“What’s the weather like in Ordsall right now?” asks photographer Stephen Wright from his home in Reading – a cigarette in hand and a cup of coffee on the go.
To answer his question, it’s a characteristically gloomy, overcast December afternoon and drizzle is beginning to fall on the roof of Salford Lads Club, some 200 miles away from the man who took the pivotal photo that has provided the iconic institution with a lifeline for 40 years.
When he positioned Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce of the Smiths outside the youth club in 1985, framing them under the building’s terracotta arches, Wright says he had absolutely no idea the picture used on the inner sleeve of the group’s The Queen Is Dead album would pull fans across the world to that unassuming spot in Salford.
In fact, after Stephen shot five reels of film with 36 pictures on each, with his £150 Nikon camera, he faced an anxious wait to see if his shots would be deemed “okay” by record company Rough Trade.
He describes capturing the famous photo in “similar sounding Ordsall conditions, on a basic camera and in rotten dark weather.
“In November 1985, Rough Trade told me I was going to do a session with the Smiths. In the lead-up, I was quite nervous because I knew it wasn’t going to be sunny.
“It was Morrissey’s idea to go to Salford Lads Club,” he explains.
“I had shot them previously at Manchester Free Trade Hall, where he was wearing a stripy shirt, waving flowers about, then photographed them at the BBC a couple of times and the Palace Theatre.
“We shot in Salford, at the Lads Club first, then the other end of Coronation Street between the backs of houses for about half an hour,” he recalls.
The Smiths room at Salford Lads Club.
Smith then ‘failed’ to photograph the band next to the tiled mural of Lancashire inside Victoria train station due to the ‘criminally dark’ conditions before moving on to Manchester’s Arndale Centre.
“In hindsight, perhaps I wish I had lights, hair stylists and make-up artists to capture a higher-quality photo, but it was quite rough and ready and had a real grittiness which worked.
“I felt brilliant when Rough Trade accepted it. 20 years ago, it was accepted and hung up in the Salford Art Gallery, the Manchester Art Gallery and in the National Portrait Gallery in London – when I visit it makes me proud to see my own work displayed.”
Stephen speaks modestly about the impact his photograph has had on Salford Lads Club, Ordsall and the city as a whole.
“I am delighted to be an honorary member of Salford Lads Club because it is something, as someone from Reading, I wish we had here.
“A few years ago, someone giving a speech in the Lads Club said if I hadn’t taken the picture, it would have shut.
“But I would stress that without the hard work of the volunteers, and particularly the manager of the club, Leslie Holmes, putting in grants, holding conferences and events, it would have no chance of running.”
Salford Lads Club on a brighter day in Ordsall.
To celebrate the upcoming 40th anniversary of The Queen is Dead, the Club shared Stephen’s photograph on social media.
They said: “Taken in December 1985, that image became one of the most recognisable photographs in British music history and changed the story of our building forever.
“To celebrate the 40-year anniversary of The Queen Is Dead, Stephen Wright will be returning to the Club on Sunday 14 June for one day only, to take new portraits outside those same iconic doors.
“This is a rare opportunity to step into music history and be photographed by the man behind one of the most famous images ever captured in Salford.”
Portraits are £6 per person and free for under 16s. All proceeds support the club’s youth programmes, community work and heritage preservation. If you’d like to purchase Stephen’s prints, you can see his work here.
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