For the cover of their fourth single, “News of the World”, Martyn photographed the band in Carnaby Street. Owners of the picture sleeve single will recall a colour image, Paul slightly apart on the left, Paul and Bruce in matching shoes and three button suits/ jackets, while Rick commits the mod-revivalist-fashion-faux-pas of teaming up a target sweatshirt with a bikers jacket.
Martyn Goddard recalls the session well: “We met up in Soho early on a damp Winter day – my shoot notes record this session as taking place on 9 February 1978. The band wanted a Carnaby Street theme, and the plan was to shoot the group walking down the street towards the viewer: as if you were passing them in the street. The dull weather wasn’t such a problem as Westminster Council had pedestrianised the street, covering the road surface with yellow, black and orange rubber flooring, and the early start meant that there was just the odd fashion store assistant scurrying to work. The shoot was necessarily short due to the busy location and the group members complaining at the early start and lack of breakfast.”
“As luck would have it I knew the Soho area well because my father-in-law ran an electrical contracting business in adjacent Beak Street and he was the fountain of all knowledge when it came to local cafés. I led the way to Frank’s Café around the corner where I shot one of the most informal and interesting rolls of 35mm film of the band.”
Two of those cafe portraits are available to purchase as signed limited editions.
In the black and white photograph below, you can see Paul Weller on the right having a cup of tea and a smoke, while the rhythm section tuck into a good fry up.
In the colour photograph, they all enjoy a cuppa.
Read all about it – Martyn Goddard’s photographs of The Jam are the subject of our exhibition, Golden Faces, on the gallery walls from 1 July to 8 August 2015.
