and we were quickly searched as soldier pointed his machine gun directly at us. they went thru the van and then gruffly told us to be on our way. For once we had not been singled out because we were from the world of Rock and Roll, we were simply being treated like everyone else who lived there.

It was a little scary, but it was enlightening, you now knew a little of what it was like to live in Belfast, nobody spoke in the van when we continued our journey, we just sat and reflected on the sad, harsh reality of Northern Ireland under British Rule.

Devo at the Berlin Wall

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Dev at the Brandenburg Gate 1978

I went over to Berlin to photograph Devo, we did all the normal photo shoot stuff in the afternoon before they had to go to the Soundcheck.

But it still said nothing other than, here are a bunch of weird Americans from Akron, Ohio wearing yellow paper suits and funny hats. I did have a better idea, but it would take a lot of persuasion to achieve it.

They had to leave for the airport at seven am, I suggested leaving an hour early and going to the Brandenburg Gate to do photos. Berlin was still a divided city and the Wall separated east from west. I ran it by Gerry, I ran it by Mark, once I had their votes the rest of the band agreed, and so off we went.

When we reached the Wall it was completely deserted, the band changed into their outfits on the coach while I checked out the best position for photographs. Then the band quickly posed together for a few frames, but it still didn't say that much about the situation. I asked them to march back and forth in front of the gate a few times. 

It was to be my East German homage to Abbey Road.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted some Russians on top of the gate, with what I assumed were binoculars. Just as the band crossed for the third time the Russians stood up and I saw it was not binoculars they were carrying it was machine guns. Then a bunch of German came out of the loudspeakers, it scared the life out of us, in fact the frames are not level because I was seriously spooked by the situation.

They scarpered quickly back to the bus, I joined them and in moments we were soon on our way out of the country, the adrenaline rush was pretty strong, but, I doubt if the whole thing lasted more than three minutes, machine guns have that effect on people.

Boomtown Rats at Dachau

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Boomtown Rats - Dachau Concentration Camp 1978

Pretty much every Tuesday you could board the 9am British Airways flight to Munich and find it full of Bands going to do the German TV Show Rockpalast which was broadcast live each week. I went along for the ride as there was often a spare ticket to be had. I had known Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats since their first single, they opened for Thin Lizzy at Dalymount Park and Geldof was a frequent visitor to the house I shared with Phil Lynott. By this time they were very successful and would do pretty much anything for a Photo, we went out to the Olympic Park to shoot stuff, it's where the Israeli Athletes were shot and although interesting as a background it put us in a somber mood, when we were done I figured we should go out to Dachau and visit the Concentration Camp, we had plenty of time and I thought it was something we should all see. I had no intention of taking photographs, especially as Johnny Fingers only wore pajamas and its hardly the place for a shoot, but, when I saw the giant sculpture over the gates I felt so overwhelmed by it that I asked the Rats to stand under it to give it some scale, just look at the emancipated people portrayed in it and the sheer power of the work. Makes Rock and Roll seem so inconsequential really, don't you think...

Elton John's Bedroom

Elton John's Bedroom

It's difficult to describe the gracious and generous way in which Elton John treats people, everyone will tell you the same thing, he's simply one of the friendliest people you could ever want to meet. The chance came up to shoot him for the NME and it was supposed to take place at his Record Company, but the day before the shoot he changed his mind, he suggested instead that we do it at his house.

He lives out near Windsor and a driver was sent to collect me, I had never been treated quite like this before, I sat in the car wondering what he would be like, what would I say, he was a huge superstar, why on earth would he invite me out to his house?

Turned out he thought I might prefer his home as a place to do pictures, this was unusual, most stars of his stature would never do this, they would want to keep you away from their house not invite you to go there. I arrived and was ushered into the kitchen, it was bigger than my parents home, and there were records everywhere. Piled up on the table, in boxes on the floor, I had never seen so many, in fact a lot of musicians have very few records, why bother listening to someone else when you make your own?

But Elton is a fan, a huge fan, and music meant everything to him. It turned out that he had a standing order with Tower Records in LA, they were to ship him a copy of every record released. That may sound extravagant, even a little crazy but to Elton it made sense. His record collection was simply second to none, he had purchased the collection from Bernie Andrews, a Radio One producer, he must have had 20,000 LP's. It was stored in a room that was built like a maze, corridor after corridor of LP's neatly filed and literally floor to ceiling, it seemed to go on forever. I spent a long time in there just looking at the records, I had never seen anything like it, except at a record store.

