Music Photos by Murray Cammick - The Show Must Go On

10am-3pm Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm Sat

After the success of the 2020 Flash Cars show, Murray Cammick returns to Photospace.nz Gallery in Wellington with a selection of his classic music images. This music show is based on the earlier 2017 punk & new wave focussed exhibition that was shown in Sydney and Auckland. Additions to this show include photographs of Bob Dylan, Roxy Music, Kate Bush, Tina Turner and previously unseen Bob Marley images.

The Show Must Go On is a phrase we associate with the history of music, theatre and the arts. It is an ironic title in that music venues have been among the activities hardest hit by Covid-19 due to their being inoperable due to the nature of the pandemic.

The photographer is using this title to encourage people to once again visit and patronise the small art galleries of inner-city Wellington and inner-city Auckland. Many of those galleries have survived the pandemic and now need to regain their audience.

“I’m saying the art show must go on,” says Cammick, “and inner-city culture must thrive. We can start by planning an inner-city exercise route that takes us to the galleries of Cuba St and Courtenay Place in Wellington or Karangahape Rd and Lorne St in Auckland. Viewing art is compatible with mask-life and Covid-19 passports. Safety must be our first concern but we all need to put on our Autumn bucket lists: spend some money at an inner-city business,” suggests Cammick. “We have to avoid the cultural hearts of our cities becoming ghost towns.”

The exhibition of music images largely consists of high-quality black and white images printed using the traditional silver gelatin process by top New Zealand printer Jenny Tomlin.

The Wellington show has also added a few colour photographs of local legends from the 1980s and 1990s including Herbs and Shihad. These colour images utilise digital printing.

When RipItUp magazine started in June 1977, co-publisher Cammick and original editor Alastair Dougal were not aware of how radical the changes in music culture would be as the decade ended. Foreign punk / new wave acts like The Ramones, Iggy Pop and Blondie visited and locals like Suburban Reptiles, The Scavengers and Toy Love put some energy into the scene. These local musicians appeared on the classic New Zealand punk compilation AK•79.

New Zealand musicians were inspired by the success of Split Enz overseas and original writers like Hello Sailor, Th’ Dudes and Sharon O’Neill found respect for their own songs. In a time of cultural change, RipItUp and Cammick’s camera documented important cultural events such as Bob Marley’s 1979 visit to New Zealand and suburban cultural events like young band Screaming Meemees playing in a packed North Shore suburban hall.

For those who liked their music raw, seedy local venues were the place to worship and the Zwines and Mainstreet mosh-pits were where alienated youth gathered to enjoy the company of kindred-souls. Cammick captures the tribal, sweaty audience as well as the musicians.