One of our favorite features run by our friends at excellent UK website The Quietus is their regular excerpts from the Rock’s Back Pages archive. They recently exhumed an old article from the NME, wherein Nick Cave, Shane MacGowan, and Mark E. Smith held a “summit” at a south London pub. As it turns out, we happen to own this exact NME – we found it for $1 in a second-hand record shop years ago — and leafing through the article again got us thinking about similar great meetings of the minds that have been caught on film over the years. We’ve put together a gallery of some of our favorites, with grateful acknowledgment for the title and a few of the shots to the wonderful Tumblr Awesome People Hanging Out Together.
Shane MacGowan, Mark E. Smith, Nick Cave — London, 1989
We kinda cringe to think of the volume of booze that must have been consumed over the course of this particular afternoon (not to mention what mighta got snorted/shot up/otherwise consumed in the toilet). We’d still love to have been flies on the wall, though.
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Michael Gira, Alice Bag, Rick Jaffe — east LA, 1979
These people are cooler than you.
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Serge Gainsbourg, Sly and Robbie, the I-Threes, various other Jamaican luminaries — Jamaica, 1978
From when Serge decamped to Jamaica to record Aux armes et caetera, complete with its notorious reggae version of “La Marseillaise.”
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The Ramones, Patti Smith Band, John Cale — NYC, 1976
Bob Gruen’s definitive punk-era group shot, as featured in the excellent Please Kill Me. Oh, to have been there.
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Public Enemy and Anthrax — NYC, 1987
Bring the noise!
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Tom Waits, David Bowie, Bette Midler — date uncertain
We’re guessing late ‘70s for this because – according to this, anyway – Waits and Midler were an item at the time, which is something we never knew. Where Bowie comes into the picture is unclear, but we’re very much hoping it’s not in a Bowie-and-Jagger kind of way.
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Jarvis Cocker and Leonard Cohen — London, 2012
YES.
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Kurt Cobain and Thurston Moore — date uncertain
Sitting there on the couch together, they look kind of like Beavis and Butt-Head, except brilliant.
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David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed — 1972
A classic picture of glam rock’s legendary triumvirate, taken by the scene’s most accomplished photographer, Mick Rock. It’s one of literally hundreds of excellent photos that can be found in his book, Blood and Glitter. You can also buy prints of the shot above at the Morrison Hotel Gallery.
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Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox — Detroit, 1985
To have been in that studio when the Queen of Soul joined the Eurythmics to record “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves,” right? It’s a good thing photographer Lynn Goldmmith did, and captured this excellent shot. If you like her work, there’s a ton of it available for purchase, also via the Morrison Hotel Gallery.
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