Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

My advice: This is the book to get that special person who loves both ’60s and ’70s rock and roll and photography—even if that special person is yourself. Gorgeously packaged in a case made to look like a box of Kodak photo paper, London Rock: the Unseen Archive is big and beautifully printed. It’s not too far off from looking at lovely 11 x 14 prints of these photos. And the photos! Holy smokes. Alec Byrne had access you just don’t get today. By shooting musicians on stage and hanging out after hours, this book gives a rare, raw look at the late ’60s and early ’70s UK rock scene. 

Starting at 17, Byrne shot all the heavyweights from the era, first for the music magazine NME, working his way in with the Stones and the Beatles, as well as the Who. He shot a lot of early David Bowie and captured Jimi Hendrix in that magical moment when he was living in London. He got the Yardbirds, Cream, Zappa, Donovan, Cat Stevens, Eno T-Rex, Bob Marley, the Doors, and the Animals, among many others.

What’s amazing—and heartbreaking—is that Byrne lost thousands of negatives in a fire that ripped through his photo agency’s office in December 1970. Then, when Byrne moved to California in 1975, the shipping container with his archive suffered storm damage, ruining hundreds more negatives. Looking at the amazing photos in this book, it’s gut-wrenching to think of what was lost, even if Byrne says the “the cream of the collection” was left intact.

London Rock delivers the goods on big, beautiful photos of great rock musicians, but as a book it satisfies on multiple levels. Byrne’s introduction gives a good taste of what it was like photographing the London music scene at the time without getting overly self-indulgent, as tends to happen with books like this. Byrne photographed many seminal moments, including the funeral of the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones, and he managed to get on the closed set of the film Performance, a feat he chalks up to just being 19: “There’s a fearlessness at that age—when you’re too young to know what’s possible and what isn’t—and I had it in spades.” Plus, at the back of the book, you’re treated to the contact sheets of the sessions from which many photos are taken. You get to see the outtakes, giving more context and, in some cases, seeing the full version of cropped photos. 

In the afterword, as a way of explaining the long journey to publication, Byrne writes that following his move to California in ’75, he was “committed to starting this new life and looking forward.” The photos remained boxed for decades, just barely surviving the Northridge Earthquake in 1994 and otherwise languishing until photo editor Drew Evans cajoled Byrne into doing something with them. You get the feeling Byrne and Evans took great care in putting the book together. It’s an obvious labor of love.

For those interested in seeing the images live and in person, the Modern Rocks Gallery in Austin, Texas, will be hosting an exhibition from October 19 through the end of December. 

Mick Jagger, The Marquee, March 1971 www.uberarchives.com

Alec Byrne

Bob Dylan, Isle of Wight Press Conference, August 1969

Alec Byrne

John Lennon, Madison Square Garden, August 1972

Alec Byrne

The Who, Keith Moon’s house, Who’s Next record release party, July 1971

Alec Byrne

Chuck Berry, 1972

Alec Byrne

Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger, Top of the Pops, May 1967

Alec Byrne

Keith Richards, The Marquee, March 1971

Alec Byrne

The Beatles, Our World Broadcast Press Call, June 1967

Alec Byrne

Bob Marley, Montcalm Hotel, July 1975

Alec Byrne

David Bowie, Beckenham Place Park, September 1969

Alec Byrne

David Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave, Festival of the Flower Children, August 1967

Alec Byrne

Brian Jones’ funeral, July 1969

Alec Byrne

Anita Pallenberg, Michele Breton, and Mick Jagger on the set of Performance, 1968

Alec Byrne


If you buy a book using a Bookshop link on this page, a small share of the proceeds supports our journalism.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate