Metro Space Gallery Featuring Legendary Rock Photographer James Fortune Sept 3rd, 2010

Richmond, VA September 3rd, 2010 | Metro Space Gallery will be kicking off this fall’s First Friday Art Walk with the incredible photography of James Fortune. The event will begin at 6PM and will showcase Fortune’s journey during the 1970s side-by-side some of the world’s most influential musicians of all time.

Fortune began his career in the late ‘60s, his first assignment as a photographer was to photograph a certain up-and-coming new band from LA called “The Doors”. From that point forth he became a regular fixture at some of the nation’s biggest music events and hanging backstage with icons like Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Jim Morrison, Elton John and countless others. Fortune’s photography was of such high caliber that he was recruited as Led Zeppelin’s main photographer and was granted an all-access pass which resulted in capturing insightful, candid photos, some of which will be available for sale autographed at the Metro Space Gallery.

James Fortune’s work will certainly go down in history as some of the most poignant shots in rock-n-roll. Fortune looks forward to meeting new and old fans of his work tomorrow night at Metro Space Gallery, located at 119 W Broad St Richmond, Virginia 23220.

Jim Morrison and The Doors – When The Music’s Over

In 1967 I was in my second year at college in Woodland Hills, California. About twenty miles north of Hollywood – the entertainment capital of the world. I was the photo editor of the college newspaper “The Roundup”.

One day in the darkroom while I was developing a roll of film I thought I came up with a great idea. I called a few record companies and asked if I could, with a journalist student friend, interview and photograph a few of their rock and roll bands. Plus, I wanted some free records.

To my surprise Elektra Records was one of the first record companies to return my call. They asked if I would like to go into the recording studio to photograph this new group… The Doors. The group was in the middle of recording their second album “Strange Days”. At this time in April of 1967 was when I first heard of a group called The Doors. A DJ named Dave Diamond was the only DJ in Los Angeles playing a seven minute song called “Light My Fire”.

Early one afternoon in May I arrived at Sunset Sound Recording Studios. I remember being a bit nervous. When we pulled into the parking lot of Sunset Sound Recording Studio we found Jim Morrison leaning on the gray brick wall and staring right at us. For the most part I just wanted to stay in the background, taking a few wide angle photos of the band working and tuning their instruments.

The Doors had solidly established themselves as the hottest group in Los Angeles. As we said hello to Morrison we went inside the recording studio and introduced ourselves to Paul Rothchild, The Doors producer. Things were getting exciting.

As we sat down in the control room, the instrumental for “I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind” was being played back. The music spilled into the room from several large stereo speakers mounted over the picture window that divided the recording studio. When Paul Rothchild had Jim record his voice over the rich textured music, Morrison liked the lights turned low as he sang the song. Ray Manzarek had said in an interview that The Doors message was simple: “Just groove. To groove to the music.” That was The Doors mantra and it was true.

After a few hours Paul Rothchild called for a break and we went outside on Sunset Boulevard and I was able to get a few photos of the band on Sunset Boulevard.

I went on to photograph the band two more times. The last concert I photographed The Doors was May 1968 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

James Fortune Featured In The Washington Post

James Fortune Photography was featured in The Washington Post! Featuring the photos of Robert Plant holding a dove in his hand and Iggy Pop after a gig at the Whisky a Go-Go.

Stuck in the same time warp but at the other end of the spectrum is “Rock & Roll Icons of the ’60s and ’70s: James Fortune Photographs,” an All Rogers Gallery exhibition of portraiture by prolific chronicler of rock royalty James Fortune…

Go to The Washington Post website to read the rest of this article.

Celtic Moon Sign For Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page, the founder of one of biggest bands of all time, Led Zeppelin, was born January 9th as a Capricorn, and under the Birch Tree and White Stag in the Celtic Moon signs. His ruling planet is the Sun, and the archetypal gods are Apollo, Osiris, Ra, Taliesin, Arthur, and Lugh, from Greek, Egyptian, and Celtic respectively. The Gaelic name for this sign is Damh, with the approximate pronunciation “Dav.”

