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An unlikely new exhibition opens at a country hall deep in rural Yorkshire tomorrow.
Jimi Hendrix and Oasis will be some of the famous names jostling for position when Rock Icons opens at Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley.
Gered Mankowitz, the former Rolling Stones' official photographer, will be displaying images from his career in the early 1960s through to the present day.
Simon Lee, from the hall, said: "We are very excited about the exhibition.
"The spread of featured artists including Marianne Faithful, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Wham!, Kate Bush, The Eurythmics and more recent bands like Oasis and The Verve, means that there is something here for anybody that enjoys music or great photography".
The exhibition, staged in association with the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester, runs from tomorrow until Sunday, June 22.
Normal Hall admission times and charges apply, and for more information phone 01439 748283.
Updated: 10:51 Tuesday, May 20, 2003 |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Oasis are appearing at a manor house deep in the North Yorkshire countryside for the next month.
Eric Roberts met the photographer responsible.
At the age of just 18, Gered Mankowitz was effectively the fifth Rolling Stone. In these days of rock star hype, it's amazing to think that the touring party flying over to America in 1965 of the second biggest rock band in the world consisted of just seven people � the Stones themselves, their road manager, and Mankowitz, chosen to take their tour photos after producing the cover for their LP Out of Their Heads.
"I was treated like part of the band, and it was as wild as my 18-year-old fantasies could have taken me," he recalls. "There were groupies, parties and a limited
amount of drugs, but no orgies as such. During the 60 day tour there were only about half a dozen points where the sex side appeared. All the rest of the time it was a sex free zone, very hard work, flying through the night and staying in motels in one-horse towns.
"A good time was had, and it was fantastic to have two or three young women throwing themselves at you."
Mankowitz had become a central player in the Swinging Sixties scene, after taking pictures of the singing duo Chad and Jeremy and Marianne Faithfull, and he went on to work with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Free, The Small Faces, Slade, Kate Bush and, more recently, Oasis and Verve, as well as running a parallel career as a photographer for the advertising industry.
Now, an exhibition of his work, Rock Icons, is opening tomorrow in the unlikely setting of Nunnington Hall, a 17th century manor house near Helmsley owned by the National Trust.
Mankowitz admits: "When thinking of venues for my touring exhibition, a National Trust house would not be top of my list � I wouldn't have imagined they would have wanted to show photos like these. But I am a supporter of the trust, and I love the idea of my pictures in this setting, and of this juxtaposition of these two aspects of our culture."
The arrival of the exhibition at Nunnington is largely due to the enterprise of the hall's property manager, Simon Lee.
It also fits in with the trust's recent marketing campaign, which makes reference to the riches of the St Oswald family at Nostel Priory, and to the fact that the monks who used to live at Fountains Abbey, went without sex.
The campaign has ruffled a few feathers among traditionalists but Lee says: "We are seeking a different audience, and trying to attract young people who might not necessarily think they would want to go to Nunnington Hall."
The hall is best known for its period furniture rooms, including the internationally renowned Carlisle collection of miniature furniture, and for its walled garden, run on organic lines. But Lee has established it as a venue for a quality programme of exhibitions � having already shown a collection by the Children's Laureate book illustrator, Quentin Blake, he is planning an exhibition of original water colours by Beatrix Potter later in the year.
But for the next month, visitors will be able to see some of Mankowitz's iconic images of rock stars.
Looking back to the early days of his career, he says: "You sensed that something big was going on. People of my generation wanted to break away from the showbiz aspect of popular music, and from the images of frilly shirts and sparkly smiles. We wanted to do gritty, grainy and unsmiling photographs, to communicate something exclusive to my generation.
"All I wanted to do was have a good time and a lot of fun, being with people of my own generation I admired and respected. Nobody imagined that the Stones would be around for a couple of years, let alone 40."
[email protected]
Rock Icons, an exhibition of photos by Gered Mankowitz, will be on show at Nunnington Hall from tomorrow until Sunday, June 22. Phone 01439 748283 for further details.
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