Manchester based Photographer David Gleave will be having his first solo Exhibition at Cass Art Manchester, Oldham street in February. It will be a retrospective of his first six years in photography from the first images he made of Vini Reilly at his house in Didsbury right up to the present day.

David was the guitar player with Manchester band The Naughty Boys who had a cult following 1978 – 1988 and as a consequence a lot of the images are of bands and musicians.

David says “I was sitting playing guitar with Vini. He was crossed legged and barefoot on the floor as he does playing a Spanish guitar and there was light coming through a French window. I had a new camera, an entry level Nikon and Vini who is also a keen photographer posed for me while I experimented with aperture and shutter speed. The pictures came out great. Vini loved ‘em and so did I. That was it I was hooked”.

Around the same time I saw the photographs of Manchester photographer Samuel Coulthurst. Coulthurst took pictures on the streets of Ancoats and Salford in the last 20 years of the 19th Century. As I looked at the people 100 years later I saw that he had managed to somehow keep them alive for ever with the camera. From that moment I wanted to go out and find my own people to preserve forever in time.

The photos on display ( always people ) will include Noel Gallagher, Johnny Marr, Happy Mondays, Peter Doherty, Blossoms, Cabbage, The Blinders, Twisted wheel, Dust Junkies and many more.

There will be formal studio portraits, street portraits and travel and street photography from around the World.

The Exhibition will be from Friday 7th February to Friday 21st February with a launch on Thursday 6th Feb from 5pm to 9pm.