lyrics project

Red Dress
Artist: The Stranglers
Song: Hanging Around
Album: Rattus Norvegicus
Model: Tinkerbella
Location: Chippenham, Wiltshire UK

This song is interesting as it appears simple enough but probably has many different meanings. My take is that it’s about all those souls who’ve lost their way. Probably to alcohol, drugs or other addictive substances and who basically do little other than try to find their next fix. They’re just “Hanging around” - the streets, the pubs and clubs and life. They have no other purpose or interest. Listless to their lives and passionate only about the next hit and where it comes from. The song hints at all sorts, selling yourself in gay bars, dealers and this “big girl in the red dress”.

The girl in the song is also an addict, trying to impress but she’s just ‘hanging around’ with the rest of them waiting for the next high.

It represents the time in the late 70’s & early ‘80’s when I used to go to gigs. Somehow, wherever you went, there were these vacant kids amongst the rest of us, usually sitting on the floor with bags scrunched up by their sides, I looked down on them, the ‘sniffers’, they were the lowest of the low. My tender years and lack of knowledge made me judge them and form ridiculous opinions of them. If only I’d had the same intelligence then as I do now, who knows, I may even have been able to help someone. At the time I considered myself so much more sophisticated than them.

At these gigs there were girls, those that were a little more ‘out there’ than most. Loud, proud and if I’m honest, scary to me. Some were just high and some were simply celebrating their new-found freedom from parents and school but they were loud proud and punk and I wanted them. Being the pathetic wimp I was, I never had the courage or confidence to actually speak to any of them. That would have been way too scary. Maybe I wasn’t as 'cool' as I thought I was.

I wanted the shot to remind me of those days. The shooting position, Tink looking confident, the location grimy and at night when the world comes alive, reminding me of the many seedy venues I visited at the time. I love this shot, the life, the confidence and the bright gawdy colours.

Red is my favourite colour.

Red Dress
Artist: The Stranglers
Song: Hanging Around
Album: Rattus Norvegicus
Model: Tinkerbella
Location: Chippenham, Wiltshire UK

This song is interesting as it appears simple enough but probably has many different meanings. My take is that it’s about all those souls who’ve lost their way. Probably to alcohol, drugs or other addictive substances and who basically do little other than try to find their next fix. They’re just “Hanging around” - the streets, the pubs and clubs and life. They have no other purpose or interest. Listless to their lives and passionate only about the next hit and where it comes from. The song hints at all sorts, selling yourself in gay bars, dealers and this “big girl in the red dress”.

The girl in the song is also an addict, trying to impress but she’s just ‘hanging around’ with the rest of them waiting for the next high.

It represents the time in the late 70’s & early ‘80’s when I used to go to gigs. Somehow, wherever you went, there were these vacant kids amongst the rest of us, usually sitting on the floor with bags scrunched up by their sides, I looked down on them, the ‘sniffers’, they were the lowest of the low. My tender years and lack of knowledge made me judge them and form ridiculous opinions of them. If only I’d had the same intelligence then as I do now, who knows, I may even have been able to help someone. At the time I considered myself so much more sophisticated than them.

At these gigs there were girls, those that were a little more ‘out there’ than most. Loud, proud and if I’m honest, scary to me. Some were just high and some were simply celebrating their new-found freedom from parents and school but they were loud proud and punk and I wanted them. Being the pathetic wimp I was, I never had the courage or confidence to actually speak to any of them. That would have been way too scary. Maybe I wasn’t as 'cool' as I thought I was.

I wanted the shot to remind me of those days. The shooting position, Tink looking confident, the location grimy and at night when the world comes alive, reminding me of the many seedy venues I visited at the time. I love this shot, the life, the confidence and the bright gawdy colours.

Red is my favourite colour.