July 1986: Alan Wilder at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco — waiting for Dave Gahan. Andre, the friendly semi-mohawked bodyguard/handler, is in the foreground, telling me off for taking photos.
Me with Alan in LA
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When: July, 1986
Where: Los Angeles, outside the Sunset Marquis hotel
And: I was waiting for Depeche Mode, actually, but jumped at the chance to get a quick photo and autograph when Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox drove up separately.
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Kirk & Tim on the tour bus
(Garry Beers actually took this photo on my camera):
And autographs from them both:
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When: 1985 or 1986
Where: Kyoto Hotel & The Fillmore, San Francisco
And: It turns out that I have more pictures of Big Audio Dynamite (aka BAD) than any other band. Seems about right, as I have seen them about 14 times — in three states and two countries, no less — and things with this particular group were really amazing from the start. The guys in the original fivesome (Mick Jones, Don Letts, Dan Donovan, Greg Roberts and Leo Williams) were all talented, smart, funny and worldly… yet still completely down to earth.
My friend and met BAD at their hotel in San Francisco before their show at the Fillmore in support of album number one. (We’d both loved the Clash, and so had discovered Mick Jones’ newest project by association.) As the only people there to bug them, we had a lot of chances to take photos with and of the guys.
A few weeks after we first met Big Audio Dynamite, their single, “E=MC2” hit number one on the British charts. As a fan of the UK music magazines, I had noticed a section in No. 1 magazine where people could send in their pictures with various celebrities. On a whim, I mailed off this photo of us with the whole group:
When: September 19, 1987
Where: Greek Theatre, Berkeley
And: Echo were playing a double bill with New Order, while Gene Loves Jezebel opened the show. Backstage after the show was chaotic — but you would hear no complaints from me.
Will Sergeant (heart) Jane Jetson
And Will’s autograph
Looks like I caught Mac pre-sneeze
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