Retrosonic Podcast Episode 47 "This Is No Audition" with Special Guest, Rock Photographer Paul Slattery

Ronnie Mayor of The Tours/Da Biz - Photo by Paul Slattery

 

Welcome to Retrosonic Podcast Episode 47 where Steve is joined by Rock Photographer Paul Slattery to discuss "Retrospectively Yours", the excellent new compilation from Ronnie Mayor of The Tours, the criminally underrated, short-lived Power Pop/New Wave band who Paul first photographed and championed way back in 1979. There's a special feature on the album which highlights Ronnie's songwriting skills with The Tours and Da Biz and we pick a selection of songs from both bands. Steve talks about another great night of conversation at The Exchange in Twickenham hosted by Gary Crowley with his special guests Debsey Wykes from Dolly Mixture and Mick Talbot from The Style Council and we play a classic Dolly Mixture song. Then we have brand new releases from former bandmates in The Prisoners, Graham Day and Allan Crockford, Graham with his debut solo single and Allan with Sounds Incarcerated, the lockdown cover version project with Viv Bonsels. Then there's Autoramas, our favourite Space Age Garage Rockers from Brazil, some perfectly crafted modern day French Ye-Ye from Monsieur Paul et Les Solutions, there's the melodic Glasgow sound of Neil Sturgeon & The Infomaniacs and some blistering tuneful Punk Rock from Suzi Moon. Subscribe for free at Spotify, iTunes, Amazon music, MixCloud or direct from our SoundCloud site below:

 

Retrosonic Podcast · Episode 47 "This Is No Audition" with Rock Photographer Paul Slattery

 

Also in this episode, Paul tells us of the time he was kissed by Ronnie Spector and we have the photographic evidence to prove it as you can see below! Then he picks three of his favourite local bands from his time living in Boston including The J. Geils Band, Lyres and Duke & The Drivers. 

 

Paul in front of two of his iconic Smiths photos.

Paul also talks about a recent trip to Manchester and Stockport to see exhibitions featuring some of his iconic photos and picks a track by his favourite Mancunians, Howard Devoto and Magazine. "There's my Joy Division photos at The Stockport Museum where you can also see sound equipment used in the making of Joy Division's records. Here's some photos from the exhibition of Manchester Rock bands "There Is Light That Never Goes Out" which can be seen in the The Market, University Place, Manchester University, 176 Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9QQ. In the photo of me with my two Oasis images there's also The Stone Roses by Kevin Cummins and Electronic by Steve Double."
 

 

 

Here Paul explains the early impact of Rock 'n' Roll on his life. "It must have been 1956 or '57. I was six but my neighbour Joe was a rocker and ten years older than me. He'd just got a new Dansette and he stacked up a load of his Elvis records for me to listen to. I'll never forget "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and after listening to that I knew somehow that rock and roll would play a major part in my life although at the time I didn't know actually quite how much that would be. It took me another couple of years before I bought my first Elvis record "Hound Dog" from saving my pocket money and doing odd jobs for neighbours and I bought records regularly after that. There was no pop music on the BBC and you had to listen to Radio Luxembourg if you wanted to hear anything that wasn't your mum and dad's era. My dad helped me string up an outside radio aerial so we could get a better Luxembourg signal. By 1960 we were listening to Elvis, the Shadows, Cliff Richard, Adam Faith, Duane Eddy and my favourite of the year must have been Johnny Preston's "Running Bear" the beat was just amazing. 1961 and '62 were more of the same although Billy Fury who I thought was so cool had crept in by then. So had the Everly Brothers, Chubby Checker, Ray Charles. My fave of 61 was John Leyton's "Johnny Remember Me" recorded in a bathroom by Joe Meek and my fave of '62 was Little Eva and "The Locomotion". 1963 though everything changed."

 

Ronnie Spector photographed by Paul Slattery

"For me it wasn't just The Beatles, I was just blown away by The Crystals. They were amazing cool black American girls with fantastic harmonies and a shimmy that was out of this world. "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me" were scorchers. I was thirteen and thought these were the most amazing records I'd ever heard. I went straight down to the record shop and bought them. One early Saturday night in the autumn I was watching "Juke Box Jury" with the family on the telly, there was always a couple of good records played every week but when "Be My Baby" came on I was just blown away. I went out and bought the record the next day and played it over and over and over again. I couldn't get enough of it, I must have worn the stylus out playing that record. I noticed the same name on the record as on The Crystals records but Phil Spector wouldn't mean anything to me until I got a bit older. I saw the Ronettes later on the TV and loved them, and that record eventually became my favourite pop record of all time. A few years after I started my rock photography career I found out that Ronnie Spector was going to play a gig at the Venue in Victoria London so I just had to go and take pictures of Ronnie. Halfway through the gig I noticed Ronnie was looking right at me, she crouched down right next to me and let me take a photo of her and the next thing planted her lips firmly against mine with the tenderest of kisses. I couldn't believe it but it was recorded on film by fellow rock photographer David Corio, who got this amazing shot of me and Ronnie."

Ronnie Spector & Paul Slattery photographed by David Corio

"I was so sad when I heard about Ronnie's death recently as memories of  me first hearing "Be My Baby" and that gig at The Venue flooded back. There is a great Wiki article on "Be My Baby" here, I didn't know that The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson also loved this song, as you can read in this article he was obsessed with it. I always knew Brian Wilson and myself would be soul brothers!" Ronnie Spector images. One by me and the one of me and Ronnie kindly donated by David Corio. For more info on David Corio's  photography please check out his official web-site or Instagram.

 

Tracklisting 

(Please Click on the highlighted links for info on how you can buy the featured music)

Tracks 1-6 from "Retrospectively Yours" by Ronnie Mayor

1. Da Biz "Can't Wait Till The Summer Comes"

2. The Tours "Language School"

3. Da Biz "This Is No Audition"

4. The Tours "Foreign Girls"

5. The Tours "Imagination"

6. Da Biz "Driven To Tears"

7. Graham Day "You Lied To Me"

8. Autoramas "Sem Tempo"

9. Neil Sturgeon & The Infomaniacs "I Just Wasn't Being Myself" 

10. Sounds Incarcerated "The Real Thing"

11. J. Geils Band "First I Look At The Purse"

12. Duke & The Drivers "What You Got"

13. Lyres "How Do You Know?"

14. Dolly Mixture "How Come You're Such a Hit With The Boys, Jane?"

15. Suzi Moon "Gold Record Autograph"

16. Monsieur Paul et Les Solutions "Pourquoi, Pourquoi"

17. Magazine "The Light Pours Out of Me"

18. The Ronettes "Be My Baby"

With many thanks to Paul Slattery and David Corio for the excellent photographs, copyright as stated. Retrosonic Podcast has a valid PRS Licence. Subscribe for free at Spotify, MixCloud, Apple Podcasts, iTunes or SoundCloud. You can also follow Retro Man Blog on Facebook & Instagram