Thursday, 29 July 2010
I first photographed Niagara on the stairs outside the dressing rooms when her band, Destroy All Monsters, played at the Camden Music Machine back in 1978. It was one of the first shots I ever had published anywhere - in Zig Zag magazine. Twenty-eight years later, and completely out of the blue, she emailed me to ask if I wanted to take some more photos (that’s the wonder of the internet, I guess).
I was slightly apprehensive. In the late ‘70s she was just about the most beguiling female singer I’d ever seen. But, nearly three decades on, I wasn’t so sure how she would have aged. I wondered whether I might prefer to remember her as she was. Nevertheless, I agreed.
I don’t know what sort of deal she’d made with the devil, but I can honestly say she didn’t look much different to how I remembered her at all. It was absolutely remarkable.