Stuart Linden Rhodes, photographer and teacher

Stuart Linden Rhodes is the photographer behind the @linden_archives, a fascinating record of queer nightlife in the UK's north.   

During the pandemic, I start finding photos in my Instagram feed showing legends like Lily Savage, Su Pollard, and a pre-Spice Mel B, alongside a host of gay clubbers and allies dancing on sticky floors and tearing up the night. Like many others, it felt like I had a window into an era I completely understood, but hadn't directly taken part in myself.

Stuart was a school teacher by day and a photographer by night, commissioned by publications like Gay Times to document queer nocturnal activity across the North and Midlands of England. The negatives gathered dust in storage until the pandemic, when the world finally found them.

We discuss music by Candi Staton, Bette Midler, and the Pet Shop Boys. You can purchase Stuart's first book, Out & About with Linden, right here. 

Listen to all previous guest choices in one handy Spotify playlist, Selections from Tracks of Our Queers and follow the pod on Instagram.