I should explain, whilst chatting over a cup of tea he had told me to take a look at his house and decide where I wanted to take pictures, nowhere was off limits and he said to just explore the place and let me know my choice of rooms, I found a Disco (the previous owner was an Arab) there was an indoor swimming pool with a giant chandelier, a living room full of Art, a massive dining room, a gym, stables, garages full of cars, a small recording studio, I really was spoilt for choice.

Then I went upstairs, this was the largest house I had ever been in, I kept exploring and I ended up in his bedroom suite, not by looking for it, I just happened upon it. It contained these huge speakers, priceless works of Art, and this old bed, something that looked like it belonged in a castle, I figured this was the place where I most wanted to shoot. I mean he did say anywhere, and the idea seemed perfect, papers like the Sun would have given anything to take pictures of him there, but that was the thing, I only ever had my pictures published once, in the NME, everyone knew that about me and that's why I was trusted, to me it made total sense, I did some of the worlds biggest stars and the only place they appeared was a music paper, it meant I was never a threat, I could get these fantastic photos and nobody had to worry about them turning up everywhere, the Fleet Street photographers respected me for it too, although they thought I was completely nuts.

I went back downstairs, told him I had seen his bedroom and asked him about the bed. He said it was from the 16th century, I said it was my favourite room, he said no problem and I went to set up my lights. Looking back it was maybe a presumptuous thing to do, but he was so kind and welcoming that I never really gave it a second thought. We did the pictures quickly, it was all over in a matter of minutes, I think I was probably very nervous, but he really did not seem to mind. He joked that I had been in his bedroom and escaped unscathed, I knew he was desperate to come out about being gay, maybe it influenced my choice of rooms, maybe thats why he let me photograph him in there.

We took pictures elsewhere but by comparison they were kind of boring, after all it's not every day you see a 400 year old bed surrounded by Modern Art.

I went back to the house a number of times to do photos for him, he seemed to enjoy having me around and often invited me to stay for dinner, there was just one catch, if you stayed you were given a woman's name, Rod Stewart was Sharon, my friend Frank Murray was Ruby, I was Bette.

Brian Eno

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Brian Eno - Virgin Records 1978

The Clash - NME Cover 1976

The NME put the Clash on the cover for the first time in April 1977. I wanted to make sure it was something special, a photo people would remember.

The Clash has their clothes made by Sebastian Conran, he had a sewing machine set up in a room next to Bernie Rhodes office at Rehearsal Rehearsals in Camden. Bernie felt the clothes were an important part of the Clash's image and they always had group shots done full length for maximum effect.

But that fact bothered me, and it made me want to do something else, to shoot their heads, close up, and put that on the cover instead. I negotiated carefully with Bernie for this, placating him with lots of full length pictures shot outside first, and then I shot this photo against a white wall in his office.

It was the first photo I had ever shot against white, it was what I had always wanted to do, ever since I saw the inside sleeve of Meddle back in 1971, it allowed you to isolate the subject against white, makes for nice and clean cover too. I had bought an inflatable soft box that attached to my flash gun, Tony Parsons held it above my head while I shot the variations.

Yes, variations, the Clash were democratic, right, so I did a version with each band member facing the camera. This kept everyone happy although I knew all along it would look best with Paul in the centre, he was the handsome one, in fact I only showed the paper that version. 

All three variations were done on fourteen frames of film, mainly because the flash took so long to recharge, also because film was expensive. The result is one of my best covers, and the first one on white.

Nick Lowe goes Thrift Shopping

Nick Lowe - Buffalo 1978

For any British band touring America in the 70's the first thing you did after checking in to the Hotel/Motel was to hit up the Thrift Shops and Pawn Stores.

Back then there were still gems to be had at both, and musicians rigorously checked them looking for guitars and other instruments, on this particular day Charles Shaar Murray found a Telecaster in great condition, in fact he lent it to Nick so that he could play Heart of the City in the encore at Elvis's show that night at the University.

Thrift Shops, also known as Sally Ann's (Salvation Army) were great places to find cool stage clothing, and also winter coats, much needed as this trip occurred during the great Blizzard of '78.

These were the days before Johnson and Johnson started being the place for Rock Star Threads, us chaps could not get enough cowboy shirts, leather jackets, cashmere coats and a whole lot more.

