Photograph
Alan Adler
1984

A couple of Manchester luminaries were among the celebs being photographed for iD Magazine in front of a select audience at the Iain McKell Live Exhibition. Subjects included Billy Idol, Boy George, Andy Summers (The Police), Ade Edmondson (Bad Shepherds), Alan Adler (Thunderboys), Dawn French & Jennifer Saunders (Comic Strip).
Myself being an assistant curator I made a grab for the portraits of Edmondson and Adler (our shared Manchester connection). Both were featured in i-D magazine’s Flesh & Blood issue 24.04.1985 and also in the film of the event.

*Ade Edmondson started his career at Band on the Wall together with Rik Mayall while they were studying drama at Manchester University and it was incredible to see him return there with his band The Bad Shepherds and also to follow Manchester mahatma Alan Adler executing his trendsetting work on live TV creating a visual blueprint for the 80’s.
Edmondson famously fronted the spoof heavy metal band Bad News who, to get the record straight, preceded the other famous spoof band Spinal Tap by several months!
Iain McKell is one of Britain’s most talented photographers. His books include Fashion Forever: 30 years of subculture. New York, The New Gypsies. Munich: Prestel, 2011 and Beautiful Britain: Photographs from the 1970s to the Present. Munich: Prestel, 2012.
He exhibits in the UK, USA and France.
You can read more about Iain McKell and other contemporary British photographers at my blog or at webneel.com

**The two men in the background of the Adler photo working on a live piece are David Band and Fraser Taylor from "The Cloth" who produced record sleeves for among others Altered Images, Spandau Ballet, Aztec Camera,