His tree is the Birch, which is also known as the Lady of the Woods, Paper Birch, and White Birch. The birch is connected to writing a love letter spell.

“One is to gather the strips of the bark at the New Moon, and write in red ink “Bring me the true love. Then burn this along with a love incense, chanting “Goddess of love, goddess of desire, bring to me sweet passion’s fire.”

Birch trees used to cover the whole of the United Kingdom, the tree is one of the first to grow back after cutting a mature forest, hence its connections with new beginnings. From paper to the skin of canoes, the usefulness of the tree is matched by its beauty. The tree is considered “queen of the woods.”

“If the Oak and the Beech contend for the rank of king, there is no doubt as to the right of the Birch, clad as she is in cloth of silver, adorned with emeralds, or with “patines of pure gold,” to the title of queen of the woods.”

The name in the Tree Ogham, “Beithe,” has two meanings in Irish, it can mean “being,” as in “to be,” or a noun, such as “a being.” The genus name is Betula, and many consider the term “birch” came from barque, or barge, referring to the use of the bark for boats. Children’s cradles were made of birch, the inner bark provides a pain reliever, and the leaves can be used to treat arthritis. On the Isle of Man, off the coast of Scotland, criminals were “birched” to purify them and drive out evil spirits.

The birth animal is the White Stag, and they direct their energy and enterprise through ambitious strategy. They are reliable, and often financially successful, one could say Jimmy Page definitely fits these descriptions.

In Celtic legends The White Stag is regarded as one of the three original animals, and the blackbird, trout and stag respectively represent water, air and earth. It is connected in Celtic legend to the Underworld, and to the Green Man. Also the Man in the Tree, or Derg Corra, is always accompanied by a stag, and is the Celtic guardian of knowledge.

Source: Paterson, Helena, Celtic Moon Signs Barnes & Noble, 2004

Punk Years, Ray Stevenson "VACANT"

Pretty Vacant “The Punk Years, 1976-79.”

I’ve been reading “VACANT,” which is book of stunning photographs and blunt commentary by Londoners Nils and Ray Stevenson. Nils managed the Sex Pistols and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and his brother had photographed David Bowie and Marc Bolan in the early days. The time frame is particularly interesting to me, as I was in New York City in the mid-seventies on a number of occasions, watching bands, and also London in 1977 and 1980.

The book starts with fascinating English history, culture, and fashion tidbits about the scene that laid the groundwork for the punk explosion. Though he was relatively unknown to the general public, Stevenson mentions flying kites on Parliament Hill with Yoko Ono, watching a jam session with ex-Beatles and Stones members, and encountering various well-known figures. He saw Iggy Pop play a London club in 1972 and get dragged off the stage with a mike cord by a fan.  I saw the same thing in 1980 at the Music Machine in North London, when somehow the cord was wrapped around Iggy’s throat, and a fan was pulling him off the stage.

Like so many people in the music industry, Stevenson attended art school at a place called Barnet, where he was eventually expelled.  The burning question at the time: “what was art?” At the same time Stevenson was agonizing over the meaning of art, and clashing with professors, one of the most important punk figures of all, Malcolm McLaren, was attending Goldsmith’s Art College in London. He became involved in an organization called “King Mob,” England’s answer to the Situationists International (SI), an anarchist left wing group founded in 1957. SI claimed to speak for the working man, and its ideas dominated the French intellectual scene and radical Parisian politics that fueled the riots of 1968.

The British offshoot of SI got their name from the Gordon Rioters of 1780, who scrawled “His Majesty’s King Mob” on the walls of Newgate Prison and rampaged through London opening prisons and releasing the inmates. Funny how you don’t read much about that in English history books! The year is right around the American and French Revolutions, and not surprisingly, there was unrest in England.

SI was dedicated to the proletariat. The slogan for the group was “metro-boulot-TV-dodo,” or “subway-work-TV-sleep,” describing the life of the working class. SI said life was orchestrated at every turn and had become the “Society of the Spectacle,” and their job was awaken people and break down the illusions around them.

In 1965, the young Malcolm Edwards (later Malcolm McLaren) was drawn to the King Mob. The group was expelled by the Paris SI because they favored youth culture and delinquents like Teddy Boys and the “Ton-Up Kids” (bikers who aimed to reach 100 mph, or up to a ‘ton.’) They also loved certain tawdry aspects of American culture that the French disdained, something the lofty and superior French could not handle. So the King Mob moved on with their wild ways.

Their most dramatic event was dressing 25 people as Santa Claus in 1968, going to Selfridges Dept Store, and giving toys away to kids. They produced flyers praising Valerie Solana’s shooting of Andy Warhol, and had a hit list of artists such as Yoko Ono, Mary Quant, and Twiggy. In addition, they lauded terrorist groups like the Red Brigade and the Angry Brigade (a London organization that had bombed a department store). They published a magazine called “King Mob Echo,” which praised people like Jack the Ripper and child-killer Mary Bell, and were dedicated to disrupting society.

In his next move, McLaren said he wanted to create a fake new group that was supposed to be great, but was in fact, terrible. But the irony was that the band he created, The Sex Pistols, turned out to be quite good. Their driving rock and roll stands the test of time, matching anything by the Clash or the Ramones, and was no more or less complex than early Sun Records, actually.

In Philip Norman’s biography of Elton John, he thought the Sex Pistols had no talent, period. But they were perfect for the time and age, and quite a few musicians had a lot of respect for their songwriting and performance skills.

Stevenson’s harrowing description of his times with bands often involved massive amounts of sex, drugs and trouble with the police, occurring in sleazy dives and the mansions of the rich and famous. One piece of trivia was that Johnny Thunder and the Heartbreakers wore ties because they made excellent tourniquets, so now you know.

The story of the Sex Pistols and Siouxsie and the Banshees traveling to France is interesting, apparently her pert exposed breasts and swastika on her t-shirt did not charm the French, and the concerts there were marked by arrests and violence. Throughout the account are stories of constant multiple arrests by the police, from the famous Sex Pistols party on a barge on the Thames incident to Siouxsie and the Banshees being jailed outside the Rainbow Theatre. Indeed, when I was there it was hard to find out when the Sex Pistols were playing, it was kind of secret, and it was “S.P.O.T.” or Sex Pistols On Tour, for those in the know.

In the beginning, Stevenson mentions working near the notorious shop called SEX, located on King’s Road in London, in an enclave of stores called the World’s End. The owner was now Malcolm McLaren, and with his girlfriend Vivian, they became leaders in the ragged and offensive fashions exploding at the time.

Helping to fuel the London art and fashion scene was the New York City scene, and Stevenson relates friends coming back with the latest leather goods after trolling the S & M clubs and taking in the more serious and hardcore images and styles there.

McLaren ultimately formed The Sex Pistols, inspired by his involvement with King Mob and his earlier promise to create an anti-super group. His shop SEX was the equivalent of the Factory in New York City, on a smaller level, but the same radical mix of punk fashions and music and attitude were the same.

In addition, records arriving from the The Ramones, The Velvet Underground, Iggy and The Stooges, and other American groups fueled the English scene, setting the stage for the violent and crazed summer of 1977.  The New York Dolls were very influential at the time, plus Richard Hell and Voidoids, and Patty Smith.

Stevenson and the others were hanging around the Roebuck, a pub that was the “local” for Led Zeppelin’s World’s End offices, not to mention Blackhill Enterprises, which was the corporation name of Pink Floyd.

King’s Road had been the epicenter of London fashion since the Sixties and earlier, with numerous shops that catered to London superstars.

“Granny Takes A Trip” was a very important store, with clients like the Faces, The Rolling Stones, and Elton John on their list, and Alkasura and Mr. Freedom, where Marc Bolan and Gary Glitter often shopped. Another place Stevenson and the others hung out was the Chelsea Drug Store, made famous by the Stones in “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” I remember how powerful it was to be in downtown London, Soho in particular, you just knew that every pavement and building around there had been saturated with the vibes of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd, and countless others.

Once Stevenson mentions taking a band into Olympic Studios, famed recording facility of Beatles, Zeppelin, and other bands. He said he glumly realized the Zeppelin drum sound came from the drummer, not the studio. I guess the hatred of Led Zeppelin did not extend to their drum sound.

In 1974, he describes going to Ringo Starr’s New Year’s party to welcome in 1975. His girlfriend at the time was Marc Bolan’s ex, June Child, and she had been invited through that relationship. They rode down there in June’s Ferrari Daytona, chopping out the coke, and arrived at Starr’s house in a suburb called Virginia Water, where Elton John also lived. The first person they saw was Keith Richards passed out on the stairway, and Anita Pallenberg just stepping over him.

Cilla Black was there, and she took great offense at Stevenson’s T-shirt from SEX, which had soft porn pictures under gelatin. It may have been the famous one Stevenson spoke of, with a photo of a naked young boy smoking a cigarette, the image implying he’d just had sex. I was not sure which picture was on his T-shirt, but it was very offensive to the guests. His girlfriend was embarrassed by the T-shirt also, he said he scarcely saw her that night.

Nils describes the jam session: at midnight the stars gathered to play in Ringo’s little studio, but Keith Richard’s guitar strap kept coming undone as he swayed and struggled to keep hold of it,  and Ronnie Wood was getting distracted trying to put it back on. Kiki Dee sang some inane lyrics, Eric Clapton tried to keep a choppy rhythm going, and Elton bashed away at some twelve-bar blues on the piano.

Stevenson was bored, the people were in their “thirties” and neither “glamorous or talented.”  He commented on the music as “not only farcical, but the worst racket I’d ever heard.”   This is kind of funny, he is managing some of the noisiest and most anarchistic racket-creating bands of all time, and to be so critical of superstars jamming in their home, ones that also had talent according tens of millions people around the world.

One part I found of interest in the book was how the term “Teddy Boys” came about. Any student of British history in the 1950’s and 60’s would know the it, the Beatles used their fashion ideas when in their teens, as did many British youth. It started when Dicky Buckles, an flamboyant ex-Scot’s guard and “aesthete,” tried to bring back the Edwardian fashions, dressing in long, tight waisted jackets, tight trousers, and flamboyant waistcoats. Some favored black velvet collars, which supposedly signified the death of the French aristocracy in the French Revolution. He was a lover of “rough trade,” and a gay element threads through this book on various levels.

Ironically, this decadent and flowery style of dress was seized on by some working class kids, and bastardized and changed in the 1950’s, and got its name when the tabloids condensed Edwardian to “Teddy Boys.” Stevenson says within this environment the seeds of all that followed in the 1960’s and 70’s were created, as rebellion with the artful use of clothes exploded in the streets.

I read in a couple of Zeppelin books of how Jimmy Page would go and watch groups like the Damned and The Clash furtively, leaving as soon as he was recognized. He stood up for punk, as did Elton John, even though Johnny Rotten (I think it was him) said that he did not have to hear a Led Zeppelin record to vomit, only see the cover. Billy Idol was roundly criticized by Pete Townsend, who later apologized, and put him their live Quadrophenia movie, where he did a great job.

By the end of 1975, Stevenson was in a lull, sales were terrible at his clothes stall, and his girlfriend caught him messing around with Miss Cincerella, a notorious LA groupie and wife of John Cale, founder of the Velvet Underground.

In January 1976  Stevenson describes being picked up by McLaren and his girlfriend (who had Chrissie Hynde) with them to go to what McLaren called “his new Bay City Rollers.” Stevenson was thinking it would be dull, but when he showed up at the Marquee, there were the Sex Pistols in all their rancid glory.  Rotten was smashing mikes and cursing and spitting on the audience, and Stevenson was blown away.  A footnote:  McLaren rented the same practice space Badfinger used in London for Sex Pistols rehearsals.

Robert M. Knight Photography book out

Check out this article in the Las Vegas Review Journal on Robert M. Knight, who photographed Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and many others. This was roughly the same period James Fortune was shooting Zeppelin, a fantastic group at the peak of their powers.

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