Spike - PICTURE THIS: A PUBLIC IMAGE A collection of previously unseen photographs taken in la venues from 1978-1980

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to a father entangled in the city’s underworld who came
of age amid the tenements of the Lower East Side, Spike grew up in a world shadowed
by murders, prohibition-era legends, and backroom dealings. With his father’s
retirement, the family headed for the slower pace of North Miami, where Spike spent
his formative years. In 1975 aged 17, Spike left the safety of N. Miami Beach suburbia
for the wilds of Los Angeles to study photography at junior college.

“I met some professional photographers taking photos of celebrities and I started doing the same, one thing led to another, and I got taken on by a photo agency, Michelson Photos”.

He worked as a paparazzo with the likes of ‘the godfather’ Ron Galella of Jackie O fame.

“I was on a percentage deal, for a guy my age it was good money, so I quit college, I wasn't getting anything out of it, and I was already working as a photographer.”
Spike worked hard and long hours for two years, it was exciting work and his skill as a
photographer was honed sharper every day.

“Most of it was black and white so I rented a dark room at a community college, developed all my own film, and printed out the 8 x 10 photos to give to my agent.
I did that for about two years full time, chasing celebrities, standing outside expensive
restaurants in Beverly Hills, going to all the award shows, the Oscars, the Emmys, the Golden Globes, Screen Director's Guild. That was my life, but the competition was brutal and it’s not kind to people.

The competition was so acute that I had this experience where someone was smashing my car window on a regular basis. I would be covering at the Beverly Hills Hotel; I was parked a few blocks away on the street, I’d come back, and the window would be smashed. This must've happened about ten times. It's quite expensive as you can imagine, makes you fucking paranoid too, I never found out who it was.”

In 1978, whilst living in an apartment in Hollywood, across-the-hall neighbour Don
Snowdon, a music critic for L.A. Weekly, introduced him to The Clash’s ‘Give Em
Enough Rope’. Spike was hooked. This was quickly followed by local bands X, The
Go-Gos, The Screamers, The Germs, The Alleycats and so began Spike’s lifelong
love affair with punk.

“We’d park in a lot across from the Whisky, drink a six-pack and head over to the gig, I’d
read about the bands in the L.A. Weekly and get tips from friends. There was a good
scene for local acts and international bands would come through a lot too.

The Whisky and The Roxy were the best-known venues but there were others we would hit like the Starwood, and I’d be out most nights drinking, watching bands and taking photos. We’d often end up late at night at Barney's Beanery and Tom Waits would frequently be sitting in a corner writing; he lived at the nearby Tropicana Motel at the time.”

The Clash, with their British sensibilities and political rage, had a huge impact on
Spike’s life. He quit his job as a paparazzo and, for the next year, spent most nights
haunting the dive bars in West Hollywood and the Sunset Strip photographing punk
bands. His partners in crime were Englishman Bill and punk photographer Deborah.
In 1979 English mate Bill blagged an interview with The Clash who were over from
the UK by pretending to be a writer from the NME. Spike joined him and
photographed them whilst another photographer orchestrated the shoot.

“One of my favourite shots was from the Clash shoot, as the band were being prepped I
took pictures as a shoot within a shoot.”

The punk scene in LA was strong but Spike encountered other acts that weren’t
strictly in that genre, unlike the UK, the lines were blurred in the US.

“It was an exciting time, bands like The Specials and Madness played LA on their first US
tours, followed by PiL who I shot at the legendary Olympic Auditorium show on May 4th,
1980. A couple of weeks later I got into PiL’s American Bandstand performance and was
able to shoot them there too.”

In 1980, Spike funded, photographed, art directed and released Miami Beach’s The Reactions first EP and he was also a member of the Miami ‘cowpunk’ band Roy and the Hayheads.He moved to London in 1981 and spent the following 18 years bouncing between London, Athens and the Greek Islands, Istanbul, Paris, Thailand, and SE Asia by whatever means necessary.

Returning to the States in 1998, he settled in San Francisco on the recommendation of a friend from Berkeley, Shelly, who he had met in Thailand. He spent a few years working as a chef in an old-school Italian restaurant The Iron Horse, did an html internship at music streaming site, spinner.com owned by AOL, and eventually returned to the hospitality industry and worked as a catering chef.

During this period, he re-discovered American punk via the Bay Area scene and did
photography and web design for local bands The Eddie Haskells and The Twots. In his spare time, he was involved in progressive leftist activism and the direct-action anarchist movement as well as promoting the occasional punk rock and roll music night. He was also a member of the queer clown troupe The Drunk Clownz and could often be found at the Eagle bar’s Sunday afternoon Beer Bust in clown costume.

After 10 years in the US and several years running a rock’n’roll restaurant/bar on a Thai island, he returned to London in 2009 and started now ‘legendary’ punk night Garageland which has just celebrated its 15th year anniversary.

Spike is currently living in Brighton and running monthly Garageland shows at various venues
in the city and London.