If most people who lived through the ’80s made a movie of their life, they’d probably soundtrack it with, I don’t know, U2 or A-ha or Tears for Fears. My ’80s biopic would be scored to Pussy Galore – probably my favorite band of the decade, and one whose three albums and four EPs bring me back to the first years of life on my own, post-college, making a precarious living as a writer and photographer. They were another major enthusiasm of Tim Powis at Nerve, and he made the rest of us fans (my then-girlfriend had a maddeningly not-so-secret crush on PG front man Jon Spencer), though they didn’t actually show up in town until the magazine was effectively defunct. I was without a steady gig then, but I begged a portrait session with the band during their two-night stand in April of 1988 at the Silver Dollar Room on Spadina. My big memory of the weekend was that Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D was playing the room in the basement under the club, and that Jon and the rest of the band were more enthusiastic about catching his show than doing their own gig.
Jon Spencer formed Pussy Galore at college in Washington, D.C. with Julie Cafritz, added guitarist Neil Hagerty then moved to NYC, adding Cristina Martinez on guitar and ex-Sonic Youth drummer Bob Bert on drums and junkyard percussion. Cristina had left and Kurt Wolf had replaced Neil Hagerty by the time I did my first shoot with them, while they were touring to promote their first LP (and – to me – undisputed masterpiece, Right Now!). They were cultivating a bit of a bratty reputation, so most of my two rolls of 120 film from the session are the band goofing around, pulling faces, and making it as hard as possible for me to get the sullen, iconic group portrait I hoped to take. I did, in the end, get two decent frames right next to each other, but decided against shooting the gigs in favour of just enjoying their cacophonous (but deceptively tight) show.
My friend Chris Buck also shot the band that weekend and ended up with some really nice portraits; my shots were harder to work with – beyond my meagre darkroom skills at the time – and would remain unseen and unpublished for at least twenty years until I posted one on my old blog a few years ago. I would, however get a second chance to shoot the band live a year later, when they were on tour again after releasing their Dial ‘M’ for Motherfucker record.
When Pussy Galore returned to Toronto in August of 1989, they’d had another lineup change, with Julie Cafritz leaving the band and Neil Hagerty returning. They played the Apocalypse Club on College Street and I ended up putting the band up in my Parkdale loft – the first of several times I’d give Jon Spencer and his bands a place to stay on tour. For some reason I was in an on-camera flash mood, and shot the show using a big new Metz potato masher flash fitted with a big bounce reflector. I also asked the band if we could do a quick portrait session in the dressing room, just as they stepped offstage, and I set up a light stand and umbrella, finishing off the last half of four rolls of Ilford film with the group.
Pussy Galore would be reduced to a trio with Spencer, Hagerty and Bert when they released their final posthumous album, Historia de la Musica Rock, in 1990. Jon and Cristina Martinez would found Boss Hog around the time the band was falling apart, and he would form the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion with Judah Bauer and Russell Simins just after Pussy Galore broke up. Jon continues to record and tour, and I’d end up with him in front of my camera again, but that’s a story for another day.
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