“When taking photos you’ve got to be in the eye of the storm to really capture that moment and Mark has always been that guy” Daddy G, Massive Attack
Tribe of Doris, Fire dance, October 1992
Sub Love, hip-hop crew featuring Jody Wisternoff (Way Out West) and DJ Die, March 1992
Ruffneck Ting, Jungle night at Malcolm X Community Centre, June 1994
Bogle Competition, Easton Community Centre, October 1992
Heat, Conscious Club, Trinity Centre, July 1994
Blue Aeroplanes, Ashton Court Festival, 1987
Celestine, 2006
Lupine Howl, May 2000
Phantom Limb, June 2008
John Stapleton, aka Dr Jam, Ashton Court Festival, July 1987
Bristol Hi-Fi; Daddy G, Mr Benn, MC Souls Unlimited and Queen Bee, 2009
Daddy G & Mushroom, Massive Attack, Galaxy radio session, March 1995
DJ Derek, The Park, 2006
Queen Bee, August 2003
DJ Krust, The End, Full Cycle records showcase, February 2000
Keith Tippett, October 2000
Carlton McCarthy, Autumn 1987
DJ Lady G, 2007
Ray Mighty, Smith & Mighty, February 2016
Massive Attack, October 2001
Roni Size and Krust, January 1996
Rob Smith, aka RSD, Smith & Mighty, October 2003
Onallee, Reprazent, August 2000
The Mighty Ras B, DJ, Elder, Community leader, 2007
Speaker stack, St Pauls Carnival, July 1991
RESPEC Community radio, St Pauls, October 1990
Sound System, St Pauls Carnival, July 1998
Music has been a massive influence in my life and photographing
Stapleton (aka Dr Jam, Dope on Plastic), the Moonflowers,
it has been a big part of my professional career. I have been
Sub Love, Phantom Limb and Rob Smith (aka RSD) of Smith
lucky.
& Mighty, pivotal pioneers of the ‘Bristol Sound’.
I have been chronicling Bristol’s music scene since the
Alongside these portraits are images documenting Deep
late 1980s, from the trance dance of drumming and fire
House nights at Trinity, early drum ’n’ bass ‘Jungle’ sessions
ceremonies, large music festivals, sweaty club nights,
at Malcolm X, St Pauls Carnival sound systems and street
influential and pioneering bands and producers, DJ moments
revellers, the crowds at Ashton Court Festival, a Bogle dance
and musical revelry. I’ve been privy to intimate moments
competition at Easton Community Centre. Music makers
of people immersed in and communing with something
and revellers appear side by side, expressing the diversity and
other than their normal sense of life or selves, through the
energy of the music scene across Bristol during a period of
transcendental medium of music. At the same time, I have
great creativity and change.
documented those creating and playing the music that makes this dimension of human exploration and expression possible.
The early days of popular Bristol clubbing were times of rapid change. There was an explosion of genres; discovering
Bristol Sounds, published to accompany the Bristol Photo
new forms and varieties of cultural expression. It was fresh!
Festival show High Volume: Bristol Sounds, represents a cross
I felt an atmosphere of excitement, innocence and naivety,
section of the city’s recent musical heritage both mainstream
exploring new frontiers; new ways to socialise, party and
and counter-cultural, drawn from an archive of tens of
express yourself. Everyone was welcome. There was no
thousands of images. The selection includes early portraits
particular dress code and everyone went to everything –
of well-known figures such as Massive Attack and Roni Size &
reggae one night, House or drum ’n’ bass the next.
Krust alongside influential but lesser-known figures like John
The Bristol scene exemplified the friendliness of those times.
the same ‘sea of sound’ environment, unifying people in one
I sensed an unwritten rule: “keep the vibes nice so we can all
pervasive energetic field, a shared experience of excitement
relax and have a good time.”
and joy. I think the image Bogle Competition says it all – there is a real connection and intimacy in this photograph
As a photojournalist, working for local and national press,
that speaks for itself.
I’d developed a nose for doing what you needed to do to ‘get the story’. Often the requirement was to capture the atmosphere of an event in just one or two shots for magazine commissions. But it wasn’t always easy. Those were the days of film photography – you didn’t always know if you’d caught the moment, and you wouldn’t leave until you were sure, so I would often be there for several hours. Of course I liked the music anyway. I would dance and immerse myself in it, feeling part of that collective experience. And that gained me the tacit acceptance and sympathetic eye I needed to be able to record often quite intimate moments; portraits of people uninhibited and unguarded, simply enjoying themselves and the ‘vibes’. Music is so important. It is a collection of energy frequencies. Publicly performed music and dance immerses everyone in
Mark Simmons, September 2021
Front Cover: Bristol Hi-Fi; Daddy G, Mr Benn, MC Souls Unlimited and Queen Bee, 2009 Back Cover: Flyers from Art & Sound of the Bristol Underground © Tangent Books 2009 & Queen Bee collection.
With thanks to Queen Bee, Jacob, Lorna & Cassidy, Grant & Sylv, Special K & Jo, Gary Thompson, Chris Burton, Richard Jones, Jenny Rowe, Simon Chapman, Rob Ayres, Justin Quinnell, Helen Moore, Tom Groves, Rudi Thoemmes, Tracy Marshall-Grant, Alejandro Acin, Eleanor Macnair, Jessamine Thoemmes-Tondowski, Josie Atkinson, RRB Photobooks.
RRB Photobooks, October 2021 Photographs and Text © Mark Simmons Designed by Jessamine Thoemmes-Tondowski Printed by Taylor Bros Ltd, Bristol 978-1-8382683-4-3 rrbphotobooks.com
BRISTOL PHOTO FESTIVAL