A unique and lavish photo album of London’s alternative nightlife scene, from punks through new romantics, goths, disco queens, soul boys, fetishists, rockers, cyberpunks and more. This is a lovely book, consisting of large monochrome full-page portraits of all these weird and wonderful night people from 1976 to 2015. Derek Ridgers was there, usually standing quietly in the corner, recording it all - and this is his testimony.
When Skin Two started, back in 1983, Derek took the portraits. He followed us to Hammersmith Palais for the Skin Two Rubber Ball. Murray & Vern, Crystale, Nikita, Debbie - there we are, frozen in time, staring through the lens at you. Der Putsch, Torture Garden, Submission, Club RUB, it’s a social history of transgressive nightlife. The Vortex, Blitz, Taboo, the Batcave, Madame JoJo’s, Camden Palace and The Wag are all there too. If you weren’t there during those years, you wanted to be.
I treasure my copy of The Dark Carnival and I’m sure you will treasure yours.
Large format hardback, 320mm x 230mm
216 pages.
Derek Ridgers is a photographer with a career spanning forty years. He is best known for his photography of music, film and club/street culture – photographing everyone from James Brown to The Spice Girls, from Clint Eastwood to Johnny Depp. During his career, Ridgers has worked for many publications, including Time Out, The Sunday Telegraph, NME, The Face, Loaded, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Independent, GQ Style and Arena. His previous books include: When We Were Young (Photoworks), Skinheads: 1979-1984 (Omnibus Press), 77-87 London Youth (Damiani).
