Whatโs the missing link between Ricky Gervais and Kurt Cobain? The answer is Martyn Goodacre. In 1989, he was skint, a wannabe music photographer working in a stationery shop at the University of London where the Student Unionโs Entertainments Officer began giving him passes for shows. Within just months, heโd prepared his portfolio, and though it took persistence โ not to mention pockets of small change so he could pester their offices from his local phone box โ he soon landed his first NME commissions.
Working out of a darkroom in his Elephant and Castle flat โ once bluntly described by Manic Street Preachersโ James Dean Bradfield as โa dumpโโ Goodacre threw himself into the job. Legging it most nights from one gig to another, he then developed his prints in beer-stained clothes before delivering them to the paper the next morning. A decade later, that smartarse Ents Officer became known as The Officeโs David Brent, but Shaky โ as Goodacre was soon known by certain colleagues โ had moved faster. In less than a year, he was pointing his camera at Cobain.
Goodacreโs poignant portrait of the eyelinered Nirvana singer is immediately recognisable, and NME chose it for their cover the week of his death. For the Malvern born lensman, however, itโs just one of a vast catalogue of pictures amassed over a decade. Now heโs gathered some of these for his first book, Working For The NME, and if the Cobain image is absent โ at least until Volume 2 โ thatโs because few people during the 1990s documented Britainโs thriving musical scene in such impressive detail. Notable for his quick ability to put subjects at ease, Goodacreโs photos are distinguished by an endearing intimacy, spontaneity and humour, whether itโs Jarvis Cocker in front of his Hillman Imp, Beth Gibbons excelling at keepie-uppies, or members of The Prodigy fooling around in the beloved black cab heโd bought off Miranda Sawyer.
The epoch marked indieโs last stand before the word was hijacked by major labels. Despite conventional wisdom, however, it was about far more than mere Britpop. Goodacre charts a chaotic path through shoegaze, riot grrrl, trip hop, New Wave of New Wave, baggy and dance music, plus most points in-between. By the end of the decade, the internet had killed the weekly music press, but Goodacreโs images help chronicle a golden era in witty, eye-catching style.
WORKING FOR THE NME is available from Rough Trade Records in the UK and worldwide from Goodwill Records.
Sarah Cracknell (Saint Etienne)
This was for one of those NME features where they get people together. It was Sarah, Mark Lamarr, Richey Manic and Damon Albarn, so that was a bit of an odd mix. Sarah was very friendly, and Mark was fine, heโs a professional. But Damon was going through his โIโm a Londoner going down the dogsโ period after Blur had reinvented themselves from a baggy band. Richey was in a T-shirt and had burn marks all over his arms. Heโd obviously been putting cigarettes out on them, which should have been a major warning sign for everybody. The best bit about the photo โ apart from Sarah, of course โ is the NME office. Iโm sure that was Steve Lamacqโs desk. There are some computers in there somewhere too. They definitely existed.
The KLF
NME did these Christmas stories, and one was when musicians went around HMV on Oxford Street in two minutes to grab as much as they could. The KLF did it with Clint Boon and Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine. So I turn up and go, โOh, youโre the KLF,โ because I didnโt have a clue what they looked like. And they could have had what they wanted, but they just took blank tapes โ which admittedly were perfect for The KLF โ and some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirts. I think they felt like they could be doing better things than this. Personally Iโd have grabbed some picture discs or somethingโฆ
Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher (My Bloody Valentine)
I think this was in Greenock, but I canโt find any record of a gig there anywhere! It was when that Andy Weatherall remix of โSoonโ came out. I should really have written down a lot more details. I just wrote โMBVโ. I had pictures with โPODโ on them, too, but it was only when I met (singer) Craig Walker in Berlin, where I live, that I realised that meant Power Of Dreams. Anyway, I think I did three nights on the road with Dele Fadele, and it was loud. It was probably louder then because they probably didnโt have as many restrictions, and there were no earplugs on offer either. This was backstage and heโs showing the chords to a song, which she must have found funny. I think they were really stoned. I mean they look it, donโt they?! I remember seeing them at a party at London Zoo only a few days after this tour and I donโt think they even recognised me. Something fantastic came out of these pictures, too, when Fender contacted me and said they wanted to use my pictures on the Kevin Shields Fender Blender pedal, so I got one of those and a Jazzmaster guitarโฆ
Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher
This was at some awards ceremony or party in 1994. I was into the idea of getting people together, and Damon was being his usual sort of awkward, but still playing along, and Noel was quite happy to have his photo taken. I got a lot of pictures of Damon over the years, including a load at Stephen Sweetโs house with Stephenโs kids. I gave him a lift home afterwards. Theyโd just had that big hit album, Parklife, and he kept sliding down the seats in my shitty Ford Escort so nobody could see him in traffic jams. He seemed like he was under a lot of stress.
