Hail Murray! – The Bay Area Punk Photography of Murray Bowles 1982-1995, Anna Brown (Ed.)
Last Gasp, 777 Florida Street, Suite 201, San Francisco, CA 94110, Usa, www.lastgasp.com
The book was published 2024, it was sent to us for review in 2025, but was lost by the delivery service, now, since there was a photo exhibition in Berlin, the book (2nd printing Dec. 2024) found its way to the Trust HQ. And I’m glad it did! It is sad the photographer, Murray, who worked with Anna on the book several years on and off, never saw it finished, since he died unexpectedly 2019.
But I’m sure he would be very happy with how it came out. If you never heard of Murray Bowles, he was a legendary photographer from the Bay Area (San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and a few more citys) in California where he took photos of thousands of bands in venues (924 Gilman, Tool & Die, Ruthie’s Inn, Mabuhay Gardens, On Broadway, The Vats, Club Foot…) all over the Bay from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, he left a archive with more than half a million images. He was famous for taking great photos by just holding the camera over his head and shooting without looking through the viewfinder. Here you you find over 200 photos that document and celebrate the punk music scene. He saw some bands, before they became big, but that was never his goal, he wanted to be at punk gigs in the crowd and have fun. Wanna know a few bands in here? Too many to mention them all: Social Unrest, Operation Ivy, Neurosis, Crimpshrine, Dead Kennedys, MDC, Special Forces, Spit Boy, Melvins, Gwar, Soundgarden, NOFX, The Offspring, Green Day (they paid the printing of the book), Chumbawamba… He preferred to go to small punk venues, rather than clubs and you never saw him backstage or in the photo pit – since he would not go to shows like that anyway. You can read all that in detail in this book, the first few pages concentrate on the life story of Murray, he was a superprogrammer for computers and played also the Fiedel. Anna Brown and Aaron Cometbus did a great job introducing Murray to the reader. As well as with the book in general, the selection of the photos is unbelievable. So many memories come back, I had the pleasure to see many of the bands in those clubs in the Bay Area, after my first visit 1986 and later on. Going through the pages is like a time travel and it is fun. But, also for people who have never been there, they will know tons of bands and you will be astonished how great those photos capture the energy of the concerts. Since for Murray it was also important to have the crowd involved in his shootings. Yes, it is true, there is very many photo books out there, but this one is very special and worth your attention for several reasons. Needless to say the production and layout (by Paul Curran from MRR) are high quality, each photo is dated by year and the band/person shown is named. All photos are black and white and the format of the book is 30.5 x 2.6 x 22.9 cm. There is also a interview Anna and Aaron did with Murray for Maximumrocknroll in 2010 – not to forget the photo fanzine „If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I doing in the Pit?“ that was published by MRR in 1986. If you need another photo book, it is this, believe me. Lets wrap this up with a quote from the interview: „So what are you actually taking pictures of? The energy and interactions. The crowd as much as the band.“ 272 pages, Hardcover, 39,95 $ (dolf)
Isbn 978-0867199277
[Trust #239 August 2026]
