GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER JONATHAN GANLEY introduces his book Crush: Photos from Post-Punk Auckland

I was in the wrong place at the right time. Auckland at the beginning of the 1980s felt remote from the eclectic music scenes of London, Manchester, or New York. Gigs by international bands were rare and highly anticipated occasions. My interests were photography and music, and I started photographing gigs to capture fleeting moments from what seemed likely to be once-in-a-lifetime events. 

The first group of photographs in this book were shot at gigs by international bands in 1982 and 1983.

The Clash were the first band I photographed with a direct link to British punk rock, and their spectacular and lengthy gig in February 1982 marked the end of an era.

The Auckland audience wanted White Riot, while the band had mostly left 1977-style punk behind, and played newer songs inspired by hip-hop, funk, and reggae.

The Clash were followed by a deluge of exceptional gigs over the following eighteen months; The Fall, New Order, and The Birthday Party were amongst the influential post-punk bands that I photographed, and each band had a huge impact on local audiences and musicians.

The remaining photographs cover the period from 1984 to 1990, and are mostly of New Zealand bands and musicians: the Marching Girls, Tall Dwarfs, Fetus Productions, the Verlaines, Chills, Able Tasmans, Straitjacket Fits . . .

Although the first flash of punk rock in late 1970s New Zealand was brief, the post-punk music that followed had an irresistible and sustaining energy.

CRUSH - Photos From Post-Punk Auckland presents a selection of the bands and musicians that soundtracked my life from 1982 to 1990.

Here are some images, the cover photo above is of the Clash's Joe Strummer at the Logan Campbell Centre, February 5 1982.

The contact strip images are Mark E Smith meeting Auckland Fall fans, at Sound Unlimited Records, Queen St, August 21 1982 

Crush: Photos from Post-Punk Auckland is available from May 26 2023 but also can be pre-ordered now (post free within New Zealand) from Flying Out here

Softcover: 275mm height x 220mm width 120 pages 145 photographs: $70( incl. GST)

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Grant McLennan at bFM, the station's first day of FM broadcasting: Sunday February 17 1985

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Headless Chickens filming 'poultry in motion' (director Lisa van Der Aarde out of shot), Birdwood Crescent, Parnell, August 1987.

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Jim Laing of the The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience, at the Gluepot, Friday, July 24 1987

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John Cale at the Gluepot, Wednesday, 7 September 1983

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This Kind of Punishment at The Nitpickers Picnic, Maidment Theatre Wednesday, July 24 1985

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Crush: Photos from Post-Punk Auckland is available from May 26 2023, on preorder now from Flying Out here. Softcover: 275mm height x 220mm width 120 pages 145 photographs: $70( incl. GST)

Jonathan Ganley‘s photographs have appeared in a number of books including Matthew Goody’s Needles and Plastic – Flying Nun Records 1981-1988, Ian Chapman’s The Dunedin Sound – Some Disenchanted Evening, and Shayne Carter’s Dead People I Have Known. His work has also been published in the music magazines Rip It Up and Volume as well as online at The Guardian and at the New Zealand music history website AudioCulture.

He has also contributed to Elsewhere with images of Thurston Moore, Nick Cave, Television and others, as well as essays and interviews in the photography realm (see here). 

His photoblog Point That Thing features a selection of his past and recent music images. CRUSH – Photos from Post-Punk Auckland is his first book.

Twitter: @pointthatthing / Instagram: @crushpostpunk / Facebook: @crushpostpunk

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