Bob Gruen & Leee Black Childers "Legendary Moments" Photo Exhibition at D'Stassi Art Gallery

Last night we went along to the D’Stassi Art Gallery in Hoxton, East London to check out the excellent new “Legendary Moments” exhibition which collates a mightily impressive collection of iconic musical images by Bob Gruen and Leee Black Childers. The exhibition is curated by Stephen Colegrave, the author of the superb “Punk!” book and Smutty Smith, the bass player with Levi & The Rockats who Childers discovered and managed. Smutty and Bob Gruen were both in attendance and were happy to chat about the various photos on display and give short presentations about the exhibition. Bob was also signing copies of the exhibition catalogue and other books of his including the autobiography “Right Place, Right Time: The Life of a Rock & Roll Photographer”. The attendees included members of Oh! Gunquit, The WitchDoktors, The Phobics, The Cannibals, Das Clamps along with Punk memorabilia collectors John Brett and Gary Loveridge and Neal X from Sigue Sigue Sputnik amongst others. The Exhibition runs until August 19^th 5:30pm-8pm at D’Stassi Art Gallery, 12/18 Hoxton Street (Access Via Drysdale Street) N1 6NG. Here’s more information from the D’Stassi web-site and then following that is a selection of my photos of the exhibition. Thank you to Michael Howes and Edward Sanders from D’Stassi for permission to photograph the evening.

Bob Gruen has flown over from New York to be part of his first major exhibition in the UK since 2014. Probably the best-known rock photographer of the 1970s who is still photographing bands today, his work spans Tina Turner to the Sex Pistols to John Lennon to Green Flag. As chief photographer for Rock Scene Magazine in the 1970s he captured behind the scenes moments of all the greatest rockstars of the time. This is a rare opportunity to meet Bob and get him to sign one of his books that will be on sale as well as his photos and ask him about the stories behind the pictures. Bob will be accompanied by Smutty Smith who knew Leee Black Childers, whose pictures are also part of the exhibition. Smutty was bass player for Levi and the Rockats which was managed by Leee. Smutty now manages the Leee Black Childers Estate for Leee’s brother Henry. He went to Texas and found the previously unseen negatives a selection of which are an important part of this exhibition. Every picture in the exhibition has its own unique story. Smutty and Bob can tell you the inside story and the secrets about the people who are depicted in these iconic shots. About a time when Rock Stars were free from social media and could be larger than life.

All Photos by Retro Man Blog - original material by Bob Gruen & Leee Black Childers.

Chris Frantz "Remain In Love: Talking Heads, Tina, Tom Tom Club" Feature on the Excellent New Autobiography Including Exclusive Paul Slattery Photos

Talking Heads at The Lyceum, London 12/07/1978 - copyright Paul Slattery

“Chris, you’re never going to make it in this business, you’re too nice”. Thus, spoke David Johansen of the New York Dolls in an early encounter with Chris Frantz, as the drummer with Talking Heads recounts in his excellent new autbiography "Remain In Love: Talking Heads, Tina, Tom Tom Club". Now, “Nice” might not be a word or indeed an image that Rock bands want to be associated with, but Talking Heads original trio of vocalist and guitarist David Byrne, bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz turned their middle-class, Art School backgrounds into their band’s very essence, and it worked a treat. Their forerunners and contemporaries centred around the dive bars and venues of New York’s Lower East Side wore clothes far more in keeping with the grimy degradation of Manhattan in the mid-70’s. Ramones wore the classic teenage hoodlum uniform of leather jackets, jeans and sneakers and Richard Hell had his ripped and safety-pinned clothes. The New York Dolls used to dress like bricklayers in drag and then Johnny Thunders had his junkie-chic thing going on but the Talking Heads went for a rather preppy look, not too dissimilar to the clothes they were wearing at their Art school, the Rhode Island School of Design. Chris wore the sports casual clothes that his mum tended to buy him for Xmas which he would in turn often lend to David. In fact, the Lacoste polo shirt that the frontman was wearing for that iconic early appearance on the Old Grey Whistle Test TV show was one such garment. Legendary Rock critic Lester Bangs didn’t like the band at first but after seeing them play a few times he eventually admitted to Chris, “now I get it, you guys are so uncool, you’re cool!” This is the fascinating dichotomy of Talking Heads – just how did this unconventional, nerdy looking band create such influentially diverse, challenging, intelligent and downright funky music? I think what shines through in the book is a lot of what made Talking Heads so special is that juxtaposition of David Byrne’s idiosyncratic and unpredictable vocal and performance style against the solid backbone of Tina’s bass and Chris’s drumming. Chris admits that he is not the most flashiest of drummers and that to him it’s all about the groove, I guess it's a case of think more Charlie Watts than Keith Moon. 

