All language subtitles for Icon.Music.Through.the.Lens.S01E02.720p.WEBRip.x264-BAE_Subtitles01_Unnamed

What could be better
than you're backstage,

you're with the group.
It's you, the band,

the road manager,
and you passed the last joint.

You each do the line.
Now, you get up.

You're following
the road manager.

He's got his flashlight on,

going down through
the narrow corridor,

maybe up a little
bunch of stairs.

Now, you see the stage.
You climb the stairs there.

The whole room is dark.

You see a few matches,
some lights.

You can hear, like, the buzz
of the amps, like, [buzzing]

and they kick in
that first music.

You're like, [bleep]!

The adrenaline,
there's nothing like that.

[music playing]

I'm a rock fan,
I want to see that picture,

and I want to hear it.
I want to feel it.

[music playing]

It's kind of like
being a war photographer.

You're ready for battle.

There's a lot of guys
walking around with cameras,

but there's only
a few photographers.

[music playing]

I think it's more of like
an emotion than anything.

You see the photo,
and you go, what is this?

What's going on?

You really are stealing
a frame out of life

and saying, this is
worth a thousand words.

BARON WOLMAN:
They were playing their Fenders.

I was playing my Nikon.

I really felt like
I was part of the band.

I feel like I've never had
to work a day in my life.

[music playing]

Best job in the world.

[rock music playing]

[guitar playing]

BRETT ANDERSON:
I think about this a lot.

How does one medium
express another medium?

So how do you capture and sum
up a concert with one image?

[distorted guitar playing]

It's like... writing about
music is like dancing

about architecture.

It's-it's hard for one medium
to sum up another medium.

And the experience of an hour
and a half of sweaty madness,

how do you capture
that with one image?

And sometimes, you can.

[rock music playing]

BOB GRUEN: Being
a rock photographer,

it's not like you're just taking
snapshots with your phone.

Like, you know, anybody
can take a picture.

Yeah, but not anybody
can take a good picture

with the right proportion
at the right time,

getting the right people
in the right place

with the right exposure
and find the right people

to sell it to and find
the right people to pay you.

[rock music playing]

Well, to me, live photography
is a meditation.

You're in a zone when
you're shooting live stuff.

When I start shooting, I don't
think I'm shooting a picture.

I'm stopping something.

No, I'm drawing with light
because that's photography.

I was always hoping to get
the definitive live shots

of whoever it was.

[rock music playing]

BRUCE TALAMON:
You're always watching.

You've got to see everything
because it's gone in an instant.

[rock music playing]

BOB GRUEN:
You're capturing a moment.

You have to know that there's
gonna be a moment coming,

and I've got to be ready
and have this setting

and that focus and this angle.
And then, you get it.

If you see the photo in the
viewfinder, you missed it.

It's like music in the air,
and it's gone.

And you can't... you can't
get that back in the bottle.

[music playing]

['Carol' by The Rolling Stones]
♪ Oh, Carol

♪ Don't let him steal
your heart away ♪

♪ I'm gonna learn to dance if
it takes me all night and day ♪

GERED MANKOWITZ: I started
working with The Stones

at the beginning of '65,

and then later in that year
they'd asked me to go

on the tour to America
that began in October.

And it was an
extraordinary offer.

I was excited
and thrilled about it.

Landed at John F. Kennedy,
Cadillac,

limousines waiting
on the tarmac.

I mean, it was everything
that one hoped it would be.

♪ I know a swinging little joint
where we can jump and shout ♪

GERED MANKOWITZ:
My brief was just to shoot

what I could
backstage and onstage.

I've never done this before.
I mean, I had photographed

a couple of acts live,
but I've never been on tour.

In fact, I think it was
only the second time

that a British photographer had
ever gone on tour in America.

♪ Heat overcome you
when they play so loud ♪

GERED MANKOWITZ:
I had complete access.

I was treated
as a member of the band.

Mick only said to me,
just don't get in front of me.

Otherwise, I don't care
where you are on stage.

♪ Well, you can't dance.
I know you would if you could ♪

Because I was on
the road with the band

and they did fundamentally
the same show every night,

I got to know when
things were gonna happen.

So I got to know
when Mick was going

to shake the tambourine at the
audience and turn to the side

and wiggle his bum.

♪ If you wanna hear some groove
like the boys are playing ♪

The lighting though was almost
impossible in many places.

It was just one or two
photo spots on Mick.

So you could get nice but very
contrasting pictures of Mick,

but you could never get

a picture of all five
of the band together.

♪ I wanna learn to dance if
it takes me all night and day ♪

It was amateur night,
literally, in Dixie.

They were wrestling promoters,
putting on rock and roll shows.

They didn't know how to do it.
Nobody knew how to do it.

Back in those days,
the dressing rooms were seedy.

