To many people, Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde, Joan Jett, Belinda Carlisle and Billy Idol were always pop superstars with gold and platinum albums, Grammy nominations and inductions to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.
Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders, 1980
first published by UK zine Zig Zag
The truth is, in 1977, they were all gritty punk rockers hanging out in night club backrooms with their friends. They wore vintage or home-made clothes and did their own hair and make-up. They partied with each other and punk rockers from other cities, as inadvertent good-will ambassadors for the new music. Those parties, backstage rooms and unguarded moments are presented here, in the UNGUARDED MOMENTS: BACKSTAGE AND BEYOND touring exhibit of photos from the Golden Age of Punk Rock.
Backstage with Debbie Harry of Blondie and Pleasant Gehman, 1978
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO SEE
The velvet rope, the locked door, the secret password – it is human nature to want to sneak a peak into the hidden world of the “beautiful people” – celebrities, rock stars and their companions living the life reported in gossip columns and on tabloid television shows. Unguarded Moments give you that glimpse.
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Joan Jett and Billy Idol at her apartment, May 23, 1978 |
Unguarded Moments satisfies our human curiosity about “the other” – “the renown” -
celebrities and the infamous.
While this collection showcases a most famous and enigmatic superstar at his peak, Bob Dylan in an Unguarded Moment, some of the then-unknown punk rockers have become bonafide international stars in the 30 years that have elapsed since their ground-breaking punk days. Deborah Harry of Blondie, Joan Jett of the Runaways, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go’s, Billy Idol, then of Generation X and three of the original members of the Ramones – Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee are all bold-faced names. Others, like Stiv Bators (also deceased) of the Dead Boys have influenced legions of musicians who became more well-known than their idol.
Dee Dee Ramone and Stiv Bators, 1979
While most of the celebrities and rock stars seen Backstage and Beyond reign supreme in the underground world of punk rock in the 70s, a few more highly recognizable mainstream and iconographic stars are featured in this exhibit (e.g.: Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, James Garner, TV's "Maverick" and "Rockford").
Photographer Theresa K., Keith Richards and Punk Magazine mascot, the late John Spacely
Punk rock has been embraced by the mainstream. All media is once again responding to the Sex Pistols marketing genius on the 30th Anniversary of the release of their only album. More venerable institutions such as the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, and colleges and universities are offering courses of study, seminars and lectures on the topic! More and more consumers, ranging from fans to the simply curious are joining alongside cultural scholars to dig deep for evidence from the early days of this movement looking for a story behind how and why rock n roll’s rebellious nature continues to be a dominant force in contemporary culture. This exhibit is a MUST-SEE EVENT!
Unguarded Moments is a visual record of the life, times and trajectory of punk rock pioneers, their friends, fans and the celebrities, who like the beautiful people of Andy Warhol’s ‘60s, came to revitalize their “street cred” by slumming with the “stars of tomorrow” in the gritty backstage environs of the Sunset Strip. The images provide a taste of punk rock history as it was being made, and as seen from the inside.
Every picture does indeed tell a story.
Belinda Carlisle, 1977
Punk rock music, style and fashion brewed up as a zeitgeist around the world. It grew up in the public eye in New York City. It exploded in London, and the kids in San Francisco, Los Angeles and the world over heartily embraced it.
While punk rock developed as a simultaneous culture clash everywhere, it was in Theresa K's native California where she captured the ultimate in punk rock's most identifying character trait - nihilism, and at the same time, its exact opposite: promise and exaltation.
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The Germs play with toy guns in their first ever rehearsal, 1977 |
California punks were anti-hippie – a movement born in their own San Francisco; they were definitely anti-disco and like most kids, they were also anti-parent and anti-social. West Coast punk attitude was powerful and shocking in comparison to the laid-back, easy-going California style that gave to pop culture rock n roll's biggest selling band of all time (The Eagles).
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Patricia Morrison of The Bags, 1978
defining style for future Goth chicks everywhere |
Many of Theresa's photos taken in various Unguarded Moments, Backstage and Beyond have already laid the visual foundation of our collective punk rock memory. In addition to shooting the photos that adorned some of LA's seminal punk singles picture sleeves such as The Germs Forming, scores of Theresa's photos have been seen in magazines such as Creem, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Trouser Press and Music Life, in various fanzines from LA's Lobotomy, of which she was part, to the UK's Zig Zag.
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| First seen in Creem Magazine, now featured in two books on Joan Jett |
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Her vintage work is currently featured in various recently published books, including PUNK365 by Holly George Warren and BOMP! by Suzy Shaw and Mick Farren. She was also one of the many punk rock veterans who contributed to Amy Wallace and Handsome Dick Manitoba's The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists. (October 07 publication dates for all three titles.)
