On the Scene: The Leee Black Childers Memorial (NYC, 7.29.14) by Richard Boch

“Hello darling,” as only Leee could say it—so sad to see you go. Photographer Leee Black Childers passed away on April 6, 2014. On Tuesday July 29, his friends gathered at El Quijote, the restaurant adjacent to the Hotel Chelsea, sharing stories, memories, rumors and Paella. The crowd on hand, not to mention Leee himself, was part of a community and scene largely responsible for the radical shift in seventies sound and vision.

People began arriving at 3 P.M. and by 4:30 everyone settled into a seat. Tony Zanetta, Danny Fields and Pat Wadsley, stood up and spoke, remembering Leee from his days at Sixteen magazine and then Mainman, Bowie’s freewheeling management company. Roberta Bayley, a fellow photographer and the former door ‘minder’ at CBGB spoke of her friendship with Leee and his outpouring of love in return. Along with Linda Jean Meier, the afternoon’s organizer and host, both women were recognized as heroes of the day. Debbie Harry, Heartbreaker Walter Lure, Richard Hell, artist Duncan Hannah, Tom Wynbrandt, and photographer Bob Gruen all shared memories of Leee’s sweet, crazy and oddly innocent spirit. He was selfless but always searching, prone to both great excess and generosity. Roberta mentioned that Leee told her he loved her more than anyone. She was sure he said the same thing to every person in the room at one time or another—and each time he said it, he meant it.

From Max’s backroom to Middle America, London’s mid seventies heyday and New York City’s mayhem, Leee was there. All the beautiful faces he ever fell in love with—from the drag queens and rough trade to the Warhol stars like Holly Woodlawn and Jackie Curtis—from superstars like David Bowie and Iggy Pop to Jayne County, The Heartbreakers and Levi and The Rockats — they became his life, his legacy and the subject of his photographs. That was and is Leee Black Childers. ‘Good-bye darling’ was never part of the story.

Richard Boch 2014

Leee Black Childers RIP

Leee Black Childers - RIP

Just Daisy! Daisy checks out the Just Chaos! opening at Bookmarc

Our pal, Daisy, who usually checks in once in a while with her Letters From London, happens to be in NYC this week. Last night she attended the opening of the Just Chaos! photo show at Bookmarc in the west village. Here's what she had to say:

Met lots of punk rockers last night - ahem… maybe I shouldn't have started with the word "MET". Did you read the reviews of the Gala at the Metropolitan Museum's annual fundraiser Costume Ball the other day?  Someone on TV actually asked Vivienne Westwood who she was wearing,  and they didn't mean her Bradley Manning jewellery.

I read about the Gala in the Costa Coffee lounge at Heathrow. They have free newspapers. The Times of London loved it: "Crowns are the new Tiara's," they wrote. The Daily Mail hated it (probably because Lady Diana is dead and couldn't be there).  

I am a bit confused about it all.  It's not like the designers were meant to re-create 1976, were they?
I thought Madonna's outfit with her signature crucifix on her bottom was trying hard, and please, someone, give Sarah Jessica Parker something to eat.

Bookmarc is a clean and bright corner bookshop owned by Marc Jacobs. Yes the fashion designer.  I am glad he has a bookshop.  He used to work for Louis Vuitton.  Now there are 200 Marc Jacob stores in 80 countries. This show was organised by Roberta Bayley who invited Punk Photographers:  Janette Beckman, Stephanie Chernikowski, Laura Levine, Julia Gorton, Eileen Polk, Marcia Resnick, Lee Black Childers, Danny Fields, Godlis, Bobby Grossman, Bob Gruen, Chris Stein and Joe Stevens, to put a few photos each in the store windows and amongst the punk rock literature inside.

Sofia Coppola tins of wine and Pelligrino were served.

