Medusa – 3 March 1981
I am in the process of scanning and restoring a decent haul of negatives showing performances by The Chameleons, Here & Now, Medusa, Que Bono and Wanda and the Dentists.
At the time I was also helping to run Gigs Live Music Club, I was a full-time student at Bolton College of Art & Design – studying visual communications (really just a fancy label for graphic design). Part of the course included photography, although for me this wasn't a specialisation, it was a core component. It's no surprise that I'd often have a camera around my neck at gigs – but never, as far as I recall, at The Derby Hall. This was simply because I was too busy to stop and take photos, often working the door, the bar and the lights on the same night.
I'm still in touch with a few of the people I was at college with, and one of my oldest friends, Martin Mackenzie, mentioned that he might have some negatives tucked away. After a few days' hunting, he let me know that he had several neg bags which looked like Gigs performances. They include The Chameleons, Here & Now, Medusa, Que Bono and Wanda and the Dentists.
Here is the first complete set of images, of Medusa performing on 3 March 1981 – the singer, Pete Nicholson, was also in our college group.
Medusa: Pete Nicholson (vocals), Colin Bowers (rhythm guitar), Terry Norris (lead guitar), Mick Sanderson (drums), Pete Buckley (bass guitar).
I'm now in the process of scanning these in and retouching the photos. Obviously, these are forty-five years old so their condition isn't perfect, but it isn't bad either. Thankfully there have been some great advances in technology, so unless I want to approach this from a masochistic perspective, all that is required is to:
Pop them on a decent light box
Rephotograph them
Import them into ON1 Photo Raw
Change them from negative to positive
Perform some basic cleaning and cropping
I've then been using AI to do the restoration work for me. I always have some concerns about AI inventing things which aren't there, but in this instance it does what would take me four or five hours per photo in under five minutes. From an ethical perspective, I am labelling images as 'cleaned and restored using AI' so there is some clarity, and I often publish both versions side by side for comparison. I aim to retain both copies, but the AI versions certainly bring the shots to life.
The original photos were all shot using a flash, so that does somewhat kill the atmosphere. Digital cameras were years away, and shooting in a darkened room on film, especially on the hoof, was far more of a challenge than it is now. I'm sure something could be done with AI to change this, but I'm being careful not to mess with the past too much.
I aim to upload all of this to the Manchester Digital Music Archive, and they will also be added to The Derby Hall's archives.