Joe Strummer and Shaun Ryder
This was at Real World Studios in Box for โEnglandโs Irieโ with Black Grape and Keith Allen. I remember Joe hanging around Shaun and saying, โHeโs a genius, heโs a genius!โ At one point Shaun got his notebook out to write something and Joeโs going, โLeave him alone, heโs having a flash of genius! Let him be.โ Iโd met Joe before at Camden Palace when he walked in with the Cut The Crap Clash line-up. Weโd thrown a joint at him thinking he might smoke it. He didnโt pick it up and we forgot about it, but later he came over to us and said โAlright, lads? Whyโd you throw that cigarette at me?โ And we said, โIt was a joint!โ He said, โOh, I donโt do that stuff. I thought you were being nice and violent!โ Thatโs what he said! Iโve also got a picture I took later of Shaun with that Coronation Street guy who recorded a song, Curly Watts [Kevin Kennedy]โฆ.
Bobby Gillespie, Denise Johnson and George Clinton
This was Primal Scream at the Brixton Academy, around the time of Give Out But Donโt Give Up. It was just after Kurt Cobain had died, which Bobby mentioned on stage, so there was a bit of a weird vibe, but the band were at their peak. This was a hard picture to get, though. They let me back into the photographerโs pit when George Clinton was coming on, and I wanted to get them all together, but theyโre quite far away. It was a very lucky shot! Iโm surprised Bobby hasnโt bought a printโฆ!
Manic Street Preachers
This was in Soho when it was still a bit barrow boy, “a little bit wooh, a little bit waaay“. I havenโt been for ages, but the characters used to be great around there, and all those little alleys down where the Raymond Revuebar was. I think this was for โYou Love Usโ, so weโd probably come down from Sonyโs old offices on Great Malborough Street. You can see James is in the front now. The first time I photographed them they left him at the back, but now heโs got more confidence. Richey was really lovely, but he was wearing one of those see-through mesh shirts. Youโd think everybody would just be stopping and staring, but no one did. And then youโve got this scene with the police in the background which I saw happening and slipped in. For a while I thought that was Dan Treacy from the Television Personalities on the left!
Beth Gibbons
I was very, very nervous to meet them. I think the first album was out, and we were somewhere by the Thames, maybe Greenwich, and Geoff Barrow was there too, a little bit more chatty than Beth was. I was surprised she had a football with her. I was getting her to boot it straight at me so Iโd get this action shot. She was very, very lovely, not what I expected. Iโd heard that song, โGlory Boxโ โ โGive me a reason to be a womanโ โ and sheโs knocking a football around. She really loved that football! I found another picture the other day of her on a yellow climbing frame. Her hair was really orange in those days. Later on I saw her at Glastonbury. She was lying on the bonnet of a sports car. I wish Iโd got a picture of that!
Dieter Meier and Boris Blank (Yello)
This may have been the best trip I ever did, certainly the most unusual. Dieter picked us up on his own private Learjet with a dog, this beautiful Golden Retriever, that heโd bought. It was the smallest plane Iโd ever been in, only six seats, and [journalist] Roger Morton was shitting himself. Then Dieter says, โExcuse me, gentlemen, Iโm just going to take the plane off!โ He comes back with a Magnum of champagne and announces, โHereโs to Rock โnโ Roll, gentlemen!โ Then we get into a Rolls Royce and go straight to Borisโ house, where they have their studio, and Boris cooked us โBeef Borisโ. We drank a lot of wine, and Dieterโs last words before we went to the hotel were โDrink the mini bar dry, guys!โ Total gentlemen! They look so young here, too. Thatโs the thing with the book, how young people wereโฆ and how old we are now! It really doesnโt seem that long ago!
Jarvis Cocker
I photographed Pulp a few times, and this time โ I think they were recording in Islington โ I just went around and Jarvis came out. He mentioned his car was parked over the road and I asked what he had. He said a Hillman Imp, which is 100% the kind Iโd imagine Jarvis having, but for such a long man itโs a very short car! Heโd be doubled up like an accordion. He was really proud of it, and when I photographed him later, he told me it had died in the fast lane of the M-whatever, so I asked what the hell it was doing in the fast lane. He just looked at me, like, โHow dare you insult my Hillman Imp?!โ
Eventually it got crushed into a cube and the Pulp People fan club had a competition to win it. So this lump of metal was delivered to Conisbrough on the back of a lorry by two Pulp roadies, then it sat in some womanโs parentโs back garden for years. It was still yellow, although rusty by then. I think her parents must have got sick of it in the end because Paul Burgess, who wrote Hardcore: The Technicolour World Of Pulp, told me that the chairman of The Imp Club, the Hillman Imp Appreciation Society, now has it in his back yard.