Because I had been a little thrown by the torrential rain in the morning, but decided to visit the local thrift shop to see if they had anything interesting, $15 got me a pair of red tartan trousers.  Perfect!
I didn't see a pair of converse at the show but I did have a wonderful time - this included:

John Leyland & Andy Schwartz

Speaking with John Leyland (nee SPIN now NYT) about going to the punk show at the Met.  We both hoped the Gala was successful even if the punk exhibit fails. I saw Leee Black Childers (another Warhol Factory man) but we couldn't chat because he was being interviewed all evening pretty much.

Randy Haecker

I admired Laura Levine's photographic career and she told me how she organises events at her shop upstate called The Mystery Spot.

Randy Haecker told me he's working on a Clash Box Set (I forget how many discs but there are quite a lot).  He had a Marc Jacobs bag and when asked to show-and-tell he didn't produce a shirt or a tie, but a book, nicely wrapped, by photographer SHEILA ROCK.  Sheila just had a book launch in London.

I met a real-life ballgirl for the Phillies baseball team:  Ms. Ronnie Norpel.  She's even written a book called Baseball Karma & The Constitution Blues. 

Howie Pyro & Jahn Xavier

I met Howie Pyro who told me his punk rock flyer collection is still up in the Bowery Electric and will be for a few more weeks. 

I stood with Jahn Xavier who could name most of the people on the sidewalk from his youth - and I mean YOUTH.  He was 16 when he played bass for Richard Hell.. he named the CBGB's waitresses amongst others...

My Smoking Life

I met a Jewish-Norwegian man who had given up smoking three days ago.  WELL DONE.  I may have said, it's a bit of a mystery why we smoke, isn't it? And he produced a typed - on a TYPEWRITER - paper - why he liked smoking.

The Huff Post team lead by Mark Sax were on the sidewalk.

Handsome Dick Manitoba and Handsome son Jake were present. 

Handsome Jake & Handsome Dick

It was warm.  It got dark.  Godlis took a last look at the window before heading off to his neighbourhood.

Someone said, "I can't believe I'm nearly 60."

"You have such great skin."

Someone else said, "That's because we don't go out in daylight.  Rock and roll isn't a daylight thing".

I hopped the uptown train with a good friend.  We talked about Dylan, and people we knew, and how we are going to raise some funds of our own, without mentioning google, internet, like it was 1976.

See more photos of the event here.

From left: Julia Gorton, Laura Levine, Bob Gruen, Godlis, Stephanie Chernikowski, Bobby Grossman, Marcia Resnick, Roberta Bayley, and Leee Black Childers.

Daisy's Letter From London: Best of 2012

 

1. 198 Gallery:  Blank Generation Punk Poster Exhibition - Daisy's friend from art school, Lucy Davies, now runs a great Community Gallery that hosted Gary Loveridge's punk poster collection…a good time was had by all!

2. Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson

2A: To ward off homesickness:  I listen to Radio Free Song Club 

3. Dexy's new album, One Day I'm Going to Soar, played in full at Shepherd's Bush (not a dry eye in the house).

4.  Stone Roses reform and play 3 sold out gigs in their home town, Manchester.  This is Gary holding up my new hat in Heaton Park (left).

6.  There is actually a sunny day in the summer and we sit on a hill by Alexandra Palace and have a picnic.  

5.  We played Jack White's fantastic but creepy new solo album Blunderbuss in the car.  Meanwhile Jack White wears BLUE clothes!

6.  Gary visits San Francisco, goes to see Rise and Fall of The Clash and meets up and coming Spanish filmmaker, Danny Garcia - introduces Daisy via Facebook, and Daisy starts transcribing interviews for his new movie Looking For Johnny (Thunders) and the flashbacks begin!

7. Daisy goes to Paris with Alexandra.  While Alex goes to her 30th high school reunion, Daisy enjoys Noir Blanche.  We stay in the crepe district, visit Samuel Beckett, buy a new umbrella.

8. Rough Trade Record Shop events:  We particularly enjoyed Jarvis Cocker reading from Mother Brother Lover.

9. Living legend, Lee Black Childers' book launch at Soho's Society Club.

10.  Gary goes to all of the Memorial events for 10th Anniversary of Joe Strummer's death. Namely:  

- The Arms Aloft in Acton Town gig at the Tabernacle Notting Hill

- Joe Strummer Memorial Poster Pop Up Exhibition at Tabernacle

- Meeting Joe Strummer - a play by Paul Hodson at the Cockpit, NW8

- London's Burning (a particularly good performance by The Phobics) 

- 100 Club weekend of gigs, Remembering Joe: 10th Anniversary Memorial Weekend, which featured Spizz, The Duel, Ruts DC, The Latchicos, Glen Matlock, Eddie Tenpole, and TV Smith

 

Daisy's Letter From London: Nov/Dec 2012

Dear Karatee Boogaloo,

Wee are just back from Chelsea, darling. We went the Vinyl Factory and hung out with Leee Black Childers amongst his photographs of Blondie, Iggy, Mapplethorpe rent boys etc. Seems to me he can't take a photo of someone and not make them look sexy….

The photographs are in his new book - and he got a thumbs up from us when he appeared at an In Conversation event at The Society Club, a tiny Charles Dickens type coffee shop/bookshop (yes, they have those in London) to intrepid Monday Nighters who braved the freezing temperatures.

Leee had just flown in (staying at the St. James Hotel with hot tub… it's where all thee rock and rollers stay when in town)… and maybe he was little jet lagged, i don't know, but he got little tearful when he talked about Johnny Thunders and Sid Vicious.

It is because of Andy Warhol that he became a photographer. Apparently, Leee used to blag his way in to record company parties back in the day for the Buffet Table. He told Andy Warhol that he got in by pretending to be a photographer.

Apparently, Andy Warhol pointed to Jackie Curtis who was smoking a cigarette and drinking a cocktail at the Factory. "She thinks she is a woman." The implication being you don't have to pretend. And Leee was transformed.

Andy Warhol bought a photograph from Childers for $10, but, said Leee, instead of cashing the check at a bank, he took it to the Chelsea Hotel where it was well known someone would pay him $50 dollars for the Warhol check… And, apparently, David Bowie asked him to work for MainMan… and that's where he learned he could order Steak Tartare, Shrimp Caribe and Limos and Tours and all sorts…(Continued after the jump)

Nightclubbing gets the rockabilly bug with Levi & The Rockats (1979)

Pat & Emily check in this week with a report on the burgeoning rockabilly revival scene in NYC via London, circa 1979. Personally, I'm happy to have finally found out the back story of how Leee Black Childers met Levi & The Rockats via The Heartbreakers.

“Levi and the Rockats were the first young rockabilly band with Hollywood glamor,” said Childers. "They were gorgeous."

Get the whole story here.

More Bande à part plus Bob Gruen speaks

As mentioned this summer, the Bande à part book is out & available now. Just as a reminder, it features photos by featuring photography by Roberta Bayley, Leee Black Childers, Stephanie Chernikowski, Danny Fields, Godlis, Bobby Grossman, Gerard Malanga, Maripol, Billy Name, Anton Perich, and Marcia Resnick

As a part of the festivities, the Clic Gallery in Soho will be hosting an exhibition to highlight the photographers featured in the book from November 10 thru January 3. There is an opening reception on November 14.

November 10, 2009 - January 3, 2010
Opening Reception: Sat., Nov 14, 6-9pm

Clic Bookstore & Gallery
424 Broome Street, New York, NY 10013
Tue-Sun 12 pm - 7 pm
212-219-9308


(J. Rotten courtesy of BobGruen.com)

Also, this Saturday, as part of the Brooklyn Museum's Who Shot Rock & Roll? exhibit, none other than Bob Gruen will be appearing & talking about his life & career in photography. Details as follows:

Saturday, November 7th at 5:30 PM
Tickets are available free at the visitor center in the museum lobby at 5 PM
200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York (718) 638-500
(NY Subway # 2 or 3 train to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum of Art)

Gotta cigarette?

