Green Day: US band’s new album artwork features photoshopped image of Troubles child in Belfast

The rock band’s upcoming studio LP ‘Saviors’ was announced on Tuesday, and its feature image is of a young boy holding a stone during a riot at the top of Leeson Street in 1978.

However, the youth’s face appears to have been altered or photoshopped in Green Day’s new version.

The original picture was taken by currently London-based photographer Chris Steele-Perkins, who visited Northern Ireland in the late 70s as part of the Exit Group – three photographers who were documenting the current state of poverty in the UK’s crumbling inner cities.

In 2008, Chris returned to photograph and interview some of the people he had captured 30 years before.

His writings and images have since been collated into a book named The Troubles, and he previously told The Guardian that he went to NI with the intention of capturing the lives of Catholic communities from the inside during the conflict.

“I was not there to illustrate a thesis but to enter the unknown, interacting and responding, and attempting to remain honest,” he had said.

The Leeson Street image was posted two years ago on the discussion site Reddit, with one user commenting: “This would be a siiick punk album cover.”

While it can’t be confirmed whether Green Day saw this post or not, the global superstars have since discovered Chris’ work regardless, and despite editing the boy’s face, the rest of the picture seems to remain the same.

The album ‘Saviors’ is set for release on January 19, 2024.

On Tuesday, the group – comprising Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool – also shared a brand new single from the LP, a fiery, punk-inspired track titled ‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’.

"Saviors is an invitation into Green Day’s brain, their collective spirit as a band, and an understanding of friendship, culture and legacy of the last 30 plus years," say the band in a statement.

"It's raw and emotional. Funny and disturbing. It’s a laugh at the pain, weep in the happiness kind of record. Honesty and vulnerability. What is Saviors about, you ask? Power pop, punk, rock, indie triumph. disease, war, inequality, influencers, yoga retreats, alt right, dating apps, masks, MENTAL HEALTH, climate change, oligarchs, social media division, free weed, fentanyl, fragility,,.. What would Andy Warhol do? What would John Waters do? What would Quentin Tarantino do? What would GREEN DAY do?”

Chris Steele-Perkins is now aged 76 and remains a member of the renowned Magnum Photos agency.

He is best known for his depictions of Africa, Afghanistan, England, Northern Ireland, and Japan.

Chris moved from Myanmar to the UK with his family in 1949.

His reportages have received high public acclaim and he has won several photojournalism awards.

Earlier this year, his work – including the Leeson Street boy – featured in an exhibition organised by Magnum Photos at the Magnum Gallery in London.

Are you the boy in this photo or do you know who he is? If so, contact The Belfast Telegraph by emailing digital.editorial@belfasttelegraph.co.uk