Exhibition: Punk Bridport Allsop Gallery upstairs in Bridport Art Centre July 4th – August 22nd
This summer, Clocktower Records is again happy to support Bridport Arts Centre (BAC) as they display another seminal photography exhibition by the legendary West Dorset resident Adrian Boot the celebrated music photographer.
Adrian Boot was the man with the camera when it mattered as music history. Photographer for NME, Melody Maker, newspapers magazines and Record Labels from the mid-1970s, he documented the birth of punk in the UK and the US, went on to shoot Live Aid, Roger Waters’ The Wall in Berlin, and the Grateful Dead at the Egyptian pyramids. He co-authored Punk: History of a Music Revolution and is co-founder of the Urban Image photo agency.
Remarkably, Adrian, a friend of Clocktower Records, displayed his prints in Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York and last year a sellout exhibition at the Bridport Arts Centre the history of Reggae including iconic Bob Marley images. Now he is returning to highlight a selection of over forty unique photos taken when Punk was at its height.
Background To Punk
Roy’s thoughts – So, what was punk, exactly? Music in the mid-1970s had become expensive, over-produced and remote and boring to younger audiences apart from the Hard Rock and Metal fans. Rock n Roll had lost its grassroots and energy and its relationship alongside political turmoil.
Stadium rock ruled and most young people had no way in. Punk was a deliberate, furious response. It said three chords are enough: you do not need to be technically brilliant; you just need something to say.
The mid to late 1970s became a period of political and economic upheaval and the rise of the far right in sectors of society, meant there was much to say and defend against.
The new generation kicked back through music, slogans, protest, fashion, and a unique culture.
Punk emerged simultaneously in New York and London around 1975–77 fuelled by young people who were unemployed, alienated and with no obvious future exploding into one of the most influential cultural movements of the 20th century. Thousands of bands emerged, in the UK and America primarily but soon appeared in elsewhere in the world.
The energy was raw, the fashion was confrontational (ripped clothes, safety pins, dyed hair) and the music was fast, short, and loud. But beneath the noise was something genuine: a demand to by musicians to be both seen and heard. That spirit of Punk, DIY, independent, anti-establishment went on to shape everything from indie music to street art, to the way records were recorded, produced, and sold. Every independent record shop in the country owes something to punk’s insistence that you do not need a major label to matter.
Punk and vinyl go hand in hand. The 7-inch single was punk’s natural format cheap to press, cheap to buy, fast to release. Bands like The Clash, The Damned and the Sex Pistols released records using different approaches to how they became known, new labels appeared and the selling of records was as much in your face as the Bands attitudes and songs. Stiff Records knocked out a slogan or two and approached life with a tongue in cheek “If it ain’t Stiff it ain’t worth a f**k” haha.