the story behind the photos, part 1

how i bet all my friends are tired of billy idol these past couple months. i've been hustling (successfully, thank goodness!) a couple of my vintage photos of him in my current process of raising the funds to mount my next exhibit.

idol will actually have a lot of face time in the next exhibit too.

while he's a platinum selling superstar looking for a comeback right now, back in 1978, he was one of the bromly contingent, some rabid punk fans from london's east end who followed the sex pistols. billy's not the only one of them to have forged a successful career in music. siouxsie sioux, budgie and other members of the banshees were among that "contingent."

throughout 1977, pleasant and i made some very good strategic chess type moves (did we know it?) that positioned us to be billy's tour guides and local friends when he finally arrived in los angeles in april 1978 to promote generation x's signing to chrysalis records and release of their second album.

people who've read my blog, punkturns30.com are familiar with the story...

my friend, brendan bourke worked at chrysalis, and was in charge of billy during that promotional trip to the USA. because we were trustworthy, and because we did publish lobotomy, giving us street cred... brendan let us tag along with him and billy where ever they went, and also left billy in our care many nights.

in this photo, we all took billy to the airport to say goodbye. you could still accompany passengers all the way to the departure lounge back then. and you could take pictures of anything and everything. you can't do that now.

we were stopped by the mystery woman who pinned a carnation on billy. you can see it in the top buttonhole of his jacket. i don't remember what she had to tell him. she probably didn't know what punk rock was, who billy specifically was... but there's no denying he was someone different and perhaps special.

my favorite thing about this photo is looking at everyone's eyes. billy's looking right at the woman who just pinned a flower on him. pleasant is looking at billy. brendan is looking analytically at the stranger... and no one is looking at the camera.

that's my idea of a successful shot.