But let’s rewind to the beginning. From an early age Chris remembers being enamoured by the music he heard on the radio, in particular Elvis Presley. His parents gave him a portable record player and he worked his way through their vinyl collection which happened to include a lot of Calypso and these exotic rhythms would no doubt have a bearing on his future musical direction. School friends would then get him turned onto Soul and Motown and alongside his taste for Rock ’n’ Roll and the British Beat Invasion acts, he was began devouring music by James Brown, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding and the Four Tops. It’s these influences that would of course make their way into the music of Talking Heads, and later on become even more pronounced with The Tom Tom Club. Chris writes warmly about his almost idyllic early family life; his father was a high-ranking Army officer working at the Pentagon and then later, as a lawyer. Chris starts off learning to play the trumpet until a teacher recommends that he takes up the drums after noticing his keen sense of rhythm. He seems a happy child and teenager, making friends easily despite regularly moving around due to his Dad’s job. He ends up going to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design where he meets the love of his life, Tina Weymouth. The book is as much an open love letter to Tina as it is a story about the music, it’s unashamedly romantic but Chris is also at pains to explain just how important Tina's contributions to the music were throughout their career. They just so happened to share similar family backgrounds, Tina’s dad was an Admiral in the Navy but they both kept quiet about their father’s work due to the strong anti-military mood at the time among the student fraternity due to the conflict in Vietnam.

Copyright Paul Slattery

Chris and Tina loved their time at RISD, not just because of the visual arts but were discovering but they also enjoyed beat poetry and avant-garde composers and musicians such as Philip Glass and La Monte Young. So, you can kind of understand the germination of the Talking Heads sound – the love of Soul and good-time Dance music alongside the more challenging experimental sounds of the avant-garde. Now, here’s another impressive aspect of the book, Chris is either endowed with a quite remarkable photographic memory or he kept detailed diaries and took pictures of everything around him. It’s a truly evocative account, you can almost picture yourself right there in the scenes that Chris vividly brings to life. For example, he recalls his French teacher wearing black silk suits, purple shirts and Beatles boots. Another teacher was androgynous, tall, slim and unusually attractive, dressed in red satin shirt, jeans and cowboy boots. A fellow classmate was lanky and hilarious with a pony tail and beard, wearing a tweed jacket and smoking a briar pipe. Chris embraced all the usual aspects of student life in the 60’s and of course the drugs that went with it. He was “truly frightened of heroin and downers but had no fear of marijuana, hashish, LSD, mescaline or speed”. Err… right Chris! He mentions drugs rather casually throughout the book but he doesn’t sensationalize their use, it’s just something that’s there almost constantly in the background, obviously as a student and later as a member of a successful touring Rock ‘n’ Roll band. However, it’s not until the very last chapters of the book that he admits he was forced to undergo treatment for his addictions.

