Halloween Jack is a real cool cat…
Following the London
The Bowie shot is number two in the top 100, pipped at the post by Pennie Smith’s iconic shot of Paul Simonon of The Clash destroying his bass guitar at The Palladium, New York in 1979. Most of you are familiar with O’Neill’s shot of Bowie, which was the basis for a painting by Guy Peelleart, later turned into a very rare promotional poster by MainMan. The image was originally considered as a cover for ‘Diamond Dogs’ before the version we all know and love was settled on.
Anyway, here is the top ten from ‘The 100 Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Photographs’, which you can view by following the Evening Standard link above:
01. Paul Simonon of The Clash By Pennie Smith. The Palladium, New York, 21st September 1979
02. David Bowie by Terry O’Neill. London, early 1974
03. The Beatles by Jim Marshall Candlestick Park, San Francisco, 29 August 1966
04. Robbie Williams by Rankin. Dazed & Confused Studios, London EC1, 3 May 2000
05. Debbie Harry by Chris Stein. Stein and Harry’s apartment, the Bowery, New York, 1976
06. Kurt Cobain by Ian Tilton. Motor Sports International Garage, Seattle, 22 September 1990
07. Johnny Cash by Jim Marshall. San Quentin Prison, 1969
08. Tina Turner Revue by Barrie Wentzell. Hammersmith Odeon, London, Winter, 1971
09. Tupac Shakur by David LaChapelle. Chateau Marmont hotel, Los Angeles, 18 January 1996
10. Napalm Death by Ken Sharp. The Canterbury Arms, Brixton, December 1988
The book also has a fascinating 800-word foreword written by David Bowie…from which, these opening paragraphs:
“A first encounter with the professional side of rock photography was as customer. Around 1957, it must have been around then as I hadn’t yet taken my 11-plus, I was dipping into the back pages of the New Musical Express when I stumbled across a small, column width, half-inch advert for film stills from ‘The Girl Can’t Help It’. Among the available stars was Little Richard standing and pounding on his white piano, backed up with his impressive sax line-up all of which would initialise and inspire my future trajectory in life. The enticingly named StarPix Company offered two ten by eights for the sum of two and sixpence. I duly sent off my postal order then knuckled down to something like a two month wait.
I was furious at the contents of the bent and smudgy envelope that dropped through the letterbox on a damp school day in May of that year. Not only had the ‘cats’ at StarPix omitted one of my two expected pictures but the solitary, dog-eared inclusion was torn and, adding insult to injury, sized at about six by eight instead of the expected whopper. I was devastated and, happily, it was to be the last time I ever shelled out spondulics for a rock photo. Now of course, it’s hard to come by an original signed rockprint for less than about three hundred pounds. Two and sixpence now doesn’t really sound too bad.”
Good stuff eh? ‘The 100 Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Photographs’, goes on sale in the UK tomorrow at £5.99.