|
The images from the book Wild Dayz by Beezer are now online in the archive.
View all images from Wild Dayz
The book is a collection of images shot by Bristol photographer Andrew ‘Beezer’ Beese in the mid 80s many of which are of The Wild Bunch, later to become Massive Attack.
Beezer was a close friend of The Wild Bunch and other Bristol hip hop crews and was able to capture on film the rich urban culture at the heart of the underground music and art scene prevalent in Bristol at the time.
Massive Attack’s musical influence is well documented but this collection of images shows how it all started. Many of the shots are of the Wild Bunch performing at the Dug Out Club, the infamous Red House Jam and at St Paul's Carnival, but there are also many more shots from festivals and events and a selection of portraiture. "Bristol had a very healthy scene at that time, both for live music and DJing” Beezer recalls. “In 1984, Technics just brought out these DJ decks, all my friends were DJs, they would play all kinds of records-funk, punk, post-punk and then a lot of US hip-hop and electro stuff was coming in. There was also the graffiti that people like Goldie were
doing. But we had no idea what it would escalate into."
This book has previously only been available as an import from Japan where it was
originally published in 2004.
BUY WILD DAYZ BOOK
|
|
Like Chatterton, Cary Grant and Blackbeard The Pirate, Andrew ‘Beezer’ Beese was born in
the city of Bristol – on October 22nd 1965. The youngest of five, he went to at St. Mary
Redcliffe and Temple School.
SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS
"I left school in the early 80s with fairly low grades, due to me going out a lot between the
ages of 12 and 16. There was a brand new audio-visual course going on at technical college in
Bristol, so I borrowed a camera from a mate, put together some photos," says Beezer.
"I didn't have a clue what I was doing but I was accepted on the course. I did a documentary
series of photos at a very rough boy's school in Southmead in Bristol. There, I met a religious
education teacher who was putting out a book called God Rules, OK with kids from broken
families reciting bits from the Bible. She asked me to take the photos, and that was my first
book."
BUY WILD BUNCH PRINT
This could have been the start of a righteous calling for the young Beezer, but wicked bass
lines and the devilish pleasure of all-night parties won the battle for his soul. "Bristol had a
very healthy scene at that time, both for live music like Mark Stewart and the Maffia and DJ-
ing. In 1984, Technics just brought out these DJ decks, all my friends were DJs, they would
play all kinds of records - funk, punk, post-punk and then a lot of US hip-hop and electro stuff
was coming in. There was also the graffiti that people like 3D and Banksy were doing. But we
had no idea what it would escalate into."
Escalate it did, and the word soon spread outside of Bristol. "For me, the peak was about '85,
'86, the Wild Bunch threw some of the craziest parties ever to rock the town.” Members of
this crew of beat junkies would go on to light lanterns acoss the world as Massive Attack with
Nellee Hooper going onto produce Bjork, Madonna, U2, Soul ll Soul, Sinead O’Connor and
many more etc etc
A childhood friend of the Wild Bunch boys Beezer captured those crucial early years with this
rare documentation of an emergent youth culture that helped shape later urban lifestyles. He
recalls. "The Bristol guys would go up to London to play with the other sound systems and
sometimes combine to hold big warehouse parties. These were completely illegal events
attracting 700 or 800 people in a freezing cold warehouse with a bathtub full of beers, and a
massive sound system the vibe was incredible almost mystical. There was attitude, but none
of the egotistical face we see too often now."
BUY ST PAUL'S PRINT
TASTE THE BASS
It was a hyperkinetic scene Beezer was determined to record, and he obviously had a knack
for capturing the moment… he takes the viewer on a voyeuristic journey through Bristol riot
city, through the no go areas where even the police fear to tread breathing in the carbon
monoxide sucking in the lead. There is a spontaneous, relaxed feel to the shots in the book
(mainly black-and-white), perhaps a reflection of his easy-going character, and the fact the
subjects were all friends out for a good time.
"I knew most of the people around me, and they knew me. So it wasn't a problem hanging out
with the camera. I put my own darkroom together at home, so I'd take photos, develop them
and show them to my mates the next day."
"Despite the heavy American influence in fashion and music (members of The Wild Bunch
even adopted nicknames like Mushroom, Daddy-G, and 3-D), various aspects of the
Bristol/British experience helped shape a different style-not least the pervasive presence of
dub music.
"The reggae sound systems were a massive influence; lots of small events, with about 300
people, mainly black, huge towers of homemade speakers. Technology was very un-advanced,
very raw."
It was a time of very high tension, which you can feel in Wild Dayz as you turn the pages…
thugg lordz/delinquent disco /terrace anthems/casual violence/lout couture. This was the
Disunited Kingdom of the 80s – it was Madame Thatcher; it was the running battles of the
miners' strike; it was the stop and search sus law; the inner cities were tinder boxes; it was
the summer of a thousand fires. First St Paul’s, Bristol then Toxteth, Brixton, the list goes
on…they were harrowing/dangerous times he portraits.
Against such a backdrop, a uniquely UK scene was being shaped in Bristol, although it took
some time for the city to work its sound onto wax. By the late 80’s however, Nellee
Hooper's flair for production helped London's Soul-2-Soul take the UK by storm and in the
90’s there emerged ‘trip-hop’ (perhaps one of the most annoying labels ever coined by lazy
music writers eager to hype the next big thing). Whatever the tag, the new Bristol sound,
perfected on Massive Attack's Blue Lines, Portishead's Dummy or Pre-Millenium, Tension by
Tricky, formed a cannon of brooding, introspective and emotionally charged music to
counterpoint the bravado and violence of US hip-hop.
BUY 3D PRINT
|
