The Rock & Roll Odyssey of Tom Wright

Aug. 27, 2003

Tom Wright leans backs in his chair, sips his coffee and takes a puff on his Panter Silhouette cigarillo; his eyes widen as his mind floods with recollections of the past 40 years of his life.
Joining Wright is Tim Morris and Stacey Myers of the Grand Rapids based Exhibit Design Consultants. They show Wright a computer animated layout of how his photographic collection will be displayed, while Larry Knight owner of Northbound Publications in Central Lake explains that his new 30,000-dollar printer will reproduce images of Wright’s work to 60 feet if necessary.
The excitement heightens as the four visualize the emerging exhibition of Wright’s photography, a tour that will be similar in look and dollars to a major rock and roll tour, while putting together the finishing touches of a proposal to Coors, one of the companies that have expressed interest in sponsoring Wrights tour of hundreds of photographs he has taken as well as several artifacts including taped conversations and personal letters.
Without trying and having no knowledge of what he was actually capturing, Tom Wright photographed and recorded his way to becoming America’s most important documenter of the 1960s and early ‘70s rock and roll scene.

WRIGHT & THE WHO
Who?
Yeah, that’s right The Who.
It could be easily said that without The Who, the work of Tom Wright might be obsolete. It might be better said that without Tom Wright, The Who might not have become THE WHO.
Pretty bold statement?
Then just ask Pete Townshend, who signed an album cover to Wright, “For Tom, without whom I would not have whomed.”
Wait a minute -- this guy from Bellaire, that virtually few are familiar with, played a major role in shaping one of the greatest rock and roll bands in the world. How?
In simple terms, Tom Wright, in 1961, introduced Pete Townshend to two things that greatly influenced the young guitarist: American music and marijuana.
Those simple terms won’t do, however, when describing the relationship between two friends: Townshend the most intellectual rock guitar player ever and Wright the most philosophical rock and roll photographer ever.
Never heard of Wright? Well that will change. Approximately 120,000 of his 300,000 photographs of The Who, The Rolling Stones, MC5, Joe Walsh, Rod Stewart, Ted Nugent, The Faces, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Eagles, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan and dozens of others are archived at the prestigious Center for American History on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to the photographs, the collection consists of nearly 2,000-cassette recordings Wright made of casual conversations of the many rock musicians he encountered between 1967 and 1975.
The University of Texas Press will publish a book by Wright late in 2004, tentatively titled “Roadwork,” featuring 300 photographs and his insights and observances of what many consider to be the most pivotal time in the history of rock and roll. In addition, Wright will launch what he hopes to be a world tour of his work kicking off next September at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and then to various museums or exhibition halls.

TOUR PHOTOGRAPHER
Small Faces and former Rolling Stone keyboard player Ian McLagan noted in his autobiography the following about Wright:
“His photographs were so good, he became our tour (Small Faces featuring Rod Stewart/Ron Wood) photographer, touring with us for months on end, developing pictures in his hotel bathroom every night after the show and generally giving us 150 percent of his energy all the time.”
Wright became known around rock music circles for his ability to immediately develop the pictures he took, often developing pictures in bathrooms of tour buses, jets and hotel rooms. It became his calling card. Today his style and technique has made his photographs worth thousands.
Wright has made his way to the north woods of Michigan, moving near Bellaire over three years ago to collect his thoughts, organize his work, publish his book and develop a traveling exhibit of his photography. Six months shy of his 60 birthday, Wright is finding the pieces of his life coming together. What an outsider might see as the pieces of several puzzles mixed together in one box are actually just one big puzzle with the final pieces being found and put in place.
Yet 20 years ago Wright had given serious consideration to throwing away all of his photos and recorded conversations.
“I had met with a major publisher who was interested in my photos and my stories for a book,” said Wright. “When I showed them my portfolio they said great, but where are the shots of guys with needles in their arms or the groupies performing sex acts? They just wanted dirt and gossip and were not interested in the artistic aspect of the photos. So I just didn’t see the point in saving everything.”

