Portraits of the Resistance Vol. 4 | Right Said Fred
Musicians, Artists, Producers, Brothers & Freedom Fighters - Right Said Fred aka Fred and Richard Fairbrass
Right Said Fred’s ‘I’m Too Sexy’ was the standout smash hit single of the Summer of 1991. Even now, you can travel virtually anywhere in the world confident in the knowledge that this Ivor Novello winning single is going to be familiar to all but the most musically ignorant ears… an achievement very few can lay claim to.
I remember watching the music video and hearing it for the first time via the magic of New Zealand’s version of Top Of The Pops was the weekly music show Ready To Roll. I was in my mother’s living room in suburban Auckland, New Zealand. I’d not long turned 12. I remember thinking, even at the tender age of 12 that mesh shirts were never likely to be my thing. Despite my sartorial misgivings, I thought the follicle-challenged duo were cool AF. One of the things about growing up in New Zealand is that every single other place is exotic…(not to mention miles away). Music videos, TV shows (mostly American and British), and even radio shows were imported. They were a window to a world outside life in little ole’ NZ. An exciting world where everything is bigger, brasher, more alive, more risqué. It feels to me now to have been a somewhat less curated time, though I am sure that may not be strictly true. I saw a time when anything was possible. From film to television to the songs playing on the radio, a time where the individual, not the state or industry could determine one’s fate. A time of optimism and hope.
Maybe it was the effect of seeing the not-long-removed Berlin Wall falling, scores of people destroying that ominous symbol of oppression and segregation. It felt like a new time was dawning and the demons of the past were being exorcised to the annals of history.
The Acid House scene in the UK was in its heyday, Seal was Crazy, R.E.M. were losing their religion, Salt-N-Pepa wanted to ‘talk about sex’, Nirvana were smelling the teen spirit, Michael Jackson didn’t care if you were Black or White and Guns ‘n Roses were Knockin’ on Heavens Door. Right Said Fred was really only just getting started but had already become a culturally iconic band.
As the years of growing older and adult life intervened, pop stars came and went yet RSF were always there in the background if not on stage, writing, performing, producing. Work never stopped. I’ve heard the term ‘one hit wonders’ thrown at them before, but the reality is that couldn’t be further from the truth, latterly winning awards and songwriting credits for the likes of Taylor Swift and Drake. The boys have been busy!
It wasn’t until 2020 that Right Said Fred came fully back into my consciousness, and that of many others, but not for any of the reasons you’d have thought.
I first became aware of their stance on global events of 2020 when I photographed them, largely by coincidence, attending one of the huge freedom rallies of 2021. No handlers, no security, no bravado, simply mingling, chatting and rejoicing with the rest of the throng of freedom fighters that many of us would come to call our tribe.
It wasn’t until a few months after taking this picture that I decided to put this series of photographs and portraits together. I knew though when I did that I wanted Fred and Richard to be a part of it. When I finally plucked up the courage to reach out, hoping initially just to be able to get in contact, expecting a lengthy road of agents and gatekeepers asking who I was and why did I want to speak to them. The fact was that all it would take was a well-crafted (or maybe not that well-crafted) DM. Agreeing to meet and let me take photos and have a chat felt like a kind of surreal coup. I remember breaking the news to my partner and telling her I was going to photograph ACTUAL Right Said Fred, as though it would have been a covers group!
After outlining the basic idea of what I wanted to achieve with Fred I was invited to meet the guys at their recording studio in North London. Nondescript and private, tucked away among the seemingly endless terrace house-lined streets, I remember taking a deep breath on arrival before getting out of the car. Actually, that’s a lie, it was several…
I was shown straight in by the smiley sound engineer and immediately offered a cup of tea. It felt like the most Rock n’ Roll cup of tea I’d ever been given.
Richard is tracksuited and trainer’d and Fred wearing a simple shirt and jeans. What?! Where was the mesh top, the glistening muscles and tight trousers? Was I even sure this wasn’t a lookalike covers band? Richard was working out a bassline and both apologised, saying they’d be with me shortly just finishing something up and then they could break for lunch. I drank my tea, quietly giddy with excitement if I’m honest. It may seem sycophantic, but it wasn’t really that. I think my excitement was simply never before having met any real pop stars, let alone international celebrities. Was I star-struck? I wouldn’t say that either, I felt completely at ease. I think perhaps it’s more of a nostalgic thing. A feeling of meeting those who have played a role in defining a time or lending a soundtrack to your life. Like the wallpaper from your childhood bedroom. You’re somehow connected without realising it.
Once ready for a break we decide on a chat and cuppa in the adjacent room to where we’d been sitting. A recording room complete with sound batting and strewn with instruments, amplifiers and microphones. Like proper rock stars, we’re sitting, each on a separate guitar amp. I didn’t have a pre-determined list of questions for the boys really, I rarely do. As anticipated, it’s an easy and relaxed chat, warm and open. There was no sense of being guarded or restrained as we meandered through the state of the world, that of the UK and the current push to inject every man, woman and child in the world. I asked Richard if at any point before being publicly opposed to the UK government’s relentless pursuit of lockdowns, tiers and injectables, they wondered if it was a bad move to speak out. A proverbial nail in the professional coffin. The response is unequivocal. They reply in unison.
“Well, we did, for about a split second” Richard replied.
“Nah, not really,” said Fred.
There’s a delicate confidence and ease in the way they tell me this. Knowing that coming out, so to speak, could have led to trouble for them. They’re unphased. Unrattled it seems. I can feel the familiar feeling of my 12-year-old self, feeling the world was one big playground, that same sense of optimism and hope emanating from them and transporting me, as if by Tardis, right back to my mother’s living room, watching the scenes from Tiananmen Square or seeing the Berlin Wall razed to rubble or the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Fairbrass brothers tell me it’s a practice of daily non-compliance that will get us out of the mess this world seems to be in. If enough people just say no and refuse to go along with the edicts, proclamations and mandates of the State, that’s when it ends.
We’ve lost a sense of pride in, and the dignity of, our hard-won freedoms, Fred says. There’s a “laissez-faire attitude” towards our rights and freedoms as though they can be given up, even temporarily, he says. It’s hard to disagree. I’ve often asked what are rights worth if they aren’t worth protecting, there’s no currency to them. They become utterly impotent; empty of meaning and importance, when we take them for granted.
For this photograph, I had an idea in mind that I wanted to explore but had no idea if it would come off. We headed outside to make the most of what was left of the daylight as the studio was too dark for what I wanted. After fumbling with trying to get a background reflector in place (gratefully and stealthily held by Fred and Richard) for what seemed like an eternity, I let the camera clip off 5 or 6 shots in quick succession. I knew I had the one I wanted.
“I think we got it.” I tell them.
“Right”, said Fred.
RSF signed prints of this image are available to pre-order here: Bespoke sizes are available upon request.
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A great photo of the Freds at the London Freedom Rally. I met them for the first time at the GETTR sponsored comedy night at Bethnal Green. What lovely guys, friendly and unassuming, chatty and down to earth. How refreshing to have the Freds as cheerleaders for freedom when most celebrities want us all jabbed and our freedom restricted.