Rolling_Stone_Australia_October_2017

42 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com October, 2017

CLASSIC

SHOT

Billy Bragg’s

Blooming

Backstage

Area

‘I

took this photograph of

Michael Stipe, Natalie

Merchant and Billy Bragg

backstage at The Ritz in New York

City on September 15th, 1990.

Billy had just played a wonder-

ful show, and had been joined

onstage by Michael Stipe and

Peter Buck of REM for an encore.

It had been diffi cult trying to

photograph Michael, Billy and

Peter in the same frame onstage,

as the lighting was pretty dark

and they were not very close

together. I had worked with each

of them in the past, and wanted

to go backstage after the show to

say hello. I also hoped I would be

able to take a photograph of them

together in the back. When I got

there, I was surprised to see that

Natalie of 10,000 Maniacs was

also in the dressing room. When

I asked to photograph the three

of them, they were more than

obliging. I think it was Michael

who grabbed the fl owers out of

a vase in the dressing room and

passed them around to everyone.

I really think the fl owers made the

photograph.”

Photographed by

Ebet Roberts