The Thrift shop in this photo is in Buffalo, and the temperature was 15 below, but Nick Lowe is a hardy chap and never even bothered to wear a jacket over his legendary musical note sweater.

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Nick Lowe - Buffalo 1978For any British band touring America in the 70's the first thing you did after checking in to the Hotel/Motel was to hit up the Thrift Shops and Pawn Stores.

Back then there were still gems to be had at both, and musicians rigorously checked them looking for guitars and other instruments, on this particular day Charles Shaar Murray found a Telecaster in great condition, in fact he lent it to Nick so that he could play Heart of the City in the encore at Elvis's show that night at the University.

Thrift Shops, also known as Sally Ann's (Salvation Army) were great places to find cool stage clothing, and also winter coats, much needed as this trip occurred during the great Blizzard of '78.

These were the days before Johnson and Johnson started being the place for Rock Star Threads, us chaps could not get enough cowboy shirts, leather jackets, cashmere coats and a whole lot more.

The Thrift shop in this photo is in Buffalo, and the temperature was 15 below, but Nick Lowe is a hardy chap and never even bothered to wear a jacket over his legendary musical note sweater.

Nick Lowe throwing Shapes

Nick Lowe - Toronto 1978

When Jesus of a cool was released Charles Shaar Murray and I went to the US to do two cover stories for the NME, one on Nick and the other on Elvis.

The American record company was nervous about the LP's title and chose instead to call the album Pure Pop For Now People, a catchy little phrase that worked quite well as an alternate title.

Nick had brought Mighty Martin Belmont from the Rumour with him and was due to do a couple of special gigs to promote the LP.

Rather than a full set Nick chose to join Elvis for the encores in Buffalo University and at the El Mocambo in Toronto. He also did a special radio show for CHUM FM.

The people at the El Mocambo put up a special sign for this event, Springtime for Basher it proclaimed, using a line from the Producers along with the nickname many if us knew him by. It came from his simple instructions to bands he was producing in the studio, "bash it out—we'll tart it up later".

It was too good an opportunity to miss and so I asked Nick to stand outside the club and throw a few shapes, Nick did this with ease, the expression was one Nick used to describe the art of guitar playing in front of an audience.

"It's easy being in a band, all you do is go onstage and throw a few shapes"

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Elvis at The El Mocambo

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Elvis Costello at The El Mocambo - Toronto 1978

My philosophy regarding live photography was simple, instead of wasting film, study the show on the first night, see where the best opportunities occur, then concentrate on getting the best photographs during those numbers the following night.

Given that Elvis was playing the El Mocambo, a small club in Toronto,it meant using flash, and that meant taking as few pictures as possible.

I saw that during Less than Zero and Watching the Detectives EC gave his most animated and manic performances. Not only that, he dropped to his knees in Detectives just after singing "she's painting her nails as they're dragging the lake" and my aim was true, it was to catch that particular moment.

I waited patiently and caught him right on cue, I was mighty happy with myself, but his manager was not happy with me.

Whilst accepting that Elvis did this every night Jake did not want the public to know, he wanted each audience to think it was spontaneous, so he told me quite bluntly that I could not use the photo.

I reluctantly agreed, because I could see the logic behind this decision, it was strategic in nature and I respected that. Jake respected me for agreeing and from that day on gave me total access to EC whenever I needed it.

So I waited thirty five years before making it available, to me it sums up those early years perfectly.

Elvis, Nick and Steve

Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Steve Nieve - Buffalo 1978

In April 1978 one of the biggest Blizzards in decades hit the East Coast of America, it covered the ground in over two feet of snow. I was on tour with Elvis Costello and the Attractions and we were in New York when the blizzard hit. It snowed for eighteen hours and when the snow stopped it was obvious that there was no way we were going to be able to drive the bus to the next gig.

Elvis hated flying and would normally do anything to get out of traveling by plane, but we had no choice as we had to get to Buffalo in upstate New York in order to play a show at the University that evening. The travel agents worked like crazy to get us tickets and eventually we were able to fly there via Boston.

You always see those classic photos of bands with planes and I was lucky that in those days you often had to walk from the plane to get to the gate. Knowing this was the case in Buffalo I made sure I was the very first person off the plane. When Elvis saw me lying in wait for him he laughed, not something you usually saw him do back then, but we were good friends so I saw a different side of him.

