3000 Hangovers Later

Is the title of a fantastic photo exhibition I went to last night. It features pics taken over the years by my mate Ray 'Roughler' Jones.

Some of the subjects turned up for the private view last night - myself included - and it was amazing to see the difference in people. There's a trio of photos featuring Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon and Mick Jones that are just fantastic and if I had £3000 to spare I'd have bought em all.

Most of the pics were taken in what used to be our local The Warwick Castle on Portobello Road. It's the only time in my life I ever had a 'local' and to be honest, the only time I've ever felt confident as a woman going into a pub on my own. These days it's a fancy gastro pub, but back in the 80's and early 90's it was a proper spit and sawdust place, with a difference. You had models, actors, rock stars, all kinds of future media superstars mingling with the builders and people who appeared to have no profession other than drinking in the Warwick.

Ray was kinda the lynchpin of it all, he started a magazine called The Roughler, which was like a Tatler for trustafarians, with features written by people who drank in the pub and subsequently went on to 'greater' things. It was called The Roughler cos of it's association with Rough Trade which was around the corner, I think Pete from the shop used to let Ray photocopy it there!

Anyway the show is only on this weekend at The Craze Gallery, 253 Portobello Road, London W11 as part of the Portobello Film Festival http://www.portobellofilmfestival.com until August 5. If you wanna see pics of Keith Allen when he had a full head ofhair or Paul Simonon looking like the most gorgeous man on the planet, head down there. You won't see the one of me looking like a reject from Bananarama tho, cos Ray gave it to me...phew!