Groupies by Baron Wolman

Mach Shau presents, "Baron Wolman: The Groupies," in association with Rock Paper Photo

46/48 Beak Street W1 London, from 15th-27th October.

Hand-signed, limited editions prints.

Baron Wolman was the first chief photographer at Rolling Stone Magazine. Starting in 1967, Baron took on assignments for the new magazine as diverse as dinner with Pete Townshend after a day photographing The Who recording "Tommy," shooting Janis Joplin performing at his house to recreate a performance for a live review, flying to New York to photograph Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as they announced the Stones Altamont show, and being almost whacked by Jimi Hendrix as he swung his guitar in concert. Every day was different, every artist was different and the scene was constantly evolving.

Baron began to notice that aside from the usual hangers-on at concerts, there were women who "had obviously spent an inordinate amount of time and effort putting themselves together for their backstage appearance," he says. "They were not just hanging out, they were strutting." Style and fashion mattered greatly. Frank Zappa thought them important enough to form a group and produce an album under the name, The GTO's led by the legendary Pamela Des Barres. They were "a subculture of chic" that Baron and editor Jann Wenner thought merited a story. In fact, the material became an entire "special super duper neat issue" in February 1969. Featuring interviews and Baron's photographs, the issue cover was titled, "The Groupies And Other Girls."

Baron's interests in music and fashion would progress after his tenure at Rolling Stone when he founded the influential magazine, Rags, known as the Rolling Stone of fashion. The Groupies issue remains a landmark, as do Baron's timeless images.

The

Groupies by Baron Wolman can be pruchased for $800 as individal 20x21 inch.

Miss Pamela, or Pamela des Barre as
she became known, was one of the seven GTO's.
Frank Zappa organized the "Girls Together Outrageously"
as a special project that included an album.
Miss Pamela was a "super groupie" who wrote the tell-all book,
"I'm With the Band."

Baron photographed the GTOs on a seamless backdrop
at A&M Studios in LA.
The seven members were Miss Pamela, Miss Mercy,
Miss Cynderella, Miss Christine, Miss Lucy, Miss Sparky and Miss Sandra.

Karen appeared on the cover of the Rolling Stone "groupie" issue, published in
February 1969. About a year after the issue came out, somebody painted her image
from the cover on the side of a house on Venice Boulevard in L. A.
Baron says Karen married a Kuwaiti sheik and recently contacted
Baron to buy prints from their photo session.

For this early 1968 shot, Baron arranged
all the current issues of Rolling Stone in front
of his subject. "She was gorgeous," says Baron,
"I couldn't stop staring and shooting."
The magazine used this image for the first
Christmas Card it sent thanking their
new subscribers.

A Stanford dropout, Trixie posed topless with her bass
for the "groupie" issue as a joke: musician Al Kooper
told people she was a topless bassist in a band.
What was true about Trixie was that she joined
an anarchist artists collective which rode from town to
town and painted the center lines of roads red.

"During the groupie interviews we learned how
they would chase after a rock star and get him
in bed in his hotel room or wherever he was staying
when he was on tour," says Baron. But besides the
chase, the most important element "was when they
would pick up the phone in the hotel room, call
their friends, and say, 'You'll never guess where I am.'".

Catherine James landed a screen test with Warhol
and later had dalliances with Mick Jagger, Jimmy
Page and Denny Laine of the Moody Blues.

The teenage duo who made up The Plaster Casters
had a logo and T-shirt (and some racy props) on hand
when Baron arrived to shoot them at a friend's home in Chicago.
"They were pretty clever, they already had a brand!" says Baron.

Lacy arrived at the studio with another groupie,
but Baron couldn't take his eyes off her.
"All I remember is, she was gorgeous."

Sally Mann "was one of the better known and respected groupies
of the San Francisco scene," says Baron. Affer marrying Spencer
Dryden of Jefferson Airplane, she did prison time after a
heroin bust. A model prisoner, she earned a college scholarship
and became a successful lawyer in Texas.

Miss Mercy was a member of the The GTO's, short for "Girls Together
Outrageously." They were organized by Frank Zappa
and actually cut an album he produced.