Here’s my contribution to the Dead Rockstars show: “Joe Strummer, London 1975”

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I’m collaborating with UK Photographer, Julian Yewdall, who is a noted chronicler of the Clash and was a former bandmate of Joe Strummer. Julian and Joe played together in the 101ers, Strummer’s band before he joined the Clash.

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Our piece is a never before released photo entitled “Joe Strummer, London, 1975.” It shows Joe Strummer smoking a hash joint in a London bar. I met Julian Yewdall in London in 2008 and he invited me to his flat, and showed me this photo.

We discussed a sort of liquid light show color treatment at the time, a merging of London punk with San Francisco psychedelia.

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Having met Bill Ham, San Francisco’s pioneering liquid light show master from the beginning of San Francisco’s psychedelic movement, I had seen the gear he uses to produce his shows and learned something of his techniques. I used film slides and oil and ink to create the liquid light show patterns that work through the print. Julian Yewdall’s reaction to the color treatment I gave the photo, “I like the way you have added to the already existing water marks and dust that I left on the original print, and the addition of colour brings a whole new dimension.”

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Dead Rockstars seemed the perfect opportunity to release this print collaboration.

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