Smiths, The

This is a stunning photographic record of The Smiths' formative years. For many, The Smiths were the definitive alternative rock band of the '80s. A bracing antidote to Thatcher's Britain for the youth of the day, Manchester-based Morrissey, Marr, and Co. even approached something like mainstream success towards the end. But at the start, they were scruffy, uncompromising rebels. Paul Slattery was there, and took a series of band photos of great intimacy and power. Slattery was particularly close to The Smiths in those early days, and his images - many of them seen for the first time here - were an insider's work: informal, brash, exciting, and revealing. Seen together these photos form an exciting visual narrative on the work of an influential band that, for a few turbulent years, cornered the market in lyrical gloom laced with mordant wit.