By DCist contributor Elena Goukassian
Almost 30 years after The Smiths broke up, a new photobook and exhibition pays tribute to the band that played some of the most depressing upbeat songs of the 1980s. And the photographer’s journey with the band started right here in Washington.
When the 9:30 Club began to assemble materials for its 35th anniversary book a few years ago, they called photographer Nalinee Darmrong, who had worked at the old location and was known for collecting musical ephemera. “I had an IMP pass in my Smiths folder I thought they might want to use,” she says. When they saw all the photos she had taken of the band at the height of its career, club staff was astounded, and Roger Gastman, editor of 9:30 – A Time And A Place Oral & Pictorial History Book, encouraged Darmrong to publish them.
In the summer of 1985, right after Darmrong graduated from high school, she went to her first Smiths show at the Warner Theatre. A huge fan, Darmrong and ten friends staked out the hotel where The Smiths were staying that night, hanging out until sunrise, waiting for a glimpse and an autograph. When the quintet finally came down for breakfast, the patient group of teenagers not only got their autographs, but guitarist Johnny Marr put all of them on the guest list for two shows at the Beacon Theater in New York the following week. Darmrong already had tickets to the Philly show in between, so she decided to follow the band to as many concerts as she could. Rounding out the end of the “Meat is Murder” tour, Darmrong accompanied the band to California that summer, and dropped out of her first semester of college to follow them to Scotland in the fall. The following summer, when The Smiths launched “The Queen is Dead” tour, Darmrong again packed her bags and took off for the U.K.
Darmrong’s photographs document one of the great ’80s bands at their peak, but it wasn’t planned. “I’d taken a couple photography courses, but I wasn’t a pro at all. It wasn’t official in any capacity in the slightest,” she says. “The band got to know us and felt comfortable. They enjoyed the familiarity. They were just so open.”
One of Darmrong’s favorite photos is a 1985 group shot in Lerwick, a small town on the Shetland Islands. To get to the gig on the island, the band (and most of their audience) had to take the ferry from the mainland. “We had to cross these intense waters,” Darmrong remembers. “Everyone was puking except me.” That treacherous ferry ride created a certain camaraderie among the band and it’s fans; they all had to take the same awful trip to get there. In the photo, you can see the venue in the background, and although they were all sick on the boat, Darmrong says, “they look fine, and Morrissey is smiling! Apparently he never smiles.”
After Darmrong came back to the U.S. and The Smiths broke up (“I was devastated,” she says. “I couldn’t get into their solo stuff or any other bands they played in.”), she worked at the old 9:30 club for several years, went back to school and got a creative writing degree, worked for a political campaign for a few years, and had a son. About four years ago, she finally got back into music photography. Darmrong is now back at the (new) 9:30 Club, this time as a freelance house photographer. With her new book and exhibition, Darmrong has come full circle.
To prepare for her photobook and show, Darmrong got in touch with the former members of The Smiths. She says they haven’t changed at all. Darmrong was particularly excited to see Johnny Marr, the Smith who helped facilitate her crazy teenage adventure in the first place. “Johnny’s a gem,” she says. “He’s my guitar hero. I started playing guitar because of him. I remember I would look at myself in the mirror and dress like him and imitate him. It’s great to be connected to the band again.”
As for those pesky Smiths reunion rumors: “Never going to happen!” Darmrong says. “I’m 100 percent sure.”
Nalinee Darmrong’s photobook The Smiths is out now from Rizzoli International Publications. Her exhibition, “The Smiths: 1985-1986,” opens Friday, June 17th and runs through the end of August at Studio 1469, 1469 Harvard St. NW, rear.
LIsten to a playlist of Darmrong’s favorite Smiths Songs:
