Wainstead's Photo Gallery

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.

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
Husker Du at the Phantasy Theater, around 1987
The Plague, at some AmVet hall around E 300th
Les Black of the Pink Holes
Death of Samantha, 1986
SteveO, the DOS drummer

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