Aside from DJ, photographer is perhaps the most commonly misapplied job title in the world. Thanks to rich parents, digital technology and Flickr, anyone with a functioning index finger and a slightly skewed sense of their own talent can happily consider themselves a budding David Bailey, and somehow get away with it.

WORDS: STEPHEN PIETRZYKOWSKI

Inevitably, the web is a landfill of badly conceived photos of clichéd subject matter, all adding to the prevailing suspicion that culture is dead and we’re all fucking doomed to a future of crass self-indulgent art.  Music has felt the impact of this modern tendency relatively hard. Gigs are increasingly ruined by a million cameras held aloft by poorly-coiffured trustafarians, creating a sea of distracting crystalline light and worse still, a wealth of out-of-focus photos of over-exposed shit bands.

But if you’ve eyes that work and just a passing interest in alternative music, it’s more than likely that you have Gullick to thank for some of the more striking images of your favourite bands.  The Coventry-born photographer has made a habit of being in the right place at the right time, which includes Seattle just as grunge was gripping a generation of disaffected teens. His portfolio reads like a who’s who of really good, shooting everyone from Neil Young to The Prodigy, to Elliott Smith to Nick Cave. And that’s not even mentioning Nirvana, of whom Gullick’s photos have come to be recognised as the iconic images associated with the band.

He’s also a renaissance man of sorts, turning his hand to magazine publishing with the much vaunted Careless Talk Costs Lives and Loose Lips Sink Ships (who at the insistence of Gullick, used no photos issued by PR or record companies), and fronting his own band Tenebrous Liar, who’ve toured with Nick Cave and Bonnie Prince Billy among others.

With an exhibition now showing in Brighton and the release of his second album scheduled for the latter part of 2009, Platform caught up with him in the 12 Bar and over a few cups of coffee, discussed his work and where he’s heading next.

Will Oldham – London, 1999 (I think…) Columbia Hotel. “Will wasn’t happy but we still enjoyed each others company.”

Hi Steve, seems you and I have something in common in that we’re both from Coventry, but there’s not been much good music from the area. What music were you into when growing up?

I was eleven when The Specials were around, but I was into Queen then. I still like all that music now.

You can’t wipe the past clean.

I tried to wipe myself clean of Queen. When I got into what was considered alternative music in the 80s, I tried to forget them. I did for a few years, but I came back to it. I listen to Queen a lot.

I’ve seen you dancing to Hot Space [Queen album] in a vest and pants before.

I’m sure you have. I did like The Specials, but not then because I liked Queen.  You see, in essence I think I’m an elitist prick. No one liked Queen. Everyone liked the Specials. So, I thought: “fuck that”.

Was it always music photography in particular that you were interested in?

That’s all I was ever interested in. I wanted to be a photographer from the age of 14 and started taking photos at gigs at 16. I moved to London in ‘87 when I was 20. Well, I tried to move to London and came down with some lad I went to college with, but he fucked off home one weekend and never came back, so I had no one to live with and had to go back too. But then I managed to get a job back in London a few months later and moved back again.

Neil Young – New York 2000 –  “Shot the same day as Lou [Reed] for the NME“

Did living in London help you develop your career?

Probably. There’s more stuff to take photos of. Everyone plays in London and at that time, hardly anyone played in Coventry. There’s a very negative attitude in Coventry. There’s a British kind of thing whereby we condemn achievement and in Coventry that seems amplified. They revel in lack of achievement. They revel in cynicism. If you play guitar, you’re a puff. Have you been to Coventry football matches?

Yeah, of course.

Coventry fans are unbelievable: “YOU’RE SHIT. GET OFF YOUR FAT FUCKING ARSE YOU BASTARD”. They shout that at their own players! I’m really glad I’m from there though, as I wouldn’t be the person I am.

Did it make you work harder?

It certainly did initially. You had to do well because you knew what you could go back to. I thought “I’ve got to stay away”.  But I love Coventry. There’s loads of good people, but they’re fighting a losing battle.

When you moved to London, how did your career start?

I started working for a goth fanzine called Helter Skelter. Dodgy bands, but it was good experience. Through that and the live photography I was doing, I managed to build a portfolio and I took that to show Sounds and they started giving me jobs.

Simple as that?

Simple as that, yeah. The first job they gave me was Screaming Trees at Fulham Greyhound in 1990 and that day changed my life. I went and bought their EP on Sub Pop and Superfuzz Bigmuff by Mudhoney on the same day. That changed everything for me.

Chan Marshall (AKA Cat Power) – London, early 00’s – “She played Bush Hall, I took some photos for Careless Talk… and some more the next day for Matador.”

What happened with Sounds?

I was working for Sounds and I’d been at some German festival and had stayed up all night printing pictures and I took them into the office the next day and they said: “we don’t need them”. I said: “what do you mean you don’t need them?” “They’ve shut us down”. Express Newspapers, who owned Sounds, had sold all the music titles, including Kerrang, to EMAP. They shut them all down except for Kerrang and all the people that worked at Kerrang were put on a bus and driven to the EMAP building. So then I was unemployed and it was fucking horrible.

What did you do with all your prints?

Good question. I don’t know where they ended up. Unemployed, I was walking over Blackfriars Bridge and saw Everett True, who I hadn’t seen since the previous November in Spain. He was working at Melody Maker as the reviews editor. He said he was really sad to hear about Sounds, and did I want to work for them. So I started working for them. ET liked to drink and I liked to drink, so we got on fairly well, certainly in Spain, which was fucking unbelievable to be honest. We had a Sounds vs Melody Maker drinking competition.

Who won that?

I think we agreed to call it a draw. John Harris was on the same team as me and he crashed out. Stephen Sweet was on the Melody Maker team and he crashed out too, but Everett and me, we just carried on. I think we stayed up drinking for a whole day.

Presumably because ET was such a big grunge/Sub Pop fan, he sent you over to Seattle?

I just ended up doing all the American bands. It was great.

Kurt Cobain – Springfield, MA. 1993 – “The singer from one of the best bands ever. This session was never commissioned.”

Did you spend a lot of time there?

Yeah, this was from ’91 until when Kurt [Cobain] killed himself.

Did you know Kurt well?

We chatted and got on.

Has the portrayal of him been accurate?

I don’t pay much attention to how he’s been portrayed to be honest. I’ve avoided the media coverage of him. I haven’t watched that Kurt and Courtney film. I’m not interested.

But in some way your photos of him have contributed to the portrayal of him?

I can only talk from experience. I found him to be a very nice chap and he was a massive music fan and a great musician.

INTERVIEW CONTINUES ON THE NEXT PAGE…