MOTHER‘S ADVICE
Wright left the publisher frustrated but was convinced by his mother not to throw anything away until she contacted the University of Texas. The university was interested and met with Wright and accepted his collection.
“When the university accepted the collection and expressed interest in my book, things began to change,” said Wright. “They brought in John Payne, one of the top appraisers of antiquity collections. He appraised the Warhol collection, and even the Nixon collection for the U.S. government and the Nixon family, including all the Watergate tapes.”
The collection was appraised at $200,000 in 1989 and Payne believes that it will increase in value after the tour and book are published and Wright takes his place among the great photographers of the 20th century. Payne also has helped Wright to facilitate three showings of his work and two auctions at Christies and Sothebys, where his work not only sold higher than the auction house expected every piece auctioned sold.
Wright also might play a role in producing the next and maybe final Who album. After the completion the Who’s 2002 tour, Pete Townshend posted a letter to fans on his website talking about another Who album and that he had been discussing it with his friend Tom Wright whom he felt was one of the best musicologists and would be perfect for producing the album. Last October, Townshend sent a personal letter to Wright discussing the possibility of the project. Wright was at the post office in Central Lake late last fall and he received a phone call from Roger Daltry excited about another Who album and the possibility of working with Wright.
The album appeared to be on hold but there is now rumblings of Townshend and Daltry returning to the studio this fall and Wright has his passport ready to fly over and help his friends of 40 years recapture their musical magic of the 1960s. In recent weeks, Townshend and Wright have been corresponding by e-mail and they have renewed their dialogue about another Who album.

WORLD TRAVELLER
Confused?
Don’t be. Tom Wright’s life can’t be understood or defined easily; to simply say he took photographs of rock stars is an understatement.
Wright is a renaissance man. In another life he could have easily been a professor of philosophy, secure in tenure. Instead he followed his inner artistic calling.
To truly understand Tom Wright, his life and momentous contributions to pop culture one must start from the beginning. Maybe not from his birth in Alabama, where he lived for 14 years, but soon after that.
His mother remarried when he was 12 and his stepfather worked for the Foreign Service. At the age of 14 Wright was living in Rangoon, Burma and eventually Sweden.
Wright’s stepfather, after fulfilling his obligation to the Foreign Service, decided to become a writer and moved the family to Florida to begin writing a book. When publishers decided they didn’t want the book, he contacted the U.S. Air Force and joined as a captain and took a commission in London. Ironically, two weeks before moving to London, Reed’s book was sold and published and he would continue to write science fiction while in the Air Force and after he fulfilled his commission
In London, Wright found new opportunities. Instead of moving onto the base, his stepfather moved the family 25 miles away to an English neighborhood. Instead of having American friends from the base, Wright made English friends from the neighborhood. One of his friends told Wright that at the age of 15 you could choose “to get a job, get married, stay in high school, go to college or go to art school.”
“My friend was going to take his entrance exam at Ealing Art School and encouraged me to come with him. What an eye opener, because what I saw was four stories of beautiful women,” said Wright. “I also learned that you could smoke in class. In the American schools everyone was figuring out how to get out of going to class; at Ealing there was a line waiting for the custodian to open the door in the morning.”

ART EXAM
Wright went to take the same exam as his friend, which was to do a dozen sketches in charcoal, while an instructor stood by with a stopwatch.
“My friend was an actual artist and could do it. I was scared to death so I walked around the school to get up the courage to take the exam,” said Wright. “I ended up on the top floor where photography department was. It looked interesting, and in the instructor‘s office a map of the world hung with pins in it from all over where the students were from. Well there wasn’t one pin from America. So I went in and said I was always interested in photography. You didn’t have to take a test -- you just had to tell them you were real interested in photography.”
Wright was accepted into Ealing, but it was at the end of his junior year and his parents wanted him to finish high school, so he would wait another year and finish high school first.
After his senior year in 1961, Wright headed off to Ealing. It was at Ealing that Wright met a shy English boy who would play the guitar like no one had ever heard before.
“I had been at Ealing for three months. Our daily routine was to get high and get to class because school was so fascinating. Well, we thought we had discovered the secret of life with marijuana and were willing to share it with others. Well one day, a friend came to me and said you need to come to the commons area at the school and check this guy out playing the guitar. I was mesmerized.”
Years later Pete Townshend would tell biographer Dave Marsh that Wright was the first person his age to speak to him at Ealing.
“I went up to him and told him that I had a flat around the corner with a lot of music that he needed to hear and to bring his guitar,” said Wright. “Townshend got out of class at 4 p.m. and he was awestruck by the music. Townshend didn’t even own a record player and I had all these Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records.”

