Boom Boom, Boom Boom

Back in the late fifties Manchester became a hive of pop and blues music. Local lad Brian Smith saw it happen. Brian took a real interest in the emerging blues scene after seeing Muddy Waters in 1958 and over the next decade he saw and photographed most of the American blues musicians who played in Manchester. A keen amateur photographer, Brian combined his two passions and became known to door staff as 'the fan with the camera'. To be there witnessing the scene at first hand is enviable enough, but to be there with a camera recording it is something blues fans worldwide can be grateful for today. Brian began frequenting the famous Twisted Wheel Club and after the start of Roger Eagle's legendary R&B all-nighters in 1963 (which later led to the birth of Northern Soul), he helped launch the ground-breaking music magazine R & B Scene, becoming their main photographic contributor. Brian went on to a career in the tax offices and it wasn't until the 1980s that his old images began to be sought out by CD compilers. Since then his pictures have appeared in magazines, books and exhibitions, yet until now nobody has attempted to present a published collection of his work. Taking our book title from the John Lee Hooker classic, Easy On The Eye have had unique access to Brian's extensive archives, working directly with surviving negatives and prints which have been newly scanned and restored for the book. The photographs are annotated and fully captioned using extensive interviews by RPM Records boss Mark Stratford. The selected material shows the blues artists who most interested the young photographer, as well as British bands like The Rolling Stones who often idolised them as well. Brian produced images with a real presence and quality, and managed to capture a unique and relatively short lived scene in fascinating detail. Not only on-stage but back in the dressing rooms, he photographed these giants of the blues relaxing with a beer and a pack of cards, or posing for souvenir pictures with British fans. A remarkable cultural melting pot considering many of those musicians couldn't travel next to a white person in some States back home. Some of the artists in the book include: Johnny Guitar Watson, Big Joe Turner, Chuck Berry, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, Hubert Sumlin, Howlin Wolf, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, The Rolling Stones, Carl Perkins.