This photograph appeared inside the gatefold sleeve of The Queen is Dead album, this has become an iconic shot of the band. The impact on the Lads club has been well documented – For years fans have gone back to the Salford Lads Club and it has become a shrine to the Smiths fans who pose for their own version of the photo. All a bit like Beatles fans posing on the Abbey road zebra crossing.
The Queen is Dead shoot itself was in December in Salford on a damp dark day.
Stephen Wright recalls:
‘It should have been cancelled really as it was so poor for photography. We spent a bit of time at a couple of locations but the Salford Lads club was the key one. You can even see Johnny shivering in some of the images. Somehow the casual poses and the grim weather give the photos certain natural and gritty character and I love the way Morrissey stands there – arms folded and smirking slightly like the Mona Lisa. These days that image has been accepted as part of the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the Manchester Art Gallery and the Salford Art Gallery. All rather funny when the original film was processed in a bedroom / darkroom, with the chemicals kept in old drinks bottles.”