Copyright Paul Slattery

It’s at the RISD where Chris also meets David Byrne, a classmate who rarely spoke to anyone, wore second hand clothes and had a full-on Rasputin beard. Chris asks a friend about him and gets the rather prophetic reply “oh, that’s just Mad Dave”. Later on, Chris notices that David has bleached his hair blonde which contrasts starkly with his thick dark eyebrows and hairy black arms. Those hairy arms are going to make another appearance a bit later in the story! Together, they formed The Artistics and played covers of The Sonics, The Who, Al Green and The Troggs but when the band splits up, they decide to ask Tina to join on the bass and they choose the name Talking Heads. The three bandmates decide to move to Manhattan and like many artists, students and musicians they end up on the Bowery in the Lower East Side, a haven for creative types with the many half derelict buildings and industrial loft spaces being ideal to squat in or rent dirt cheap. Chris explains that “the history of the Bowery is one of crime, misadventure, debauchery and death. It was a challenging scene for some nice kids from the suburbs like us”. But the area boasted some serious artistic talent – painters, poets, musicians and actors such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Lauren Hutton, Robert Rauschenberg, Ornette Coleman, William Burroughs, Mark Rothko and Willem Dafoe all resided in the area. Chris, Tina and David ended up sharing a large open-plan loft, hanging their clothes on rails for privacy. They crammed in all their musical equipment too, and when they rehearsed the plaster fell from the walls. The loft was also home to mice and roaches and they would have to go to Tina’s brother’s apartment for a shower. One evening, a gunshot shattered their window while they were watching TV, it was certainly a far cry from the safe, warm environments of their family upbringing. 

Copyright Paul Slattery

Chris describes the Lower East Side of the time superbly and you feel like you are right there in the middle of the heatwave. It’s the Summer of Sam, the serial (Psycho) killer that was terrorising the area and all around there are gangland shootings and stabbings. Cars cruise round blaring Salsa music from their windows, passing the pimps and hookers lining the streets while kids play in the water of the open fire hydrants. I would thoroughly recommend getting Chris Stein’s excellent photobook “Point of View: Me, New York City & The Punk Scene” as it’s the perfect visual companion to Frantz’s vivid descriptions of the Bowery. As Chris admits “Debbie Harry and Tina were like roses in a rattlesnake nest”. Looking around the area for venues to play Chris chances upon CBGB’s and popped in to check its suitably, while he is there someone recommended that he should check out the Ramones. At first, he thought they were a Mexican band but was intrigued enough to go and see them and of course, he was in for a shock. Chris becomes a regular at CBGB’s and soon discovers this burgeoning scene and he brilliantly describes the various bands and musicians that he encounters such as Television, Blondie, Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye, The Dead Boys and Wayne County. He managed to get Talking Heads an audition with CBGB’s owner Hilly Kristal and Johnny Ramone happened to see the performance telling Hilly, “yeah they suck, sure they can open for us, they’ll make us look good”. This leads to regular gigs at CBGB’s and Talking Heads soon pick up an impressive list of famous fans including Andy Warhol and Lou Reed. One night, they are invited back to Lou’s apartment and he holds court, giving the starstruck young musicians the benefit of his experience. One such nugget was to give David Byrne some sage advice, “make sure when you go on stage, you’re wearing long sleeves, your arms are way too hairy!” Reed offers them a record deal which at first is flattering but when they look into the details a bit further, they are shocked to discover it would have been a complete rip-off, so they decline. Luckily, another admirer is Seymour Stein of Sire Records who had already snapped up the Ramones, and he offers them a much more satisfactory deal. 

