Stagedoor Johnny

DAVID CORIO
Backstage 1977-2000
(Café Royal Books)

Café Royal, as regular OL readers may know, usually specialise in photo books documenting the social history and lives of ordinary folk in the UK.  In this case, they have departed from that template a little and turned their lens, or rather that of Rock photographer David Corio, backstage to snap away at the unguarded, and posed, moments of some less-than-ordinary folk backstage at their concerts in New York and across the UK, over an ambitiously long 23 year timescale. So, we get snaps of Simple Minds, The Slits, The Birthday Party, and Aswad, alongside Chaka Khan, George Clinton, and Madness in NYC, Denis Brown watching the other bands off stage at Clapham Common, and even a snatched shot of James Brown arriving at the stage door of Hammersmith Odeon.

The majority of Corio’s subjects, though, are 80’s post punk and indie acts, captured in such exotic locations as Braintree and Clapham Common, and at places like The Venue or Hammersmith Odeon.  There are The Modettes looking pleased as punch to be at the Albany Empire, a dishevelled looking John Cooper Clarke in a suit and tie, several of The Specials chatting to each other at an open air gig in Leeds, U2, and even  one of Sting! To be frank, it’s a right old mixed bag and if you are expecting glamour and pop stars at play, you may be disappointed.  Some look bored and glum, hanging around waiting for their soundcheck, or to go on stage.  Others pose for the camera, or even appear resentful of the intrusion in a ‘Wot you lookin’ at?’ sort of way, with Eddie ‘Tenpole’ Tudor glaring at the camera like he is going to hit it. What this collection captures well, though, is the endless hanging around that characterises most backstage areas, all of which are uniformly cramped and graifitti’d.  So no, glamourous, it ‘aint!, but everyone pictured here wants to be there. 

However, I can’t help but feel that this doesn’t add much of substance to our understanding of either the historical, cultural, and social background of any of these acts and the time they existed in, or of them as individuals.  They will all have been photographed many times over, and these shots differ little from many others of them, aside from their unguarded, intrusive even, nature. There is no explanation given of why the period 1977-2000 was chosen (other than that is when the shots were taken), or any logical theme or structure, other than collecting these backstage snaps together into a 36 page booklet.  To me, that makes it rather a weak link in the series. For fans of any of the acts concerned, it may offer some small additional insight into their heroes, but personally, I doubt I will be going back to this again myself.