The Crucial 3-0 - Post Punk Liverpool by Kevin Cummins at The Hard Day's Night Hotel Gallery, Liverpool from 22 May to 22 June 2009

The Beat Goes On at Liverpool SoundCity 09

The Crucial 3-0 is a brand new exhibition of images captured and curated by the prodigious British photographer Kevin Cummins. The collection documents the hugely influential careers of a selection of Liverpool's finest bands spanning the past thirty years.

Having vividly captured the public and private profiles of the original members of The Crucial Three, Cummins went on to document the rise and rise of the key performers from the city's post punk era up until present day which he now presents for the first time in a series of thirty stunning hand finished prints, created especially for this new exhibition at The Hard Day's Night Gallery.

The show features familiar and previously unseen images capturing the changing faces of Julian Cope and Ian McCulloch whilst also delivering the spectacle of a youthful Holly Johnson from Frankie Goes to Hollywood in his previous guise as bass player for Big in Japan and ever bizarre Pete Burns in his youthful outlandish form to name but a few. Other intimate portraits of featured artists include Pete Wylie, OMD, Half Man Half Biscuit, Wah!, Margi Clarke and Jayne Casey.

"The Liverpool scene was really vibrant in the late 70s, early 80s. 
It learned a lot from the success of Manchester and fought back in an attempt to regain its place as Music Capital of Britain," says Cummins of the exhibit. "The Liverpool bands always had a slightly cooler charm and confidence - which I think comes across in these images."

"We are overjoyed to be able to commission this exhibition for Liverpool SoundCity. Kevin's work is synonymous with all the key milestones of Liverpool music over the past 30 years.  It is time this work was seen and appreciated by a wider audience and SoundCity is the perfect platform to shout it out to the world."  Dave Pichilingi (SoundCity)

The exclusive exhibition has been commissioned by Liverpool SoundCity and is presented in association with Third Man Agency and the Hard Day's Night Gallery.

An exclusive boxed set of limited edition postcards by the Polite Card Company will be available featuring images taken from the show.

Notes to Editors

About Kevin Cummins

Manchester born Kevin Cummins has an international reputation as one of the world's leading photographers. His iconic portraits of rock musicians as diverse as Joy Division, The Smiths, Manic Street Preachers and David Bowie have graced magazine covers, galleries and bedroom walls the world over and are included in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery and The V&A amongst others. Kevin has published three critically acclaimed monographs to date and a fourth: 
Manchester: Looking For The Light Through The Pouring Rain will be published by Faber & Faber in September 2009. He has lived in London since 1987 but retains strong links with the North West of England.

For further information about Kevin Cummins and Sound City please contact: Ollie Drew / ollie@ideageneration.co.uk / 020 7749 6854 or kevin@kevincummins.co.uk