Steve Double

Steve Double recalls: “It was Noel’s idea to go to Jodrell Bank, the famous British radio telescope in Cheshire, and I have to say it was a stroke of genius. I shot a number of different angles, many where you can see the whole disc of the receiver but it is this shot where the girders and mechanism of the enormous structure are abstracted that really kicks it, visually. This shot became the defining Oasis shot for the early years.” 

Steve Double recalls: “A very young and very innocent Sinead O’Connor shortly before the release of her first album, The Lion and The Cobra. I deliberately lit this as a homage to the glory days of Hollywood still photographs and even used to print the image with a stocking over the lens to produce a soft glow! The small bruise under Sinead’s left eye is from where she was punched in the face by a bouncer in Newcastle a couple of days previously. Innocent but still able to provoke controversy at the drop of a hat.”

Steve Double recalls: “A simple, natural light shot in a mundane and mediocre Belgian hotel room but sometimes the simplest things can be the most effective. I’ve always enjoyed playing with close cropping of subjects faces (Michael Stipe once told me that I’d gotten closer to him than any other photographer) so it was natural for me to come in close to Thom and crop his face in-camera. What I didn’t realise at the time was that this had the effect of removing his lazy eye from the image and so transforming his visage. A testament to the power of Black & White photography.”

Steve Double recalls: “This was for a magazine piece on musician’s favourite films. Jarvis, being the grim Northern lad that he is, chose ‘Kes’ by Barry Hines set in his hometown of Sheffield. The poster of the film has the young star flicking a ‘V’ sign (the British equivalent of the middle finger) at the camera in grainy black & white so this was my mimic of that. What I didn’t know was that 6 months later at the Brits Jarvis would flick ‘V’ signs at Michael Jackson live on TV. Maybe this shoot inspired him?”

Steve Double recalls: “This is my homage to classic Hollywood film star photography with Joe, smoke drifting from his lips, Marlon Brando style! That’s the trouble with smoking, it’ll kill ya but it looks bloody cool! At this point in my career I felt that I could easily give up now that I’d done a killer session with Joe Strummer. Years later Mick Jones, Joe’s compadre in The Clash told me that this was the best picture he’d ever seen of Joe. Now that was praise indeed. “

Steve Double recalls: “Here are Steven Tyler and Joe Perry aka The Toxic Twins (so called because of their prodigious substance intake) in a suitably sneering pose somewhere in a long forgotten London hotel room. Back in the day I used to visit anonymous hotel rooms at least once a week to photograph the high and mighty; I think I can be forgiven for forgetting which one this was.” 

Steve Double recalls: “This image was taken just after I started working professionally and was the first image I had used on a magazine cover. The lighting is just a simple 12v halogen ceiling downlighter in a cramped hotel room hallway. The proof that you can create amazing images with the simplest of tools. Trivia fact: Alice’s real name is Vincent Furnier, he’s a born-again Christian who enjoys playing golf and he wrote the feminist classic, ‘Only Women Bleed’. “

Steve Double recalls: “AC/DC singer Brian Johnson is known for his northern working class cap… it’s his trade mark. But school-boy dressing guitar legend Angus Young usually sports a British public school cap or lets his curls run free. On the day of this shoot I was wearing my own flat cap with a very a la mode Lenin badge on the peak which somehow became lodged on Angus’s bonce. Et voila, perfect AC/DC picture.” 

Steve Double recalls: “One of the saddest shoots I ever had the misfortune to have to undertake. All was not well in the court of Nirvana on the European tour in support of In Utero and myself and the journalist had the bad luck to be thrust into the midst of it. Kurt was in recovery and near catatonic. His glassless glasses and Daniel Johnston t-shirt both pretty much sum up the futility of the experience for me. From the young hungry band I spent four days on the road with to this, in two years must be some kind of a record. The missus is just out of shot.” 

Steve Double recalls: “The ever charming and gentlemanly Chilli Peppers (NOT!) in uncouth, American’s abroad stylee. Actually Chad Channing was always very nice but Anthony and Flea always had a bee in their bonnets about dealing with anyone from the European music press. Still, they do give good image and plenty of Value For Money… if only they’d relax a little more!” 

Steve Double recalls: “Quite literally, the nicest man in rock, this was taken just as the first Foo’s album was released. Nobody expected the drummer, the frickin’ drummer from Nirvana, to come out with one of the greatest debuts of all time (on which he played all instruments and sang!) and then tour it. I have no idea why Dave decided to get down on his haunches and wave at the sky (greeting the aliens about to land??) but I’m very glad that he did. ”

Steve Double recalls: “Run DMC were shooting a TV show at Pinewood film studios and although we shot stuff in front of the James Bond sound stages and around the grounds it was this shot outside their dressing room which does it for me. ”

Steve Double recalls: “Nick and I had been doing shots around Saõ Paolo all afternoon when the great man suddenly went, “I know this place with a really good view of the city. Only thing is you have to buy a Caipirinha before they’ll let you out on the balcony.” Well no problem there! The only thing was, as we found out at the top of the long elevator ride, this establishment had rather large delusions of grandeur and refused entry to anyone in shorts. No, Nick was wearing long trousers but I was not. With the light fading fast I raced to the nearest clothing store, literally threw the money at them and told them to keep the change as I stripped to my pants and put on the trousers there and then. I raced back to the rooftop bar, chugged down a Caipirinha and dragged Nick out on to the terrace to get this cracker of a shot. “

Steve Double recalls: “This giant toilet was actually the stage set for an awards show in London. I was charged with taking photos of celebs after the show had finished but I had to persuade them by myself to make the trip to the stage. Kylie was surrounded by a gaggle of photographers all pestering her for a shot but I just sidled up to her and whispered in her ear, “Kylie, can a photograph you up on the stage please?”. She turned and looked at me and then took me by the hand and led me through the crowd! The fact that she is so tiny is only accentuated by the oversized stage set.”

Steve Double recalls: “The lovely and talented Ms. Gudmundsdöttir in a cover shoot for a UK music magazine. Björk was as charming and off beat as ever although understanding her mangled Cockney/Iceland accent can be a challenge at times. She was happy to play along with my slightly daft ideas for the pictures though with a papier maché mask from Mexico.”

Steve Double recalls: “This is the 747 (called the MGM Grand) that U2 used to fly between shows on the Zoo TV tour. It seats 30, has a passenger to staff ratio of 1-1 and comes complete with a full bar. This is just before we all boarded to fly to Charlotte NC for their next show. Sitting in the ultimate luxury of the plane, my journalist companion turns to me and says, “Bit of a change from the usual tour bus, ehh Double?” 

Steve Double recalls: “After flying to Charlotte on U2’s private 747 and limo’ing to the venue, as we enter the grounds we see that a circus has pitched up next to us. Bono turns to me and with a twinkle in his eye says, ‘Shall we do some pictures then?” Well who am I to say no to an opportunity like that! Of course U2’s obsession with contemporary show business fitted perfectly with the old world circus theme and as we walked in there it was, ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’. As they say in the biz, ‘A gift’”

“ 

Steve Double recalls: “The ultimate Robert Smith. Jet black hair, bright red lips, pale skin, a plain white t-shirt and the wonders of cross-processing film. This was actually shot in the entrance hall of an Elizabethan manor house in rural Oxfordshire that has been converted to a recording studio. And then converted into a photo studio by me.”