The facilities were nonexistent.

I remember one dressing room
that was the Boston Celtics,

the basketball team,

and their
stinking sweaty jockstraps

were still hanging on the pegs
in the dressing room.

I've got a great photograph
of Charlie [bleep] in the sink

backstage in LA because
there were no toilets.

So he's standing on a chair,
[bleep] in the sink.

[rock music playing]

I loved being on tour,
and it was incredibly exciting.

This gave me an opportunity
to work

with remarkable performers,
people I related to,

making music, which was
just absolutely fantastic.

To be part of that process,
by giving them the images

that they needed,
that was really what excited me.

[rock music playing]

You know, people didn't have
cameras very much in the '60s.

I picked up mine in '66.

So like in '68, at the Hollywood
Bowl, when The Doors played,

I was the only guy there
with a camera.

[rock music playing]

MICHAEL ZAGARIS: It was before
you had a lot of handlers.

I mean, most of
the bands, they had

their road manager and the band.

I could go wherever I wanted

because you were
like mate to them.

You'd be at the hotel.
You'd be backstage.

You'd be talking.
You'd be shooting.

You're passing a joint,
you know, have that drink.

I got my camera,
I'm taking pictures,

and it was all
like family and friends.

I think the period from
the late '60s to, I would say,

around about '76, '77
was a golden era

for rock photographers
because of the access

they were permitted by the acts.

Without access,
you can't do meaningful photos.

The people we photographed
trusted us to show them

in the best possible light.

And I really had enormous
affection for the musicians

because I love music,
and I couldn't make it.

There are musicians who not
only are great musicians,

but are great entertainers.

Jimi Hendrix is a perfect
example of somebody

who is a phenomenal musician but
an extraordinary entertainer.

[distorted guitar playing]

These two concerts that I shot
in 1968 at The Fillmore

were the most instructional
and most soulful,

most exhilarating for me
because of what I learned

about my craft.

[rock music playing]

He was all over the place.
He was [bleep] his guitar.

He was playing behind his back.
He was eating it.

You know, he did everything.
So for a photographer,

you couldn't ask
for anything better.

[rock music playing]

These were these concerts where

I began to understand
what I had to do

to get good concert photos.

The need to anticipate
what was happening,

the need to remind yourself,
"OK, you missed it.",

"It's coming back again."
That's what I learned about it.

[rock music playing]

This is the peak moment.
It doesn't get more peak.

It's musical ecstasy.

It's performing ecstasy.

I mean, the moment later,
it doesn't look that good,

and this is one
of those moments.

I didn't see it in the
viewfinder fortunately.

Because had I seen it,
I would have missed it.

[rock music concludes]

I was never concerned
about being professional.

I was concerned about
living the life,

not just of a photographer, but
of an artist, of a musician.

I didn't go in as a voyeur.

I went in, and whatever
I was shooting,

it was usually something
that I wanted to be.

When I first started out,
I would

develop everything myself, and
then I'd make contact sheets.

And then, I'd take a day
going through all

the contact sheets with a loop
and marking the things I like.

It was a methodical
process, but often,

I wouldn't know until after
I've looked at the proofs

or there were some things
that you didn't see

even as you were shooting.

When Lou Reed was tying off
and shooting up, at first,

I... what is he doing?

So I'm shooting.

Then he's tying off,
and I continued to shoot.

And I shot the whole roll
just on that.

And I'm looking through the
loop, and that's when I knew.

I thought it was
an incredible shot.

Now, that being said,
Lou is leaving the next day,

taking the red eye
back to New York.

So I went with him
to the airport,

and I brought the proofs.

And he's looking through them,
and I said, hey, don't worry,

nobody will have to see this.

He goes, oh, no, man.

Yeah, this is...
This is beautiful.

He said, can I get
like six 11x14s?

To this day, honestly,
I'm not sure

if it was simulated or is real.

[music playing]

[cheering]

['Won't Get Fooled Again'
by The Who']

♪ I'll tip my hat
to the new constitution ♪

♪ Take a bow for the
new revolution ♪

CHRIS CHARLESWORTH: Any
photographer, they will tell you

that there was no better band
to photograph than The Who.

Not only did they all prance
around like performing monkeys,

but the music they played
at the same time

was absolutely spot on.

♪ Get on my knees and pray

♪ We don't get fooled again

NEAL PRESTON: The Who at
Winterland in '76 were on fire.

It was the gig of all time, and
I'm getting the greatest shots.

I'm the only one shooting
from the front.

Roger Daltrey
is swinging the microphone,

just like he would always do,

and it's coming
a little close to my head.

I don't think about it.

[bleep]
I'm getting great pictures.

And it's coming
closer to my head.

[rock music playing]

All of a sudden, some roadie
comes out of nowhere,

puts a bear hug around me,
lifts me up,

and he pulls me
to the side of the pit.

