![]() But Smith found Paul Weller and his band too self-conscious in front of a camera. She was also working with the Jam and, at one point, they asked her to go full-time. The right profile … Smith on a bullet train in Japan, photographed by Strummer. “I didn’t know that bands did formal lineups like football teams,” she says. Not only did she know nothing about “the godfather of shock rock”, she had never even opened a music paper. Her first job at the NME was a photoshoot of Alice Cooper. What she liked to capture – ironically, when you think of her most famous shot – were “the quiet moments away from the stage”. She was never particularly into rock music, still isn’t. She didn’t bother with the gig.įlu or no flu, that was Smith’s trademark. ![]() So she turned up – snivelling – at the band’s dressing room, took photos for 10 minutes, then beat it. ![]() Something made her change her mind, she says – instinct perhaps. She remembers having flu and not feeling up to it. As a freelance photographer working for the NME, she’d been asked to cover the gig. But she does take me back to the beginning: the Clash playing the Royal College of Art in London. One of the reasons she’s got on so well with bands, she says, is because she doesn’t talk much. Smith doesn’t want to talk about that and discussing her work isn’t something she feels comfortable with either. When Strummer died suddenly in 2002, Smith was one of the first people to be called. In fact, Smith talks about the Clash as if they’re her brothers: for a rollercoaster seven years, that’s how it felt. Tops is drummer Topper Headon, who was given that first name by the band due to his resemblance to Mickey the Monkey in the Topper comic. “Paul, Mick, Tops and me are all big history nuts,” she says. Photograph: Pennie Smithīut she made an exception for the Clash. ‘Just a quiet day’ … guitarist Mick Jones in New York, 1979. “They’re a faff to do,” she says, “and there’s too much ego involved.” One of the most prolific rock photographers of the past half-century, Smith has shot everyone from Bowie to Blondie, the Rolling Stones to the Stone Roses, but she rarely exhibits her work. Smith isn’t a fan of interviews but she’s speaking because it is now 40 years since the Clash released London Calling, and the Museum of London is hosting an exhibition, centred on Smith’s photos. Downstairs, you can still see the deserted platform. It’s part of an old converted railway station, the now defunct Osterley and Spring Grove tube stop on the Piccadilly line. Smith is in her London office, which doubles as a secondhand bookstore. It keeps coming back to whack me on the back of the head – nicely in some instances, but aggravatingly in others.” “I’m pleased I took it, but it’s a bit of a weight around my neck. “It could be anybody when they lose their rag,” she says. Smith thinks its enduring appeal is down to the feeling of “adolescent angst” it captured. He said, ‘That one is the photo.’ So I thought, ‘OK, I’m not going to argue. “I said, ‘It’s completely out of focus, it won’t work!’ But Joe wouldn’t have it. Yet at the time, Smith had railed against it. In 2002, Q magazine named it the greatest rock’n’roll photo of all time, capturing the ultimate moment: total loss of control. Smith’s image became an iconic snapshot of the era – and of something larger. ‘It’s a bit of a weight around my neck’ … the album cover with Pennie Smith’s shot.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |