Len Hooper

Len’s a great example, like Martin Booth, of people who weren’t professionals to begin with, but were inspired by punk to take up photography and take the interest further. Both had an innate skill for it. Len sold the occasional shot to the New Musical Express, but his primary aim was building up a portfolio. The bands he shot included Generation X, X-Ray Spex, Slits, Jam, Nico, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, The Stranglers, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Adverts and many more. Photographing Gloria Mundi from the audience, he approached the band, showing them his work, and they asked him to take band shots and portraits of them, which he did. He also accompanied them on one of their tours and did their PR stuff for RCA. All photos copyright Len Hooper

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I was never a professional photographer, but I’d always been into music. I’d taken photos at a few gigs like SAHB and John Cale. Initially, when Punk was coming in and I saw Gen X at the Roundhouse, I was quite cynical. Then I saw them again at the Marquee, and I thought, “I need to follow this!” I always used to go to The Marquee and Vortex, and it took off from there, really. I was working, but I’d do the gigs, process the photos within a couple of days, and try to get it down to the NME by the Friday. That’s how it worked.

90% of the time, I didn’t use flash and tried to use the stage lighting as much as possible. The Vortex lighting was so awful, though; they just used to leave the house lights on, which was strip lighting. This is why Gloria Mundi were good to photograph: they brought their own lighting and equipment. I photographed a lot at The Roundhouse.

I used flash for one of Ari Up of The Slits. I can still see the flash going off, and her lined up in the viewfinder (see below). But that was very rare. The Marquee tended to be better because it was darker.

I was always in the audience. People have noted that I often get a lot of audience hands going towards the artist. That was because, unlike other photographers who used telephoto lenses from the back, I was actually in the moshpit at the front. I was literally getting beaten to a pulp, but it was worth the effort to get that interaction and capture that little spark.

I included the audience in there with the artists. That was why I liked Punk, it was about the audience participation with the artists. No band is as good as a good audience. It was the same thing. It was that fusion of the two. So a lot of the pictures would include the audience (see the Adverts picture at the top of the page)

Favourite photo and why?

The first raw punk gig I saw was The Slits at the Vortex. The photo has Ari Up singing, and this guy is right in her face. They were bloody awful, but she was just wild, and the audience just went berserk. That’s when you knew you were onto something. I don’t know how I can still hear because my head was probably rammed down the bass speakers at that point (laughs). But it was very exciting, and the adrenaline was running.

For me, it was a project that I wanted to work on. In the end, I came out with a portfolio of a time and place that would not be repeated. I stopped photographing music almost immediately when punk stopped. For me, after that, it was just manufactured, whereas Punk was spontaneous.

Post punk Len continued in photography but branched out, always with that innate eye for composition.

I used to enjoy photographing on the streets and seafront in Brighton. I did a book where I’ve taken pictures from the late 70s, and the same pictures in the 2010’s and shown them back-to-back. But in between that, I went travelling in India, Nepal, Mexico and Guatemala and photographed.

A hardback book of Len’s called Up Yours! – Punk, Loud & Clear was self-published by Len with 98 pages of images and anecdotes about the subjects

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