I was listening to the radio this weekend and they were doing a flashback to 1979. It brought back a lot of cool memories. I had just broken into shooting for CREEM magazine, an ultimate goal for any music photographer of that era. I received a call from the photo editor one day. He started out the conversation by saying “Do you want to shoot a cover for us?” YIKES! Of course I would. This was my first assignment from them- up to that point they had just licensed stock images from me.
The band that they wanted me to shoot was Rockpile, a group of four English “pub rockers.” I called the manager and we set up a time at their hotel. I had 15 minutes to set up and 10 minutes to shoot. I have never been that nervous up to that point or since! Got to the hotel and loaded in lights and background and set up in a corner of the road manager’s room. The four guys walked in and couldn’t have been nicer. I shot for my 10 minutes, they thanked me, and were gone. Later I found out that Nick Lowe, the bass player had just produced the debut albums for Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. I still go to see him when he comes to town. He is still a great guy.
I figured out later that the band was not really big enough to be on the cover of CREEM. But their manager also managed Elvis Costello, and the magazine wanted him for the cover. The manager made a deal- I will give you Elvis if you put Rockpile on the cover first. And so it goes!!!
One more thing!!!
From the Chicagoist blog:
News
Hi! We love our readers and their amazing photo contributions that capture our amazing city. By adding photos to this pool, you are giving Chicagoist permission to run your photos on the website Chicagoist.com – with full accreditation, of course.
Thanks for sharing!