ANDREW DINELEY
Classic Pop: Your record sleeve design work was pre-dated by promotional adverts and photography for artists, many of which would eventually make it into the mainstream. How did it all begin?
Graham Smith: I was just 17 when punk rock first hit London and I’d follow The Clash around with my school chum Robert Elms. It was the perfect storm of age and location. The energy, excitement, attitude, look, music – it had it all. But it was the scene’s ‘have a go’ self-empowering message that left its deepest cut. While others picked up guitars, I picked up a camera and started taking photos of the bands, friends and people around me. However, the magnesium flare of punk rapidly burnt itself out and, in its void, I found a Soho dive club named Billy’s that was being run by Steve Strange who would go on to front Visage. It attracted waifs, strays, misfits and art students from the punk and soul scene with a liking for David Bowie as the linchpin, with a soundtrack of European electro disco – Kraftwerk mixed with Roxy Music and Iggy Pop. The club was truly underground as there was no internet or lifestyle magazines at this point. No one was writing about it. Hence it had mystique. You had to be on that wavelength to hear about it and go looking for it. Everything was word of mouth. And then you had to get past Steve Strange on the door!
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