Copyright Paul Slattery

In the meantime, it was decided that they needed to expand the line-up to a four piece to be able to put their musical ideas into practice and approached Jerry Harrison from one of their favourite bands, The Modern Lovers. Unfortunately, Jerry was reeling after the Modern Lovers singer Jonathan Richman suddenly and unexpectedly decided to pull the plug on the band (sounds familiar…) leaving Jerry rather wary. However, he agrees to join the band on the proviso that they have a record deal in place so they contact Seymour Stein and sign on the dotted line, thus securing Jerry’s excellent services on guitar and keyboards. This also facilitates a European tour with Sire label-mates and friends the Ramones in the Spring of 1977 and the chapters on their time touring together along with his descriptions of the Ramones are priceless. Chris recalls the various cities, audience reactions and band performances perfectly and he even notes how many encores they got and occasionally the set-lists too. Chris and Tina are particularly enamoured by Paris, after all, Tina’s mother was French and her brother Yann was involved in designing the Pyramid outside the Louvre and there are even descriptions of their favourite restaurants and stand-out meals too. One thing that comes across well is despite Talking Heads being so unconventional, they always seemed to win everybody over with ease. Even the cynical hard-bitten Punk Rock crowds in difficult to please England took the band to their hearts.

Chris & Tina, The Tom Tom Club, London 19/08/1988 Copyright Paul Slattery

The book goes on to cover all the Talking Heads albums and their ground-breaking concert movie “Stop Making Sense” along with Tina and Chris’s successful side-project Tom Tom Club. So, successful that David Byrne can’t even bring himself to congratulate the couple. There are also entertaining chapters on their production work with Ziggy Marley and the Happy Mondays. The section on the recording of the Mondays “Yes Please” album in Barbados is hilarious and could make for a book in its own right. The band’s talisman Bez, shatters his arm after crashing a jeep just a couple of days after arriving on the island and singer Shaun Ryder is caught selling off studio furniture to raise money for crack. It’s testament to both Chris and Tina that they did eventually manage to get the album finished at all. One strange thing is that Chris completely airbrushes out The Heads, the band formed by him, Tina and Jerry and their superb album “No Talking Just Head”, there’s no mention of it at all. This is a shame as the record is great and featured a starry cast of guest vocalists including the Concrete Blonde vocalist Johnette Napolitano, Michael Hutchence, Richard Hell, Debbie Harry, Andy Partridge from XTC and Shaun Ryder. I was lucky enough to see The Heads play live in a small venue in London in 1997, although sadly none of the special guests made an appearance, Johnette handled all the lead vocals on the night. It was a great show and just a shame that it was such a short-lived project. 

Of course, most people are fascinated by the relationship with David Byrne and his bandmates and Chris doesn’t pull any punches. There is a hint of bitterness but I guess that’s understandable given that as Tina comments, David was “incapable of returning friendship”. The frontman’s conniving with their producer Brian Eno, and the reneging on song-writing credits, let alone the lack of a meaningful dialogue between him and his bandmates makes for uncomfortable reading. Of course, David’s strange decision to stop touring with Talking Heads at the peak of their success in 1984 is covered along with the eventual disbanding of the band completely. But I am sure that for all David Byrne’s faults, including his painful lack of social awareness, these informed his unique stage presence and was a big part of elevating the Talking Heads to another level. There’s a glimmer of hope for a reunion when the Talking Heads do get together to perform at their induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 but sadly, as we are now very much aware this never materialized. Chris is honest in admitted that him, Jerry and Tina would all be up for a reunion however, the ball is firmly in David Byrne’s court and you’ll just have to buy a copy of this quite brilliant book to judge for yourself if this is ever likely to happen.

You can order "Remain In Love: Talking Heads, Tina, Tom Tom Club" via Amazon here. With many thanks to Paul Slattery for his excellent photographs. All black & white photos strictly copyright Paul Slattery and may not be reproduced without permission. Paul has published three photobooks Joy Division at Strawberry Studios, The Smiths: The Early Years and Oasis: A Year on The Road aswell as having his photos featured on many record covers and in various music papers, magazines and books over the years. He is also a regular contributor to Retro Man Blog and Retrosonic Podcast.

