‘I shot the singer in Manchester in 1986, on what would be his last tour with Queen. That shape he throws – no one else ever did it. He’s like a bendy toy’
I’ve been surrounded by bands all my life. I went to school in Ealing, which is where Freddie Mercury went to art college. Likewise Ronnie Wood and Pete Townshend. Olympic Studios, where Led Zeppelin, the Who and the Rolling Stones recorded, was in nearby Barnes, where I lived. It’s a cinema now – the Stones recorded Sympathy for the Devil in the room where you watch films.
I was on the periphery of it all but my parents wouldn’t let me go to art college and I ended up working for an insurance broker in the City. It wasn’t what I wanted to do. I started going to see bands at Hammersmith Odeon, and saw David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. One night, I smuggled a cheap Russian camera in to see Paul McCartney and Wings doing their soundcheck. Queen were the support act, so I took a picture of them playing and managed to sell it. It was my first ever picture sale.