And he says, Roger thinks that
you're stepping on the cables.

His monitors are cutting out.

Bill sent me out here
to save your life

because Roger
will hit you in the head.

Well, I don't want
to get killed,

but I'm shooting
the gig of a lifetime.

So Winterland had
a little balcony

in the back of the stage.

I got up there,
and I shot from the aisle.

And that's how I took this
really great reverse shot.

[rock music playing]

Look at the looks
on the people's faces,

it's got the motion
and the emotion.

[rock song concludes]

Jim Marshall was my guru,
my effing guru.

He was an amazing
photographer, Jim.

Jim and I both used to say,
we saw the music.

We didn't hear the music.

POONEH GHANA: Jim Marshall
is definitely a huge influence.

All these really intimate photos
are really inspiring for me.

He was every
photographer's hero.

[rock music playing]

MICHAEL ZAGARIS:
I first met Jim

at Santa Clara
Folk Rock Concert.

This guy in front of
the stage is wearing

a corduroy jacket and a hat.
He had five cameras.

He's taking all these pictures.

He's manic.

He's getting into it with
people, and all of a sudden,

he gets into it with this guy
that was trying to do security

in this, like,
small pit-like area.

Jim whips out a knife, puts
the knife to the guy's throat.

The guy just about
[bleep] his pants.

And I'm standing behind him,
and I said,

hey, man, is that knife real?

And he turns around,
puts the knife to my neck,

he goes, yeah, [bleep],
this is real.

And then, reaches back
and pulls a gun

out of the back of his waist
and he said, and so is this.

I said, who brings
a gun and a knife

to a [bleep] rock festival?

He says, I do, [bleep],
and I said, who are you?

He said, I'm Jim Marshall.
Who the [bleep] are you?

[rock music playing]

CHRIS MURRAY:
Access was everything.

Musicians liked him.

And so he could hang out
with them and be at their homes

with them or be backstage,
and they wouldn't...

they didn't have their guard up.

GRAHAM NASH: He knew he had
a certain power for some reason.

What he would do is he put
you all in the same area,

and then whatever you did,
he would shoot.

MICHAEL ZAGARIS: That drew many
of the people closer to him.

Like, hey, this guy
is kind of like me.

[rock music playing]

AMELIA DAVIS: Jim was really
good friends with Johnny Cash,

and they developed a bond.

So when Johnny Cash decided
to do two live concert albums,

Folsom and San Quentin,

he said, I want Jim Marshall
to be my photographer.

[rock music playing]

That's where the famous flipping
the bird shot was taken.

Jim said to Johnny Cash,
let's do one for the warden,

and that's when Johnny Cash
flipped off the camera

as a response to the warden.

You got three shots, and
this is the one for the warden.

That photograph is
one of the most famous

photographs in the world.
Everybody knows that image.

If you Google best
rock and roll photograph,

you'll get Jim Marshall,
you know, this one.

DAVID FAHEY: He's just saying
[bleep] the world.

I'm doing this concert in
this prison for these guys.

I don't care who likes it.

You know, that's
honesty and bravado,

if you will, or just sort of
a personality, quality trait.

And Jim's there,
catching that moment.

SACHA LECCA: I once had a very
interesting experience

of looking at contact sheets
of Jim Marshall's,

specifically, the work
he did at Woodstock.

And the efficiency in the way
he shot, you know,

it wasn't like shooting digital
now or you just blasting away.

You could see he was
sort of eyeing the crowd

and looking for something
and taking a few shots

and then switching
to something else

and... and was getting
something each time, you know?

It was really amazing.

A lot of people thought Jim
was just this crazy, coked-out,

gun-toting guy, but he was...
When it came to his photography,

he was very consistent
and very detailed.

He had five Leicas around
his neck, just all the time.

Three had black and white
and two had color.

He really knew his tool.

Jim's favorite lenses were
50 millimeter and 35 millimeter,

and the reason is because
he had to get in close.

He knew that if he stood
five feet away from somebody,

as long as they
were five feet away,

it would always be in focus.

Jim Marshall didn't
need a telephoto lens.

He just stepped up and did it,
and everybody he worked with

trusted him to do it.

Nobody gets that close to
Miles unless he trusts you,

and that's the kind
of shot you get.

That's how Jim Marshall worked.

Jim, in his own way,
was as iconic

as many of the people he shot,
a true personality

in an era where there are fewer
and fewer of those people.

Backstage passes
are very important

because, now, you're inside.

And I've always said, if
you're in the room, just wait.

You'll get good pictures.

I can go wherever I want.
Yet, I want to be invisible.

The irony is the way
to become invisible

is to be completely
visible at all times.

You can't really be invisible,
but if you're part of it,

you're kind of invisible.
Like, there's four friends

sitting around you. You're not
looking at each other.

