Director, Michael Rapaport, came to my studio last year to choose photos to use in the documentary ‘Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest’. We chatted for hours, Michael had an amazing knowledge and passion for those times. The movie just came out, ‘Tribe’ were interviewed on NPR talking about how they were part of a community of people making music, the ‘hip hop Beatles” said ” how it felt was the only thing that mattered .. the money and fame were not important .. ” Seeing the movie last night reminded me of what I loved about hip hop and the collective fun, conciousness and creativity of The Native Tongues Posse . 
2011
Tribe Called Quest
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July 17th, 2011
Hollie Cook
Hollie Cook has a great new album out. We first met when she was singing with The Slits in NYC,. Last year I photographed her for a Kangol catalog looking cool in Camden. I took picures of her dad Paul Cook, drummer for the Sex Pistols in 1977. 
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July 17th, 2011
The Journal – The Fall – Mark E Smith
Creative Director Peter Miles asked if he could use my photo of Mark E Smith of The Fall in the latest issue of The Journal. I had not looked at this image since I shot it in 1981 when the band was on Rough Trade Records. I think The Fall (named after a novel by Albert Camus) were playing at the Electric Ballroom in London.
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July 17th, 2011
Las Vegas
‘Tupac, Dale Earnhardt, Kid Rock and Elvis’ and unknown woman photographed on Fremont Street in old Las Vegas. I first went to Vegas in 1982 to see the casinos and neon signs that were featured in movies like Elvis Presley’s Viva Las Vegas These days downtown Vegas is a little rundown compared to the new glitsy strip but the original neon signs are preserved and the casinos are still open.
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July 16th, 2011
The Go-Go’s at the Tail of the Pup LA
On August 11th 2011 The Go-Go’s will get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – the Los Angeles punk-pop girl band formed in 1978 and is still performing. I shot this photo of the girls at the historic hot dog stand ‘Tail of the Pup’ on La Cienega in 1980. The band line up was L-R Jane Weidlin, Margot Olavarria , Gina Schock, Belinda Carlisle and Charlotte Caffey. I loved LA in the early 1980’s : the architectural nostalgia, neon, buildings, artifacts were everywhere and they reminded me of 40’s and 50’s Hollywood films that I saw as an art student in London. The LA punk style often echoed 1950’s style from rockabilly to capri pants and stilletos. Sadly the site of the ‘Tail of the Pup’ is now a parking lot and the giant ‘hot dog’ is stored in a warehouse in Torrance.
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July 15th, 2011
Tenpole Tudor
In 1981 I went to Dublin to document the Son of Stiff tour for Melody Maker – it was brilliant. I was on the coach with the likes of Joe King Carasco, Lena Lovich as well as Tenpole Tudor, who had such great Rockabilly punk attitude. I took this photo of Eddie Tenpole and the band having a fag before the gig. Note the retro Teddy boy leopard lapels and the Tudor Lion on Eddie’s jacket.
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July 14th, 2011
Salt n Pepa
On a hot summer’s day in 1986 I was taking photos of a new group called Salt n Pepa for a British magazine called Sky. Salt n Pepa were like sisters, funny, cool girls from Queens wearing big gold earrings, chains and fake Louis Vuitton bags. It was their first ever photo shoot and we spent the day hanging out on Avenue C, on the Lower East Side. After that I met Hurby ‘Love Bug’ Azor. their manager, he asked me to shoot their album cover. A year later they had a new look and were the first girls to sport kente cloth hats, leather baseball jackets, spandex and gold dookie rope chains.
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July 13th, 2011