Ebbot Lundberg on the Union Carbide Productions Reunion & "Live at CBGB New York 1988" LP Release

Ebbot Lundberg with Union Carbide Productions at Liseberg, Gothenburg by Katarina Hansson

Union Carbide Productions, The legendary Swedish Psych Punk band who would later morph into The Soundtrack of Our Lives, have recently announced two high profile reunion shows. A couple of weeks ago they played at Liseberg in Gothenburg and this Thursday September 6th they will perform at Gröna Lund in Stockholm. In the build up to this highly anticipated second gig, I caught up with frontman Ebbot Lundberg and asked him how the reunion came about.

Ebbot Lundberg: All because of the 30th anniversary release of the "Live at CBGB New York 1988" recording on vinyl for the first time. It’s only been available as a shitty bootleg before but we found the original tapes and remixed them just for fun. However, I think the reunion is more like a kind of mental redemption for us as old friends.” 

Retro Man Blog: The reunion sees the return of most of the line-up that played the CBGB's show – yourself, Henrik Rylander, Adam Wladis and Patrik Caganis but there’s no sign of original guitarist Björn Olsson, his place is to be taken by Billy Cervin your current guitarist in The Indigo Children. Many fans would love to see Björn play again, was there no chance even if just for a guest appearance.

EL: Not by any chance. Björn stopped playing guitar a long time ago so he naturally declined. The only original guitarist is Patrik Caganis, who is in my opinion, the identity of UCP. There's nobody that sounds like him. It's like John Coltrane on guitar. He was and still is the Don Van Vliet/Syd Barrett persona of the group and without him; this reunion would have been totally meaningless.

Ebbot with bassist Adam Wladis by Katarina Hansson

RMB: Why is guitarist Ian Person not involved this time?

EL: Because he was not in the band when we did the CBGB’s show. He joined the group after the first two albums in late '89.

RMB: The original bass player Per Helm who played on the first two albums is in the current line-up but so is Adam Wladis who replaced Per and played at the CBGB's show. How is it going to work with two bassists? 

EL: That works fine. It's very powerful. Like Nitzer Ebb.

Per Helm Union Carbide Productions by Katarina Hansson

RMB: Most of us in the U.K. only really discovered UCP much later on through TSOOL and by then of course it was too late, the band were already history. Why do you think you never made a mark over here in the U.K? 

EL: We did play at The Marquee once in 1991 but that was a total disaster. Our sound engineer and tour manager were totally gone on bad acid and it was so loud that the audience left. Including the label that was checking us out. We never focused on England for some reason. I just remember in the late 80's there were a few English bands, like Thee Hypnotics and maybe Zodiac Mindwarp that were trying to do the same thing as us.

RMB: But you did make quite an impact in America. Kurt Cobain was a fan and Sub Pop were once interested in working with the band weren't they?

EL: Our Record label in Sweden (Radium) turned Sup Pop down for some reason in 1989. Instead, the first two albums were released on Skyclad and the rest is alternative history.

Ebbot Lundberg with Union Carbide Productions at Liseberg, Gothenburg by Katarina Hansson

RMB: The CBGB's gig has since gone down in folklore, not just for some outrageous onstage behaviour but also for the Punk luminaries who were there to witness it including Sonic Youth, Foetus and Lydia Lunch. What do you remember about the show? 

EL: Not very much. Except that I wore yellow underwear and a Harpo Marx wig during the concert. We came on very late because we'd just arrived from a gig in Boston we had with Bullet Lavolta the day before and I do remember that Jello Biafra was backstage in a trench coat looking very horny. Maybe some of us hung out with Jim Thirlwell and Lydia a little bit. However, I had lost interest in the so-called underground scene. I was just fascinated by the energy and sounds of New York and the Wall Street area at the time. It was like feeling the core of cancer slowly beating poison into the veins of the Earth. 

RMB: You did return to the States in 1992 as Steve Albini from Big Black produced the final UCP album "Swing". I know you weren’t happy with the finished product; after all, you wrote "This Is Shit" on my copy…why didn't you like the album and what was it like working with Albini?  

