John Cooper Clarke Photoshoot from 1980

I was a third year student on the BA Design course at North Staffordshire Polytechnic and working on a magazine project .  I suggested to my tutor that I would quite like to do the feature on JCC and he just picked up the phone and started ringing round.  I was amazed when everyone said yes. What!

A couple of days later I jumped on a train and rocked up at Judy Totton's office ( the Bards agent ) near London bridge.  Green army surplus jacket, big hair and beard - a 1980 hipster if there ever was one!

Armed with an Olympus OM1, a couple of lenses, a bag full of film and absolutely no experience - we hit the streets and were faced with a wall of grey weather.  Ouch! So down the tube we went. Literally.

It was a tricky session with low light - but I'm amazed at how the Kodak TriX coped with it.  And looking back at them now its great to see details from the past - tube carriages with wooden floors, film posters for The Runner Stumbles featuring Dick Van Dyke!

These photos have been sat languishing in a folder for 40 years - which is a shame - so I gave myself a kick, got them scanned and here we are.