THE WHO & THE STONES
It was only a matter of time before Wright and Townshend became inseparable, smoking pot in Wright’s flat, listening to records and playing the guitar. Eventually the flat below Wright’s would become available and Townshend moved in. Townshend had a group at the time that played on weekends.
“I saw his group known as the Detours at the time and the guys in the band were not from Ealing. Roger Daltry played harmonica and John Entwistle was the bass player and they had a 30-year-old drummer. Keith Moon was not in the group at this time,” said Wright.
While Wright was deepening his friendship with Townshend, he was also developing his talent as a photographer. He was learning the art of photography versus learning the craft of taking wedding photos, family portraits or newspaper pictures.
“At Ealing they simply told us to learn a little bit about photography and to learn to take really good pictures of stuff you were really interested in,” said Wright. “The English eye was different then the American photographic eye, which was driven by Life magazine and the newspapers. In England people thumbed their noses at Life and thought it was god-awful. In Europe they were interested in arty photos.”
Wright felt that the photos on most album covers at the time were not eye-catching, except on some of the jazz albums, so his instructor encouraged him to go to the Ealing Music Club and photograph bands.
“It was dark in the club and the only light was from all the matches lighting joints and I sensed the people there didn’t want their picture taken,” said Wright. “However I did get to see the Rolling Stones perform that night. They were just a trio, Mick, Keith and Brian. They didn’t get booed, but they did get a lot of catcalls. The Stones only got to play when the other band took a bathroom break. I was blown away by Brian’s slide guitar playing.”

THE BRITISH INVASION
Wright was in the middle of what would later become known as the British Invasion. He likes to refer to it as art school music.
“I don’t know if it was easier to get into art school or what, but the some of the Stones, Beatles, Kinks and others were in art schools around England,” said Wright. “This music really grew out of their artistic sensibilities rather than their pursuit to become rock stars.”
Wright’s stay at Ealing was short-lived as he and his roommate were busted for pot in the fall of 1962 and he was asked to leave immediately. He had little time to collect his belongings and left his Fender guitar, record collection, the unfound marijuana and his flat to Townshend.
“I believe that Fender I left with Pete was one he would eventually smash on stage,” said Wright. “He never paid me for that guitar and I am sure he still has several of my records amongst his collection.”
Wright made his way to Paris where he took photos of writers and poets for book cover jackets, as well as café scenes, which he would print on postcards to sell.
“I think that my time in Paris was my best work from a photographic sense,” said Wright. “I was living a real Bohemian lifestyle and free to focus on the artistic aspect of my photographs.”

THE GREAT IMPOSTER
After a year he left Paris for Ibizia, in the Balearic Islands off the coast of Spain. The island was a tourist destination and one of the most concentrated art colonies in Europe. Wright took photographs and developed photos for locals and visitors. He was a regular guest at the home of one of the islands most colorful residents: Elmyr de Hory.
“I thought he was Hungarian royalty because he seemed to have so much money and he traveled the world often,” said Wright. “He would have these huge parties with big joints, lots of wine and artists. He would ask me to take passport photos of him. I knew something was up when he would have different looks for these photos.”
Wright‘s instincts proved to be correct as de Hory would later be arrested for being one of the greatest art imposters of all time. His copies of Van Gogh’s, Picasso’s, Matisses and Monet have fooled even the most knowledgeable art scholar. De Hory’s work today in some cases is of more valuable than the originals. De Hory’s life was documented in a book as well as an Orson Welles film.
After living about two years on Ibizia, Wright return to his parent‘s home in Florida and took a job with “Born Free” author Joy Adamson as an underwater photographer.
What happen to his friendship with Townshend?
“We corresponded a few times by letter and telegram,” said Wright. “I tried to convince him to come down to Ibizia because I felt he would have it made there as a guitar player. Pete told me things were moving forward for his band and that he couldn’t come.”
Everything changed again for Wright when he heard a Who song on the radio in 1967.
“I heard ‘Happy Jack,’ and didn’t know who the Who was, but I recognized Pete’s guitar playing,” said Wright. “I quickly sent him a telegram to congratulate him. He responded back to say they were coming to the U.S. to tour with Herman’s Hermits and The Blues Magoos and they would be in Florida and I should come to the show.”

TOURING WITH THE WHO
Wright showed up to the concert and took photos and Townshend suggested that he come on the tour to take photos of the band. Wright agreed and the next day took off with The Who.
“Herman’s Hernits were big so we were flying on a chartered plane to the shows,” said Wright. “Well, my first flight with them I started wondering if I did the right thing as this car was chasing the plane down the runway and the driver was wielding a gun. It turns out he was the father of a girl Keith had kept out quite late the night before.
It was a whirlwind after that as Wright traveled the country with the band. Upon the completion of the tour, The Who returned to England and Wright moved into the historic Albert Hotel in Greenwich Village (home to Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters) with The Blues Magoos. There, he spent time photographing the group for their second album release.
Soon The Who‘s management would call and ask Wright to be the band‘s tour manager for their headlining U.S. tour in 1968.
“They said they wanted me because I understood American money,” said Wright. “But what they really wanted was a babysitter for Keith Moon, and for me to make sure no one in the band ended up in jail.”
The intensity of the tour brought many twists for Wright. First Townshend and Moon seem to go into extreme trances while onstage and the power of their music would lead to the regular destruction of guitars, drum sets and amplifiers.
“They would work themselves into this frenzy,” said Wright. “I am not sure if they were consciously aware of what was happening. I do know we were running out of money from buying new equipment, so I went to Pete and told him we were down to his last guitar and he needed to cool it.”

