LEGENDARY Echo photographer Ian Wright returned to his former snapping ground this week to help the Duke of Gloucester officially reopen the Globe in Stockton after its £28m rescue from dereliction.
On Wednesday evening, Ian held a one-man show to launch his new book, which is a history of the Globe and features many of the extraordinary pictures he took backstage at the height of the Beat boom in the early 1960s.
Ian grew up in Spennymoor, moved into Darlington and went to Gladstone Street Secondary School where a teacher, Arthur Soakell, got him on a Duke of Edinburgh photography course. When the duke came to town in 1960 to present the awards, Ian took the pictures – his first job, aged 14, was to cover a royal visit.
The Northern Echo’s editor, Harry Evans, took Ian on as a darkroom assistant when he was 15. Evans noticed the growth of the teenage craze for Beat music, and despatched “Wrighty”, the youngest member of staff who understood the craze, to get the pictures.
Evans launched a weekly supplement, Teenage Special, full of Ian’s pictures, which is said to have sold an extra 30,000 copies on a Monday, such was the teenage appetite for their new stars. It granted Ian a backstage pass – even if, too young to drive, he did have to cycle over to the Globe to get his pictures.
His book, Curtain Up: The Globe 1935-1975, tells some amazing stories in the conversational style that has made Ian, and his wife Lauren, such a big hit on the cruise liners, such as this one…
OCTOBER 8, 1965, was the third time Ian had photographed the Rolling Stones (above). Before the show at the Globe, Ian was backstage with Mick Jagger, talking cricket – Jagger wanted Colin Cowdrey of Kent to captain England whereas Wrighty favoured Yorkshire’s Brian Close.
A roadie interrupted them, telling Jagger he was on in 10 minutes.
Ian went to the orchestra pit to get his pictures.
“It was a wild, more menacing atmosphere than I had experienced before,” says Ian in the book.
“In the centre of the stalls was a group of 20 Teddy Boys, unusual for a Stones’ concert, as it was always girls.
“As soon as Jagger appeared, there was loud booing and hissing – these yobs were turning up the ante. Security could not get to them as they were in the middle, things were getting out of hand, and many of the girls looked terrified.
“Next thing, a nine inch spanner whirred above my head, bounced off the metal covering the floodlights and clattered into Charlie Watts’ drum kit.
“Then I saw Jagger in a spin-like jump. He finished with his back to the audience, carrying on singing while fumbling in his trouser pocket.
“Eventually he pulled out a handkerchief which he put over the side of his face.
“He turned. Facing the audience, I could see he was bleeding profusely from a cut over his right eye, blood was dripping onto his shirt and pants. No one, least of all Jagger, knew what had happened.
“At the end of the number, management closed the curtains. I’d managed just one photograph of the incident (below).
“Then I was backstage. Jagger was being attended by a member of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade. I tried for another photograph, but, alas, my flash failed.
“George Skelton, the Globe manager, arrived holding a collection of coins recovered from the stage. Each had been filed down to produce a razor-sharp edge.
“One of the ushers said he has seen a Teddy Boy, standing and screaming and throwing something.
“It was one of these coins which had miraculously missed blinding Jagger by half an inch.
“A doctor arrived and administered stitches. I phoned the office to alert them.
“Next day there was my photograph on the front page of The Northern Echo with the best headline I have ever had, courtesy of Harold Evans: ‘Blood from a Stone’.”
Beatlemania at The Globe on November 22, 1963, as a nurse helps a female fan for whom it has all become too much. That was the night that JF Kennedy was assasinated - Ian saw the Beatles react to the news, and how the thousands locked out in Stockton
The Beatles at The Globe on Stockton, by Ian Wright
Ian Wright's new book is available for £25 from The Globe in Stockton
READ CHRIS LLOYD'S FULL HISTORY OF THE GLOBE
SEE MORE OF IAN WRIGHT'S AMAZING AND HISTORIC IMAGES FROM THE GLOBE
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