Photographer Youri Lenquette's new book Straight Styrchnine captures The Cramps "in all their sick and twisted glory."
Here's the scoop...
From April 1980, when Lux Interior, Poison Ivy, Bryan Gregory and Nick Knox launched their underground rock’n’roll assault on Montpellier, France, to 1991, when bassist Slim Chance and drummer Nickey Alexander joined Lux and Ivy in their vault of horror, photographer Youri Lenquette was on call to bring out the madness. From Bryan Gregory posing with a paperback of occult classic The Necromonicon to Psychedelic Jungle-era guitarist Kid Congo Powers looking cool in his bone necklace and leather trousers, from Lux Interior exposing his bare bottom at a legendary June 1984 concert at the Eldorado in Paris to the band adopting full S&M drag for a 1987 photoshoot, this is the Cramps in all their sick and twisted glory.
This book, began life over 4 years ago by pure chance after a meeting between photographer Youri Lenquette at his studio in Paris and Fabrice Couillerot (designer/publisher) and the discovery of their mutual passion & love for the Cramps, 60’s garage punk music and a fascination for cats.
Straight Strychnine is arriving at a time when interest in the band has never been higher. In 1981, the Cramps took an obscure 1962 rock’n’roll single called ‘Goo Goo Muck’ by Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads and recorded it in the hope of inspiring a teenage dance craze. That took until 2022 to actually happen, when Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams did some poker-faced moves to ‘Goo Goo Muck’ on Tim Burton’s Wednesday and spawned a viral hit. Then in August 2026 came Gravest Gravy, an album of unreleased recordings from October 1977, when the Cramps headed to Ardent Studios in Memphis and laid down early versions of future live favourites including ‘Jungle Hop’ and ‘Rockin’ Bones’ with Alex Chilton, legendary singer of the Box Tops and Big Star, on production and occasional organ duties.
Will Hodgkinson, chief rock and pop critic of The Times and the author of several music books including 2024’s award-winning Street-Level Superstar, A Year with Lawrence, provides the introduction and accompanying text.
Their contributions help make The Cramps the definitive visual account of a band who, despite their vast and ongoing impact and influence, remain curiously under-represented in print.
Youri Lenquette was uniquely placed to photograph the Cramps through their 1980s golden age, bringing a punk spirit to his craft by grabbing a camera and getting up close to his subject without worrying too much about the perfect shot and instead aiming for truth and intimacy. Lenquette started out as a journalist for the French rock magazine Best before picking up a camera in the late 70s, documenting the punk era and going on to shoot everyone from Youssou Ndour to Nirvana. Most importantly, his decade-long friendship with the Cramps allowed for deep access into the notoriously private world of Lux and Ivy, resulting in images that capture both the thrill of performance and the rarely seen realities of life in an underground rock’n’roll band.
Straight Strychine includes the three original articles written by Youri for the French press at the time (translated in English for this book):
Les Fleurs du Mal, interview with Lux, Ivy and Kid Congo, BEST magazine, July 1981.
Cramps Story, BEST magazine, June 1984.
A date with The Cramps, interview with Lux and Ivy, April 1986.
For more information about Straight Strychnine and mail order details, visit the Moonboy site right here here.
