Ordsall<\/a> conditions, on a basic camera and in rotten dark weather.<\/p>\n\u201cIn 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\u2019t going to be sunny.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was Morrissey\u2019s idea to go to Salford Lads Club,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_1819-e1766750275792-1024x666.jpg\")
The Smiths room at Salford Lads Club.<\/p>\n
Smith then \u2018failed\u2019 to photograph the band next to the tiled mural of Lancashire inside Victoria train station due to the \u2018criminally dark\u2019 conditions before moving on to Manchester\u2019s Arndale Centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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 \u2013 when I visit it makes me proud to see my own work displayed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stephen speaks modestly about the impact his photograph has had on Salford Lads Club, Ordsall and the city as a whole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am delighted to be an honorary member of Salford Lads Club because it is something, as someone from Reading, I wish we had here.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few years ago, someone giving a speech in the Lads Club said if I hadn\u2019t taken the picture, it would have shut.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_0823-e1766750514226-1024x746.png\")
Salford Lads Club on a brighter day in Ordsall.<\/p>\n
To celebrate the upcoming 40th anniversary of The Queen is Dead, the Club shared Stephen\u2019s photograph on social media.<\/p>\n
They said: \u201cTaken in December 1985, that image became one of the most recognisable photographs in British music history and changed the story of our building forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Portraits are \u00a36 per person and free for under 16s. All proceeds support the club\u2019s youth programmes, community work and heritage preservation. If you\u2019d like to purchase Stephen\u2019s prints, you can see his work here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat\u2019s the weather like in Ordsall right now?\u201d asks photographer Stephen Wright from his home in Reading \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,34413,269,38824,52403,200962,11020,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-657249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-morrissey","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-ordsall","15":"tag-salford-lads-club","16":"tag-stephen-wright","17":"tag-the-smiths","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115789903447420170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\t\t\t<\/p>\n