Brian Smith obituary | Photography

My friend Brian Smith, who has died aged 82, played a role in the British blues boom in the 1960s. His photographs of American artists have appeared on album and magazine covers, and later on CDs and box sets. He created iconic images of Howlin’ Wolf, T Bone Walker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Chuck Berry, and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.

While still at school, Brian saw Lonnie Donegan’s Skiffle Band play as an act at a Chris Barber gig at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall in 1954. He subsequently became a huge fan of Donegan’s, and learned about blues music from seeing him perform on many occasions.

Using an Ilford Sportsman camera to take pictures at the 1962 American Folk Blues Festival at the Free Trade Hall (a concert that Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Jimmy Page traveled to see) he photographed T-Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

During the 1960s, Brian also photographed many visiting blues, R&B, and rock and roll artists, including Little Richard, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Muddy Waters, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Bo Diddley, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Perry, Carl Perkins, and Duane Eddy.

At the Twisted Wheel club in Manchester he became the unofficial in-house photographer, and in 1964 helped set up R&B Scene magazine. He cultivated promoters and club owners, requesting — in advance — artist interviews and back passes. “He saved me a fortune on tickets,” he recalls.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, American and British record companies delved into the back catalogs of American blues and R&B artists and the vaults of American record labels. Brian submitted pictures to MCA for their US reissue program of Chess recordings. In the UK, labels such as Ace and JSP Records have used his images on their reissues and releases. The 16-disc Perry box set issued by German Bear Family Records in 2014 contains around 50 photographs taken by Brian of Perry in the UK.

This was also a golden age for blues festivals in the UK and Europe and tours for lesser-known and rediscovered American blues artists. Brian was always there, decked out for the cameras. His book, Boom Boom, Boom, Boom – American Rhythm and Blues in England 1962-1966, which includes 176 pages of photographs and stories, was published early last year.

Born in Prestbury, Cheshire, to Albert, a railway employee, and his wife Irene (née Jackson), a seamstress, Brian grew up in Wythenshawe, Manchester, and attended Chorlton Grammar School. He left at 17 and went straight to the Inland Revenue, where he served from 1960 to 2007, when he retired.

Brian has also been a key part of the team at Blues & Rhythm magazine, which I edit, write reviews and provide archival photographs. We also shared a love for Manchester United.

Brian leaves behind his wife Shirley (née Harper), whom he married in 1968, their children Gabriel, Angela, Anthony and Peter, and his sister Val.