A PERMANENT RECORD JULIAN YEWDALL
30 NOVEMBER - 22 DECEMBER 2012
AN EXHIBITION AND A BOOK OF PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIAN YEWDALL
SUBWAY GALLERY SPECIAL PRICE £20 - RRP £25
With explanatory text by the photographer, A Permanent Record features over 160 black and white photographs of Joe Strummer, legendary Clash frontman, as well as unpublished images of seminal all-girl punk band The Slits.
Yewdall first met Strummer in 1974 when the then John 'Woody' Mellor moved into the squat at 101 Walterton Road in London's Maida Hill. Yewdall sang and played harmonica in an early line-up in The 101'ers, then briefly managed the band before abandoning the musical for the visual by picking up a camera. These intimate pictures are direct from the heart of the West London squatting movement of the early
seventies, that exceptional period when access to abandoned properties provided opportunities for artists to develop their craft without the constraints of financial imperatives. The pictures include posed portraits as well as informal reportage taken when stardom was only a glimmer in the eye of this inimitable artist. The images of Strummer date back to his earliest days when he was a singer with The101'ers, the quintessential squat-rock group in which he learned his musical and political 'chops'.
In Yewdall's live pictures of the hirsute guitar-player you can see the frenetic movement and stage presence that he honed to perfection as frontman of the Clash, today considered one of the greatest bands of all time.
This was also the history of The Slits, who supported the Clash on their first full-scale tour of Britain. Fronted by Ari Up, The Slits set the template for British girl groups; riveting live performers, uncompromising and fearless, The Slits reached their recording zenith in 1979 with the release of the Dennis Bovell-produced album, 'Cut'.
Photographs of Strummer with his group of the late 1980's, The Latino Rockabilly War, book-end the project, along with memorabilia from tribute exhibitions following the sudden death of Joe Strummer at the end of 2002.
These extraordinary photographs stand as a heartfelt testament to the genesis of this great artist. www.facebook.com/yewdall