Johnny Thunders' Shirt & Photographs

ROBERTA BAYLEY (B. 1950)

The Heartbreakers

signed, inscribed, titled and dated 'The Heartbreakers 1975 Jerry Nolan, Richard Hell, Walter Lure, Johnny Thunders Roberta Bayley.' (lower margin)

photograph

10 7/8 x 13 7/8 inches (27.6 x 35.2 cm)

Executed in 1975.

ROBERTA BAYLEY (B. 1950)

Self-Portrait

signed 'Roberta Bayley' (lower right); signed again, inscribed and dated 'ROBERTA BAYLEY W/ HER FIRST CAMERA (PENTAX SPOTMATIC) IN RICHARD HELL'S APT WEARING JOHNNY THUNDERS SHIRT 1975 Roberta Bayley' (on the reverse)

photograph

10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm)

Executed in 1975.

The Heartbreakers united three founding figures of New York's punk scene: Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan, who had left the disintegrating New York Dolls in March 1975, joined immediately by Richard Hell, who had departed Television the same week. Their original lineup held together for less than a year; Hell's final show with the band was in May 1976.

Roberta Bayley photographed the band in November or December 1975, within weeks of buying her first camera — the two prints here are from the 4th and 5th rolls of film through her new Pentax Spotmatic. The session was staged at Bayley's apartment on St. Marks Place on Richard Hell's concept: fake blood (Hershey's syrup, following the B-movie convention for black-and-white film) for a New Year's Eve gig poster at Sea of Clouds club, New York. The tagline ran: "Catch them while they're still alive." During the shoot, Bayley took her Self-Portrait, a mirror selfie in which Richard Hell can be seen poking his head through the doorway. The photographs were put immediately to use as that poster, and later appeared on the cover of Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain (Grove Press, 1996) — the best-selling punk history of all time.

Johnny Thunders' shirt — a child-sized cowboy shirt, characteristic of the tight-fitting clothing the Heartbreakers wore in this period — was left at Bayley's apartment after the shoot.

PROVENANCE:

From the personal archive of Roberta Bayley

Accompanied by the Finnish translation of Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain featuring the Roberta Bayley photograph and Johnny Thunder Shirt on the cover.