EL: You mean the rocket scientist wannabe who fucked up the Stooges? I think Steve was all right as an artist and human being but I was not a fan of Big Black or anything he'd done. However, I truly admire someone who has his own profile when it comes to sound. I was not especially thrilled because I've always been the main producer when making albums, which is basically the whole UCP and TSOOL catalogue up until now (though I seldom take the full credit for it). So I was against working with him to be honest. At that period, I was so fed up with the group that I just thought, “Well, let's go to Chicago and see what happens" but it did not solve any problems. Another stupid reason we went to Chicago was that our label was pushing us because they knew that Nirvana were going to record after us, which was ridiculous. The only fun with Steve Albini was sneaking into the studio library listening to the original tapes of Cheap Trick’s "Live at Budokan" at the Chicago Recording Company. We also played some live shows together with Jesus Lizard and Laibach at the Metro. After the whole trip, we just went back to Sweden and remixed the whole thing. The reason I thought "Swing" was shit was that it only came out as a CD at the time with too many songs and an indescribably ugly cover that was made behind our backs. However, I honestly think the newly released vinyl version is probably the best of all the UCP albums. It also has the original cover art which means a lot when you're making a record. So please go get it!”

Ebbot Lundberg by Katarina Hansson

RMB: Union Carbide Productions developed a more Psychedelic sound on their later albums and on songs such as "Golden Age", you can sense the link between UCP and what was to come next. Did this slight change of direction contribute to the break-up of the band and the formation of TSOOL? 

EL: When Grunge arrived in the late 80's we kind of lost interest in our old sound and started to move towards more lysergic Rock 'n' Roll material which obviously later on led to the forming of TSOOL. The reason we decided to split was more on a personal level, we just fell apart like most bands do with that kind of energy. Although we were together for seven years, which is a pretty long time for such a band I think.

RMB: I know UCP often challenged conventions and up to this day, you have never played the corporate music industry game. I'm guessing this must have been detrimental to you commercially over the years, any regrets?

EL: I have no regrets whatsoever. In my opinion, life is to consciously apply mystery to everything and when you are born, you have a number so you're already part of the corporation in the bigger picture. However, to spread your music around the world you have to have some sort of organisation behind you. It's inevitable or at least it was before the TV-spiders came and created the internet. But to calculate a strategy to reach some gigantic level of fame or to be a bandwagon jumper is not my cup of tea. Music to me is about being spiritual and honest and to have fun. That's why I still get around with a pat on the head I think.

Union Carbide Productions new LP "Live at CBGB New York 1988"

RMB: Has there been any creative spark working together again as UCP that might lead to writing and recording some new material?

EL: We're thinking about it but we just may not go to Chicago to record!

Ebbot Lundberg will return to London with his new band The Indigo Children for a show at The Half Moon Putney on Saturday October 13th. The "Live at CBGB’s New York 1988" album is available now from Bengans Records. You can hear a superb EXCLUSIVE unreleased track from the forthcoming Ebbot Lundberg & The Indigo Children album in Episode 32 of Retrosonic Podcast, which will be released later this week, along with music from Union Carbide Productions and Ian Person's new band Pablo Matisse. Keep an eye on the Blog or Soundcloud page for the release date or even better, subscribe for free at iTunes so you don't miss an episode. For the full uncensored story of Union Carbide Productions by Mike Stax I thoroughly recommended tracking down issue 16 of the superb Ugly Things magazine. All photos copyright Katarina Hansson. Thanks Katarina, please check out more of her excellent photography here.

Tickets are available for Ebbot & The Indigo Children's London show on Saturday October 13th at The Half Moon Putney, expect a mixture of classic Union Carbide and Soundtrack of Our Lives songs along with plenty of new material. Special Guests on the night are The Galileo 7 who feature members of The Prisoners, The Baron Four and The Embrooks. You can book your tickets and get more information from the Half Moon by clicking here.