Here's another very cool event taking place next weekend in Long Island City - an opening for a photography exhibit by Leee Black Childers called "Gotta Cigarette?"

This simple request opened a new world for Leee Black Childers. In 1968, standing alone in the summer night on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, a shy, newly arrived boy from Kentucky, Leee was approached by an impressive figure. Towering over him, wearing a giant blonde wig, extremely thick black false eyelashes, and 6 inch platform boots was the woman of his young nightmares. His first New York Drag Queen..."Gotta cigarette?"

Leee didn't smoke and he didn't have a cigarette, but he soon learned that that was not the answer to the question. There are boys in Rome, Paris, and Hong Kong who know very little English beyond "Gotta cigarette?" In darkened streets and alleys all over the world, this is the accepted introduction of one outcast to another. In this night world of prostitutes, drag queens, pickpockets, con artists, and rent boys, Leee found his inspiration.

Starting as his high school yearbook photographer, he carried this experience into a career in photography, specializing in rock and roll. From Andy Warhol's Factory to David Bowie's Ziggy to London's Punk Anarchy, Leee was there. During his travels with various bands, he continued to photograph drag queens and rent boys he met along the way. He has put many of these photographs together now into a show featuring some of his most memorable discoveries.

Sadly, the natural habitat of these night people is now being erased. Times Square in New York, London's Soho, and other traditional "seedy" neighborhoods are being turned into family friendly tourist spots threatening the survival of their previous citizens. But, ever resilient, Leee found that his favorite people have adapted to the future and carried their activities successfully into the future and into the internet.

In this exhibition, Leee is showing a selection of drag queens and rent boys who have played a memorable part in his life alongside a number of recent photographs of the new boys of the internet -- boys who are just as beautiful and charming as the boys of the grand old days of 53rd and 3rd, but now available, from all over the world, in the comfort of your own home screens.

Opening Reception: Sat., Sept. 26, 6-9PM
Subdivision Art
Tel: 718-482-1899
48-18 Vernon Blvd - take the #7 Train to Vernon Blvd (one stop from Grand Central)
Long Island City, NY 11101

Bande à part: New York Underground 60’s 70’s 80’s

Originally published overseas a couple of years ago, and touring internationally since as a gallery exhibition, the wonderful photography collection Bande à part will finally see the light of day here in the US in September thanks to Gingko Press.

A comprehensive expose of the New York Underground in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Bande à parte is a collection of photographs taken by those who were the eyes in the darkness, the insiders among the outsiders of art.

What distinguishes this group is that they are not professionals in the sense that taking pictures wasn’t really a job, it was a compulsion, something they had to do. Billy Name was a major domo at the silver Warhol Factory, Gerard Malanga was a poet and Warhol’s painting assistant, Danny Fields was a mover and shaker in the record business, responsible for the management of such talents as Iggy and The Stooges, The Doors and The Ramones. Even those who were photographers by trade were not the kind who waited for assignments, they were self-taught anthropologists who wanted to document their time, their place. And clearly, these pictures tell their stories better than words ever could.

Features photographs by Lee Childers, Billy Name, Anton Perich, Maripol, Roberta Bayley, Godlis, Bobby Grossman, Danny Fields, Stephanie Chernikowski, Marcia Resnick, and Gerard Malanga.

It can be pre-ordered from Amazon right here.
See more photos here.

208 pages, Paperback, 9'' x 11 ¾'' (230 x 280 mm)
120 color and b/w illustrations, English
ISBN: 978-1-58423-272-8
$ 35.00

Mr. Leee - When He's 64

Leee Childers birthday party at Delancy Bar
Friday July 24th
8:30PM - 2 AM
168 Delancy Street @ Clinton