I could finally be myself, or at least find out who I really was,' he says.įrom that day forward, Grecco went out every night, trolling the bowels of Boston from one basement to the next, always with a camera in hand. 'I found I suddenly joined a club where everybody belonged. 'That was my introduction to punk,' he says, recalling how the smell of cigarettes and sweat did little to mask the odor of the Rat's beer and vomit soaked carpet. The underground club was known as 'the Rat' - Boston's answer to New York City's legendary punk venue, CBGBs. He followed the throbbing sound of a local Boston band named ' La Peste' to the basement below his favorite late night food spot. Michael Grecco was an 18-year-old guileless college student from suburban New York when he first discovered punk music. Now the celebrated snapper has published a cache of images in a special collector's edition of his book: Punk, Post Punk, New Wave: Onstage, Backstage, In Your Face, 1978 to 1991.'You slept with someone new every night, you were always doing drugs, you were always drinking too much,' he said, while summing up his time as a punk rock 'chronicler and a participant'.He also recalls road tripping to NYC and crashing on the floor with Sex Pistols guitarist, Steve Jones, so they could party with The Clash backstage during their two-week gig at Bonds Casino.Grecco tells of the time Billy Idol's manager offered him cocaine as a peace offering after he got in an argument with the 'Eyes Without a Face' singer.Grecco had a front row seat to the debauched early years of punk rock music in Boston as a habitué of DIY music venues like 'the Rat' - which he says was a basement that smelled like 'puke, beer and cigarettes'.Veteran punk-rock photographer Michael Grecco showcases previously unpublished images of The Clash, Sex Pistols, Billy Idol, Joan Jett, The Ramones and The Cramps ahead of his exhibit at Photo London art fair.EXCLUSIVE: Celebrated photographer releases never-before-seen images of punk rock legends like The Sex Pistols, The Clash - and tells the story of the time Billy Idol offered him a 'gallon bag of coke'
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