Photos 1983-1988 by Steve Wainstead
Jump to the new stuff
WARNING! I made little attempt to compress, reduce or otherwise make
these Net-friendly. These are LARGE pictures in jpg format. Since a number
of these are on loan right now, and my photos are spread out amongst
my posessions it will take a little while to shape this "gallery."
These are not my best photos, by far. They are a few OK ones. It
would take a lot of navel contemplation to come up with
a good scheme to present these things, due to the change in my style
over time and my intentions when I took them. At the outset though,
and throughout, I had a passion for Cleveland music and documenting
the Cleveland scene, so this "gallery" will eventually contain a lot of images
of people and bands you never saw/heard of.
Thanks to Todd Heckeler for cleaning up the Spike in Vain photo.
Check out his site
Blackened Teeth.
- (Above) Spike In Vain, the Pop Shop, around 1984.
In the early days of my photo career I just shot color snapshots. Here
is one of the first long-exposure shots I did in a club. Spike
In Vain featured four guys who frequently rotated on their instruments
and gave the band a weird multiple personality sound. There are very
few bands as unique as they were, and they have over three albums of
recordings. Robert Griffin was a member and went on to start Scat Records
and Prisonshake.
- Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys at the
Variety Theatre, 1986. When they played here in 1983 at the
Engineers Building (long since razed for the Society building) he wore
a sweatshirt with "Dennis Kucinich is GOD" written on it. (Dennis was
the mayor who stood up to the banks and big business here, and as a result
the banks put the city in default on its loans.)
- Plasma Alliance, Kent, Ohio, JB's Down, around
1987. Plasma Alliance appeared on the Peace comp, put out a 7",
and featured Jimi Imij on vocals, who started with a band called
Zero Defex. The Kent scene is peripherally related to the Cle scene,
yet has always been very distinct and experimental by comparison. "They
sound like a Kent band" would be something a friend of mine might say.
- A gratuitous shot of Keith Morris of the Circle
Jerks, at Peabody's Downunder around 1988. Note the leg brace.
- Husker Du at the Phantasy Theater, around 1987.
They toured a lot and I photographed them at least five times.
- The Plague, at some AmVet hall around E 300th.
Date unknown, sometime in the late 80's.
- Les Black of the Pink Holes. This is a shot
from a Photo Illustration class assignment. I had to come up with an ad
design, and this was originally combined with a "product shot" inset in
the foreground. If you've seen this before, it might be because it was
published in Joe Public's This is Cleveland fanzine.
- Death of Samantha, 1986. I could do an
entire site on DOS. I shot all of their album covers, most of their
tours and publicity photos, and some of their studio sessions as well.
- SteveO, the DOS drummer. This is the color
shot he used to hand out (throw at the audience, really) at the live
shows.
New stuff as of April 1998
- Les drinking Cheese's Beer, Cleveland Underground 1985
- Cheese Borger, bass player, Pink Holes,
Cleveland Underground 1985
- Death of Samantha practicing in Charlotte Pressler's
basement, around 1988
- Self portrait with Floyd and Danny going to the bathroom,
1988, some closed movie theater in Lakewood
- Freddy Pants, Pink Holes, Cleveland Underground 1985
- First Knifedance show, Cleveland Underground 1985
- Tommy Dark (Knifedance), Cleveland Public Theater,
late 80's
- Offbeats at the Variety Theater, St. Valentine's
Records showcase, 1986
- Starvation Army at Pat's in the Flats, 1988
- Tim Kelly, Starvation Army, Subterranean Underground, 1987