In my last post I mentioned how even little old 35mm negs can be enlarged to quite decent sizes - I was reminded of a few prints from the late '70s that I came across recently in my mum's house. I was pleasantly surprised that they were still in good shape, given that they were made about 42 years ago, give or take. Granted they probably haven't seen much light since then but still, it shows that we must have been doing something right back in the day, The Brother and me - long before we knew about 2-bath fixes and 'archival' processing.
Since we went to see a lot of bands back then it's no surprise that they featured heavily in our 'big print' series. Round about 1978 Stiff Records did what they called a package tour and brought quite a few artists to Portrush to share the one night - Jona Lewie was one and Rachel Sweet was another. For some reason, Ms Sweet caught my attention more than Mr Lewie - can't think why that would be the case for a 15 year old boy...
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| Rachel Sweet back in '78. I placed the OM-1 on the print to show the scale. The shot was taken on an OM-1, although not this particular camera. Not sure what film - probably Ilford. I'll update this when I find the negatives. |
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| Andy Partridge from XTC |
Last up we have the great Thin Lizzy - taken, I'm pretty sure, by The Brother in either the Ulster Hall or Antrim Forum. Thin Lizzy were too big to come all the way to Portrush, alas.
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| Phil Lynott centre stage, Brian Robertson (I think) on the left and Scott Gorham on the right. Brian Downey on the drums, as always. |
You and Brudder did a great job with the exposure and printing. I'm amazed that they still exist. My parents live in a townhouse and don't have much room, so everything gets cleared out now and then. All of the things I left there are long gone. I've lived in small apartments in Korea so there is no pileup of things from many years ago. Old photos are digitised, etc. If I had stayed in Canada and bought a house, etc, I wonder if the basement/attic would be full of things from my younger days.
ReplyDeleteMy parents never moved, so there was no real need to clear out. But my mother saw interest and beauty in many things, so she held on to a lot of 'stuff' that would normally have been discarded. I'm glad she did - although other than photograph bits&pieces I'm not sure what to do with a lot of it. One day there'll have to be a massive clear-out. I can see how people end up 'leaving it for someone else to do' as when you have the slightest emotional attachment to something it's difficult to throw it out.
DeleteI wish I could install a dead man switch on my so that when I keel over all my personal possessions go up in a puff of smoke. I'm thinking especially of old journals. Although I am emotionally attached, I can't bring myself to read them again because of some of the pathetic things I wrote. And I certainly don't want others after me finding out the true depths of my idiocy . . . . .
DeleteHaha I know what you mean. Every couple of years I look at the pile of academic papers, journals, conference proceedings and books that I contributed to...think about binning them...and do nothing. One day, one day...
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