MANCHESTER'S MOD R&B SCENE

BRIAN SMITH'S 1962-66 PHOTOS OF BLUES/SOUL/SKA/ROCKABILLY SINGERS ARE A STRIKING TIME CAPSULE

The brightest smile in town: Millie Small extends a greeting to Brian Smith.

In 2025 a book was published titled Boom Boom Boom Boom: The American Rhythm And Blues Photographs Of Brian Smith.

This 180-page, soft cover tome gathered dozens of largely B&W photos taken by Manchester’s Brian Smith circa 1962-1966. I’d seen a few of these images previously, either on CD compilations or shared on internet music sites, but this book is the first time they had ever been gathered together for publication.

To say Boom Boom is a feast is to state the obvious - here are remarkable images of pioneering musicians performing, relaxing and socialising at such noted Manchester venues as The Twisted Wheel and the Free Trade Hall, all taken by local youth Brian Smith in those precious years when Black American music was commanding intense attention from many white British youths.

Smith was a keen amateur photographer who, enchanted by the music, started taking photos at gigs. Back then few people owned cameras and his photos were quickly noted and began appearing in Twisted Wheel DJ Roger Eagle’s R&B Scene magazine, while promoters used select images to publicise forthcoming concerts.

Little Richard in full flight: at the Oasis club in May, 1964.

Smith described himself as “a fan with a camera” - at the time he only ever received a fee once (from Chuck Berry’s people) for the use of his images - and his photos capture the excitement and energy he found at the concerts. Smith’s memories of the concerts and his encounters with the artists make up Boom Boom’s text and give a very personal overview on an exciting scene.

Smith had a good eye and got up close and personal - these aren’t stylised images, you sense the sweat and weariness of the performers, alongside their joy, humour and surprise (being Black and from a segregated US yet finding themselves heroes to young, white Brits).

Amongst the many artists featured here are Muddy Waters, Big Mama Thornton, Chuck Berry, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Little Walter, T-Bone Walker, Little Richard, Inez and Charlie Foxx, J.B. Lenoir, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker - to mention only a handful of whom Smith photographed.

Willie Mae Thornton: a beautifully pensive portrait of the artist known as “Big Mama”.

There are also white US and British performers - including Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, the young Stones and Rod - but its the Black artists who Smith paid greatest attention to.

His images are rarely those of a professional photographer: he often shoots the musicians with their fans, sweaty offstage, at odd angles on stage. Which all goes to make Boom Boom even more unique, it possessing the feel of a fan’s scrapbook.

Which isn’t to say Smith didn’t possess a good eye: his best images are striking and have since gone on to appear on album covers. But unlike David Corio - the superb London-based photographer whose photos of Black musicians across the 1980-90s I covered on the Yak when his book The Black Chord was published (here’s the link for Corio interview) - Smith never aimed to be a professional. Instead, his photos are simple in composition and lighting, sometimes blurred, snapshots of the excitement and dynamic at play on stage.

Indeed, Brian spent his working life employed by the IRD and, while always a music lover, didn’t focus on photography to such an extent post-1966.

I did an email interview with Smith when Boom Boom was published for Rock & Reel magazine. He was very personable, thus I was sad to learn he died in January (after struggling with cancer for several years). He received an obit’ in The Guardian, while Boom Boom will serve as his photographic legacy.

I’m grateful to Simon Robinson (of EasyOnTheEyeBooks) for ensuring Smith’s images were gathered and published; that Brian was able to receive kudos for his work from 60 years past in his final year of life is something special indeed.

This post then is to honour Brian’s memory, celebrate the photos he took and the artists he so vividly profiled. Outside of a couple of Stones, Georgie Fame and Rod Stewart, everyone he photographed has died. Boom Boom is a historic document that captures a halcyon time: giants once strode the stages of Manchester’s small clubs and Smith snapped them in action.

Boom Boom is a real treat for any lover of blues, soul and rock’n’ roll.

I’ve posted my Q&A with Brian below (for paying subscribers - if you aren’t one do please consider supporting my work and signing up).

Brian Smith (maracas) gets in front of the camera for a change. Here with Bo Diddley.

BRIAN SMITH - THE YAKETY YAK INTERVIEW

Yakety Yak. Hi Brian, how does it feel to see a selection of your photos from 1962-1966 gathered together in Boom Boom as a book?

Brian Smith. Bewildering, now it’s finally come off! In the words of Damon Runyon’s