Two books on Joan Jett also feature her works (Joan Jett by Todd Oldham and Joan herself, and Bad Reputation, by Dave Thompson).
Before he was Darby Crash, the Germs singer called himself Bobby Pyn, 1977
The photo above, of an introspective pre-Darby Crash Bobby Pyn is one of the earliest photographs taken of him. None of the band members had their punk hair cuts and punk clothes yet! They were playing together as a band for the first time in this ad-hoc rehearsal room fashioned from Pat Smear's mother's West Los Angeles garage. The images gathered on this early 1977 day represent the tone and calibre of the Unguarded Moments collection.
This moment of introspection reveals neither Bobby Pyn nor Darby Crash, but the inner Paul Beahm, the young man who would take his own life on December 7, 1980, just a little more than three years after he decided he would take music and the world by storm. Ironically, Darby's punk rock suicide was overshadowed even in the local news by the international tragedy of Beatle John Lennon's murder on December 8, 1980.
The Germs "forming" outtake, 1977
This image, renown to the punk rock and record collecting communities since early 1977, is an alternate frame from the first ever photo sessions the Germs did. That day's shoot yielded the cover of their single "Forming." It was a session they asked for; a favor from their friend, photographer Theresa K., then a student at UCLA, living in the dormitory Hedrick Hall. Paul Beahm, the man who would become Darby Crash often sought refuge in the Hedrick 3rd Floor North Lounge from a school and home life that didn't understand him.
The Unguarded Moments collection within the Punk Turns 30 archive is the only one anywhere that truly shows The Germs as they were Forming.
Mostly, Unguarded Moments joyfully illustrates a phenomenon unique to the bi-coastal Los Angeles/New York culture: the intersection of punk rock with the Rock Elite and other boldface names.
Blondie, Sabel Starr and Rodney Bingenheimer visit The B-Girls Backstage, 1979
In her travels to San Francisco, New York and London from her native Los Angeles, photographer Theresa Kereakes gained the trust and confidence of many interesting punk rock personalities who willingly submitted to her camera. Kereakes captured intimate and unguarded moments of punk legends Debbie Harry, super groupie Sabel Starr, Mayor of the Sunset Strip Rodney Bingenheimer, Joan Jett, Billy Idol, Darby Crash, Dee Dee Ramone, Stiv Bators, Belinda Carlisle, “It Girl” Pleasant Gehman, members of the Sex Pistols, The Cramps, The Avengers, and many more.
Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols, 1978
In addition to the Germs Forming photo, many other Theresa K images have achieved icon status and wide exposure, such as the “Joan Jett and Billy Idol party at Joan’s Place” which has been published in 47 rock magazines around the world since 1978. Other images such as a “Rockford Files”-era James Garner posing with a scion of rock n roll roots, Billy Burnette, will be seen for the first time in this exhibit (and you'll have to go to a show to see it!)
Joan Jett and Billy Idol party at Joan's Place, 1978
published worldwide
Unguarded Moments: Backstage and Beyond is nothing short of an illustrated history lesson about a time where music evolved from predictable pop to chaotic experimentation. Full of dates and times and places, Unguarded Moments presents the people who, intentionally or not, revolutionized the popular culture of the late 20th Century.
Rodney Bingenheimer and Go Go's guitarist, Charlotte Caffey, 1980
During summers off from college, and after graduation, while working as tour manager and publicist for mainstream, “alternative” and punk bands, Kereakes took her camera on the road to clubs and recording studios and returned with images of all the emotional, spiritual and cultural shifts that changed the course of popular music.
Billy Idol, 1978
Ultimately, Unguarded Moments: Backstage and Beyond is that rare backstage-pass, an elite VIP invite to the after-show party and every rock 'n' roll fan's dream. Layered beneath the gloss and the grit is the truth behind fame: everybody has an unguarded moment where their innate humanity is revealed.
Dave Parsons of Sham 69, JFK Airport Lounge, 1981
Theresa has been exhibiting her Vintage Punk Pictures since September 2004 on a never-ending tour of United States rock festivals, night clubs, art galleries and indie record stores. The exhibit, Punk Turns 30 has met with rave reviews, celebrity endorsements and has landed in Cleveland, Chicago, Nashville, New York City, Memphis, Tampa, Tallahassee, Milwaukee, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The associated website of photos and behind the scenes stories, www.punkturns30.com has logged over 940,000 unique visitors, with more taking a peek every day .
Tour graphics, poster/handbills by faggotybackpack design
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