Jeff Hammond talks to Tokyo-based photographer Beezer about his new book, Wild Dayz, and the legendary music scene it portrays.

Maintenance workers on Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge. 1985-1986

Andrew “Beezer” Beese was born in the city of Bristol on October 22^nd 1965. The Youngest of five, he went to school at St. Mary Redcliffe and Temple School.

In the '80s, London's traditional monopoly of the UK music scene faced rivalry from some unlikely places. Manchester may have grabbed most of the headlines for the debauchery up at The Hacienda, but down in the port town of Bristol, a vibrant scene was busy bubbling away. With its significant black population, Bristol already had a solid foundation of reggae and soul music. Then some beat-obsessed kids christened themselves The Wild Bunch and threw some of the craziest parties ever to rock the city.

Graffiti in support of the miners during their yearlong strike. 1985-1986

Years later, members of The Wild Bunch helped define the UK's emerging club sounds-Nellee Hooper went on to produce everyone from Soul-2-Soul to Bjork, and most of the others, well, they formed the hugely influential underground force Massive Attack. A childhood friend, Andy “Beezer” Beese, captured those early years on and are a rare documentation of an emerging underground youth culture that helped shape later mainstream lifestyles in the UK.

Smith & Mighty's Ray Mighty in front of 3-D's "Longest Day" graffiti. 1985-1986

Point and shoot
"I left school in the early '80s with fairly low grades, due to me going out a lot between the ages of 12 and 16. There was a brand new audio-visual course going on at technical college in Bristol, so I borrowed a camera from a mate, put together some photos," says Beezer, who was born and raised in Bristol. "I didn't have a clue what I was doing but I was accepted on the course. I did a documentary series of photos at a very rough boy's school in Southmead in Bristol. There, I met a religious education teacher who was putting out a book called God Rules, OK with kids from broken families reciting bits from the Bible. She asked me to take the photos, and that was my first book."

A self-portrait by Beezer. 1985-1986

This could have been the start of a righteous calling for the young Beezer, but wicked basslines and the devilish pleasure of all-night parties won the battle for his soul. "Bristol had a very healthy scene at that time, both for live music and DJing. In 1984, Technics just brought out these DJ decks, all my friends were DJs, they would play all kinds of records-funk, punk, post-punk and then a lot of US hip-hop and electro stuff was coming in. There was also the graffiti that people like Goldie were doing. But we had no idea what it would escalate into."

Escalate it did, and the word soon spread outside of Bristol. "For me, the peak was about '85, '86," Beezer recalls. "The Bristol guys would go up to London to play with the other sound systems and sometimes combine to hold big warehouse parties. These were completely illegal events attracting 700 or 800 people in a freezing cold warehouse with a bathtub full of beers, and a ropey old sound system but the vibe was incredible. There was attitude, but none of the egotistical face of things we see too often now."

Wild Dayz the book, ¥4,300

Still, it was an energetic scene he was determined to record, and he obviously had a knack for capturing the moment. There is a spontaneous, relaxed feel to the shots in the book (mainly black-and-white), perhaps a reflection of Bristol's easygoing character, and the fact they were all friends out for a good time.

"I knew most of the people around me, and they knew me. So it wasn't a problem hanging out with the camera. I put my own darkroom together at home, so I'd take photos, develop them and show them to my mates the next day."

Massive Attack's Daddy G kicking around Bristol. 1985-1986

"It's interesting to see the influence of US fashions of the time. This was before the baggy jeans came in that are associated with hip-hop today, everything was fairly tight." Despite the heavy American influence in fashion and music (members of The Wild Bunch who went on to form Massive Attack even adopted nicknames like Mushroom, Daddy-G, and 3-D), various aspects of the British experience helped shape a different style-not least the pervasive presence of dub music.

Tim Simenon (Bomb the Bass) at his first photo session. 1985-1986

"The reggae sound systems were a big influence; lots of small events, with about 300 people, mainly black, huge, homemade speakers. Technology was very un-advanced, very raw." There was also the very peculiar tension of the time, which is also touched on in Wild Dayz. "This was England in the '80s, it was Margaret Thatcher, it was the miners' strike. It was anti-apartheid, CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament)… They were pretty difficult times."

Behind the decks at a typical '80s sound system. 1985-1986

Against such a backdrop, a uniquely UK scene was being shaped in Bristol, although it took some time for the city to work its sound onto wax. By the late '80s, however, Nellee Hooper's flair for production helped London's Soul-2-Soul take the youth of UK by storm and in the '90s there emerged "trip-hop" (perhaps one of the most annoying labels ever coined by lazy music writers eager to hype the next big thing). Whatever the tag, the new Bristol sound, perfected on Massive Attack's Blue Lines, Portishead's Dummy or Pre-Millenium Tension by Tricky, formed a cannon of brooding, introspective and emotionally charged music to counterpoint the bravado and violence of US hip-hop.

A washed-out Glastonbury Festival in 1988

Eastward bound
By this time, Beezer had spent some seven years in London as a freelance photographer and had built up a steady amount of work for several Japanese magazines, which prompted his move to Japan ten years ago. The transition hasn't been easy, but he seems to have landed with his feet on the ground.

He now has his own successful photography school and an extensive network in place.

Singer Ari Up's twins Pablo and Pedro

Photos by Beezer