KEITH MOON‘S ANTICS
Then there were the unpredictable actions of Keith Moon.
“I think it was in Nashville and we checked into our hotel rooms on the third floor,” said Wright. “As we were opening the doors to our rooms, Keith climbed the railing and jumped 35 feet with suitcase in hand into the pool.”
Then came the infamous Holiday Inn incident in Flint, Michigan.
“Pete and Roger returned to their rooms after shows, but Keith and John preferred to go out and have drinks,” said Wright. “Well Keith was only 19 and couldn’t get served because the drinking age was 21. So he came to me and asked if I could come up with a plan to convince people he was turning 21. I called the hotel manager and asked if he would put on the marquee Happy Birthday Keith.”
Wright also organized a birthday party in a conference room with record executives, radio personalities and the print media with the idea that articles would appear in the papers that Keith had turned 21 so he could show the articles to bartenders.
“It got kind of loud and the hotel manager came and told us to quiet down. Well Keith grabbed the birthday cake and smashed it into the manager‘s face. The next thing we know, Keith grabs a fire extinguisher and heads outside where he starts spraying the inside of several cars. Well, a bunch of us are chasing him and he heads out on the diving board. We think we have him and the next thing he turns and dives spread-eagle into the pool. The only problem was the pool was empty. He suffered some cuts and bruises, and we were lucky he didn’t die. Well, we were banned from staying at Holiday Inn’s after that.”

ROCKING IN DETROIT
While the antics of Moon were keeping Wright and the rest of the band on edge, the tour wasn’t.
“The band was getting frustrated with the lack of response from the American audience,” said Wright. “Sure, the shows were selling out, but it didn’t seem like the audiences were getting it. The guys were getting frustrated and thinking about throwing it in and heading back to England.”
It didn’t get any better when Premier Talent decided to pair The Who with The Doors. Wright wasn’t impressed with the band or their infamous lead singer, so he never photographed Morrison or The Doors.
“We didn’t know who they were,” said Wright. “My observation, and the rest of The Who felt the same, was that Jim Morrison was weird so we avoided him. He was constantly trying to incite riots. We were all glad when those Doors dates finally ended.”
Concluding their tour with the Doors was a bright spot for the group as they rolled to Detroit with just a few more dates left on the tour.
“When the bus pulled into Detroit we really weren’t looking forward to playing because it looked dreary and we were in the ghetto,” said Wright. “The Grande Ballroom looked liked a dump.”
Wright recalls the moment they opened the club door the energy inside forever-changed The Who.
“They didn’t have a backstage entrance, so we came in the front door. The place was packed and people were patting on us on our backs as we made our way to the stage. They knew the names of the guys in the band” said Wright. “You could sense that the night was going to be magical.”
When The Who took the stage that night the band was electrified by the response and Wright felt it was the band‘s best performance to date.
“It was amazing the crowd knew all the songs and they were into it like no crowd we had experienced before. After the show I commented to the club manager on how much energy and how magical it was. He responded that it was no different than a few nights before when Cream was there. To the manager and the crowd it was a typical Grande Ballroom night.”

BACK TO THE GRANDE
The tour concluded a few days later and The Who went to New York to prepare to return to London. Their management wanted Wright to continue on but the English government was unwilling to allow Wright back into the country.
“I knew that I couldn’t return to England with band,” said Wright. “The band‘s manager, Kit Lambert, felt they could pull some strings and allow me to return with band. Well that didn’t work so we said our goodbyes.”
While his days as The Who’s road manager were coming to an end Wright was getting ready to start a new chapter in his life. He would find himself returning to the Grande, in the middle of the exploding Detroit rock and roll scene, and eventually touring with Rod Stewart, Joe Walsh, The Eagles and several others.

In the Sept. 11 issue: Part 2 Tom Wright returns to the Grande to renovate it and to oversee some of the club‘s biggest shows, including the American premier of “Tommy.” Wright would also revolutionize the way large festivals would be managed and continue on the road photographing several bands.