Back in
the late fifties and into the sixties Manchester was a happening centre of
popular music, rivalling Liverpool and London. Local lad Brian Smith saw it
happen. In the mid-1950s Brian was introduced to skiffle, early rock and roll
and the blues boom. A keen amateur photographer, Brian soon became known to
door staff as 'the fan with the camera' and along with his friends went
backstage to meet musicians, chat, and take photographs. Brian took a keen
interest in the emerging blues scene after seeing Muddy Waters in 1958 and over
the next decade Brian saw and photographed most of the big American blues
musicians who played in Manchester.
There is
an acknowledged irony that black blues artists began to enjoy a cult following
in Britain and Europe while they were still largely unknown or acknowledged
back home. Brian began frequenting venues such as the famous Twisted Wheel Club
and after the start of Roger Eagle's legendary r'n'b all-nighters there in 1963
(which later led to the birth of Northern Soul), the ground-breaking music
magazine R & B Scene was launched. Brian became their main photographic
contributor until the magazine folded. Brian produced images with a real
presence and quality, and managed to capture a unique and relatively short
lived scene in fascinating detail. Not only on-stage, but back in the dressing
rooms, he photographed these giants of the blues relaxing with a beer and a
pack of cards, or posing for souvenir pictures with British fans, male and
female.
A
remarkable cultural melting pot considering that many of the musicians
themselves could not even travel next to whites in some States back home at that
time. Most of Brian's photographs were forgotten until recently when they began
to be sought out by CD compilers. Yet until now nobody has published a full
collection of his work. Easy On The Eye have had unique access to Brian's
extensive archives, working directly from surviving negatives and prints which
have been newly scanned for the book. The photographs are annotated and fully
captioned.
ARTISTS
INCLUDE: Johnny Guitar Watson, Big Joe Turner, Chuck Berry, Screaming Jay
Hawkins, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, Hubert Sumlin, Howlin Wolf,
Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, The Rolling Stones, Carl Perkins and many more.
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