That's 'Mona Lisa quality'

Some of the most iconic music memories of the 1980s are set to go on display at Norden Farm.

The Altwood Road arts centre is due to host a collection of pictures by photographer Stephen Wright, who spent the decade photographing some of the biggest acts who ever plied their trade on the British Isles.

And at the centre of the exhibition is his famous image of the Smiths outside the Salford Lads Club, which featured on the inside sleeve of the band’s third studio album, the Queen is Dead.

As well as propelling the club to folklore, the image also became the most well known of the group, partly because of what photographer Wright called its ‘Mona Lisa quality’.

And like many such famous photos, it happened largely by accident.

 “I remember I was as nervous the night before the Salford Lads shoot as I was the night before I got married,” he said.

“At the time, the Smiths were huge, they were the darlings of the NME and I didn’t really do many shoots, I did mainly live stuff, but they had been pleased with the stuff I had done so asked me to do this.

“It was just a cold, shivery day in Salford and it should actually have been done by a guy called Anton Corbijn, who did the photos for U2’s album the Joshua Tree.”

It wasn’t just the Smiths who were caught in Wright’s lens however. Also featured are a whole range of artists and groups, including Miles Davis, the Sex Pistols' John Lydon, Nina Simone, Madonna and James Brown.