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rogues' gallery
we are once again happy as little girls to bring to you a rogues' gallery selection of previously unpublished photographs by the talented phillip williams. phil also shares his recollections regarding the night.

kingmaker/suede - northampton roadmenders 24 may, 1992

my main recollection of this gig was that it was the first time i’d seen the band since the deal with nude and the release of the first single. their profile had risen dramatically, and this was reflected in the audience reaction. it did seem like a large proportion of the paying public had primarily turned up to see the support band as opposed to kingmaker.

of course there were still those who thought suede were the emperor’s new clothes. some between-song shouts from the crowd questioning brett’s dress sense were heard, but they disappeared after the break-neck, staccato delivery of the first couple of numbers. i think the band kind of prided themselves in the fact that half of their songs were fast-rockers and the other half were these stunningly iconic, mature ballads. this combined with their always near-perfect performance, regularly wrong-footed audiences who were seeing the band for the first time. only the most hardened sceptics could deny that they were witnessing the birth of a very special and uniquely british phenomenon: suedemania.

music aside, from a photographer’s point of view, what i recall is that these support-slot gigs were very poorly lit. i’ve always tried to stay away from using flash photography at gigs if at all possible, preferring the atmospherics of ‘natural’ concert spotlighting. unfortunately, my choice that night not to take my flash unit proved unprofessional and near-fatal, as only a handful of shots from the performance were usable, even with 1600asa film and extended development. the colour shot in david barnett’s love & poison of brett crooning into the camera was taken at the same gig by friend and fellow photographer, iain williams (no relation) who did take his flash that night!

of note:

4. brett writes the setlist for the night: "animal lover", "moving", "my insatiable one", "metal mickey", "pantomime horse", "the drowners", "painted people", "sleeping pills", "to the birds".

5. an unusual shot of bernard playing a fender telecaster. this shot was taken during the intro to "sleeping pills".

7. suede anoraks will have heard of dead to the world, simon's first (punk) band. the girl in this shot is the vocalist from that band, katherine (kathi) jeary.......oh and the bloke is also a singer in a band!

8. this unused ticket is from the following night’s gig.