The man behind the lens on one of the most famous photographs of mid eighties Manchester legends The Smiths, as used on the inner sleeve of their classic LP, The Queen is Dead.
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A strange shot but most people at the time knew who it was immediately - Morrissey had toured throwing gladioli around on the 1984 shows Ive always hoped Levis would pay me lots to use it as an advert. Sadly not happened yet! Voted one of NME best rock photos of all time by the NME also used in NME Warchild exhibition.
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Stephen Wright recalls: "This is my favourite Morrissey photo - it is classic young Morrissey. The front stage area at the concert was like a massive rugby scrum, so there was no chance of getting photos. I climbed into the rigging on the side of the stage and hid. I could only afford one reel of film and had to walk home. This was a long way from digital cameras with hundreds of shots on a card! This and the Bum and flowers photo were shot the first time I got to shoot the Smiths and led to the Queen is Dead album sleeve session."
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Stephen Wright recalls: "Oddly The Smiths played at event which was part of a series of shows organised by Factory records when they had never signed with them. Morrissey half-stripped in front of an audience of thousands, and at least one shirt he threw to them was torn to pieces."
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A rare shot of the Morrissey and Marr standing close together during a pause in filming the Oxford road show. Stephen Wright recalls: "So this is the saddest Smiths photo for me. It was used on the NME front cover 1993 when the Smiths split. It represents the end of an era of simply great music that had also led to a massive rise in vegetarianism."
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Stephen Wright recalls: "A few hundred yards from the Salford Lads Club this is the other end of Coronation Street. The street sign looks as knackered now as it did then!"
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Stephen Wright recalls: "Shot at Johnny Marr's house early 1986 - All I can remember is waiting nervously whilst the hairdresser spent a long time on Morrissey's quiff."
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This photograph appeared inside the gatefold sleeve of The Queen is Dead album, this has become an iconic shot of the band. The impact on the Lads club has been well documented – For years fans have gone back to the Salford Lads Club and it has become a shrine to the Smiths fans who pose for their own version of the photo. All a bit like Beatles fans posing on the Abbey road zebra crossing. The Queen is Dead shoot itself was in December in Salford on a damp dark day. Stephen Wright recalls: ‘It should have been cancelled really as it was so poor for photography. We spent a bit of time at a couple of locations but the Salford Lads club was the key one. You can even see Johnny shivering in some of the images. Somehow the casual poses and the grim weather give the photos certain natural and gritty character and I love the way Morrissey stands there – arms folded and smirking slightly like the Mona Lisa. These days that image has been accepted as part of the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the Manchester Art Gallery and the Salford Art Gallery. All rather funny when the original film was processed in a bedroom / darkroom, with the chemicals kept in old drinks bottles."