In front of EC is his keyboard player, Steve Nieve, behind him is Nick Lowe, also known as Basher, writer of hits and the producer of EC's first three LP's. I have to say that this is one of my all time favourite photos.

Elvis Costello - Hoover Factory

Elvis Costello at the Hoover Factory 1978

One of the songs on Elvis Costello's Demo Tapes for Stiff Records was called Hoover Factory. It was written about the giant Art Deco building out just outside London that EC saw every day on his way to work as a computer operator at Elisabeth Arden. It's a simple song, and quite unusual in subject matter and lyrics. In early 1978 the Sunday Times commissioned me to shoot Elvis for the colour supplement and I thought it would be an interesting place to go and shoot. Given that nobody knew the song at that time it also provided yet another of the little "in jokes" that were so often contained in his record sleeves.

We both went out to Western Avenue and did a bunch of different photos outside the Hoover Factory gates, many were full length and featured the vast building in the background, EC wore a number of outfits, from an American Brass Bandleader's jacket to a bright blue sweater with stripes.

It's the latter which is featured here, knowing him as well as I did he did not mind me using a wide angle lens and being only about 15 inches from his face. Looking back at this image he seems so young, and that impish look in his eyes makes for a great photo of the best new British singer/songwriter to have come along in decades.

Bob Dylan and Graham Parker

Bob Dylan and Graham Parker - Blackbushe 1978

I was in America with the Rolling Stones when I got a call from Promoter Harvey Goldsmith, he wanted me to fly home and be the official photographer for the Bob Dylan concert at Blackbushe Airport.

I jumped at the chance of shooting Dylan and jumped on the first plane home, I went straight from Heathrow to the gig. But when I got there I was given the news that Bob had his own photographer and I was out if a job, his Tour Manager told me to put my cameras away and be sure not to take any photos of Bob, even when he was performing.

I was mightily depressed by this news and wandered around backstage in a daze. I bumped I to Graham Parker and told him my tale of woe.

Then, a voice behind us says "Hey man, I just want to say, man, that I really love your albums, man."

We turn around and see Bob Dylan standing there, GP, suffering from shock looks Bob in the eye and says "Hi, do you know my photographer, Chalkie" I offer Bob my hand and receive the worst wet fish handshake ever.

I ask Bob if it's OK to take a photo of them and he happily obliges, shaking like a leaf I take three frames. Bob and Graham then have a long and short but meaningful conversation before Bob bids us both farewell and wanders off into the sunset.

Thin Lizzy in Australia

Thin Lizzy - Sydney Opera House 1978

I travelled the world with Thin Lizzy, I did numerous American, British and European Tours, but I also went to Japan and Australia with the band.

The concert in Sydney was going to be televised live, a stage had been built on the steps of the Sydney Opera House and it was a free concert. This meant that more than a hundred thousand people showed up to see the performance.

This gave me the chance of one of the best backgrounds to a live photograph you could ever get. I positioned myself between the amps onstage and waited for the band to go on. 

The first number was Jailbreak and the crew had built three ramps for the guitarists to use to get closer to the audience. Philip, Scott and Gary immediately used these ramps for the first chorus, Philip machine gunned the crowd in true Wilco Johnson style and the audience erupted in applause.

I rattled off about a dozen frames before the band came back onto the regular stage, I realized that my job was probably done, nothing could beat this photo for atmosphere, it really summed up the dynamic stage presence the band had.

Of course I shot more film, but this one frame, in black and white and shot in daylight is almost as good as the color image of Philip on his knees that graced the cover of Live and Dangerous.

Phil Lynott in the Diner

Philip in the Diner - Philadelphia 1978

Taking photographs of your friends means that you can often get a truly relaxed photo, they trust you and it's all in the eyes, if the eyes are true and real then the photo looks so much natural.

I went all over the world with Thin Lizzy, including numerous American Tours, this photo was taken in Philadelphia one Sunday afternoon, we had a day off and Philip and I went for looking for a place to have breakfast. 

This diner sums up that era of Americana for me, breakfast were always good in these places, a long way from a traditional English Breakfast but still delicious with bacon, eggs, home fries and toast made from any kind of bread you wanted.

With a juke box control on the counter these diners were the perfect place to hang out for a while, feed the juke box with a bunch of quarters and you could listen to all your favourite singles.

Sadly there are only a few of these diners left now, but William's Famous Bar B Q in Philadelphia is one I will always remember.