And if there's a fifth one
and he's part of the group,

you're all just together.

So it's not like invisible,
but it's not like a stranger.

With James Brown,
I was backstage prior to him

going on stage, and like so
many musicians, they're relaxed.

They're in another zone
before they perform,

and that's what I found when
I went in the dressing room

with James Brown,
is he was in that zone.

He was quiet, you know?
You don't see any pictures

of him doing anything
but sitting there with his robe

and looking at me
and talking with me.

So his eccentricities were not
evident until he got on stage,

and then there they are.

There's a difference between
the performance and the person,

always.

[punk music playing]

When I went to CBGB,

I didn't go there
to photograph punk bands.

I went there to hear music,
what this punk thing was.

And I remember sitting
drunk at the bar and going,

oh, I think I know how
I can photograph this.

[punk music playing]

I tell people I'm going down
to see this band,

and they'd come walking by.
They're with me.

They go, you're going in there?

I said, yeah,
I'm going in there.

People would go, oh,
I can't believe you're wasting

your time photographing music.

I go, well,
it's kind of a scene.

There's a scene going
on there besides music.

It looks interesting to me.
I'm shooting it a certain way.

I play them a song
by the Ramones,

and they go like, oh, my god.
You're shooting bad bands.

[punk music playing]

I photographed
a whole Ramones set,

and they played two sets a
night, four nights in a row.

And you'd get creative.

You sort of know how
the set's gonna go.

You know when Dee Dee and
Johnny are going to jump forward

and when they're going
to jump backwards,

you know what point things
are going to happen.

But you stop for a second,
listen to the music,

and you go, there's Joey's leg.

I think I've got to make
a picture out of that.

Well, David came from
a history of photography,

having gone to
photography school

rather than me who was there
because I dropped out

and didn't want to work.

He was there 'cause he
wanted to be a photographer.

CBGB was like a grad school
where we learned

how to be in the music business.

Bands learned how to play.

Photographers learned
how to take pictures.

Writers learn how to write.

Everybody in CBGB
was some kind of drop out loser

who couldn't get a job,

and they all ended
up being somebody.

[punk music playing]

I've been looking at a book
by this guy Brassai,

who had photographed Paris
in the 1930s at night,

and I was like,
maybe I can do this here

if I could figure out how
to shoot at night with no flash.

I had this Leica
that I could hold steady

at a quarter of a second.

I could put the lens at 5.6.
Then, all I had to do

is figure out how to develop
the film to make something

come off on the negative
that I can make a good print of.

[punk music playing]

I go, can I take your picture?
I take the picture.

They go, your flash
didn't go off.

And then, I'd go,
well, it doesn't go off

because I'm shooting
without a flash,

so you have to hold still.
We do it again,

and then they'd get it.

In the end, I just let
myself feel my way to it,

and once I felt my way
to it, I went like,

OK, that's the look
I'm looking for.

[punk song concludes]

I think one of the first ones
was the Patti Smith shot.

I think she was
playing that night,

and I'm pretty sure she was out
on the street in between sets.

It's what everybody did.
You got out of the hot club.

And you got out,
and people were smoking

cigarettes or whatever they
wanted to do out on the street.

That was where the action
was in between sets.

It's not a typical
Patti Smith picture.

She has a way she likes to look,
and this is not necessarily it.

But there's a gracefulness
to the picture.

That was the moment she gave me,

and that was
the moment I didn't screw up.

[punk music playing]

Punk is not a music.
It's not a fashion.

It's an attitude.

[punk music playing]

You go see a band like
The Clash or The Jam

talking about the modern world,
and you're listening

to the lyrics.
And that is how you feel.

BOB GRUEN:
It's an attitude of freedom.

It's an attitude of change.
It's an attitude of not being

satisfied with the status quo
and wanting something better.

It's not about violence.

For me, that was very important
to document that time.

It was really a spirit
of revolution.

[reggae music playing]

BOB GRUEN: When I saw
The Clash, it was the most

powerful show I think
I'd ever seen at that point.

I didn't even understand
the message because Joe had

the bad teeth,
and I couldn't understand

what he was saying.

But I knew what he was meaning.

They wanted to go forward.
They wanted to do something.

They wanted to change
something, and they did it

with this power and this fury.

And then, I knew I wanted
to see them again.

Came back in '77 and ended up
in their dressing room.

I took one of my first group
shots of the band that night,

spent the next three days
with them at the...

last night I was there,
I remember staying up

all night with Joe Strummer.

We were talking a lot, and we
ended up talking until he died.

It started a long, personal,
close relationship.

I went to his wedding.
He came to mine.

In the '80s,
before he got married,

he used to sleep in my
living room, on my couch.

We'd be out all night.
And then, after hours,

come back at 9:00, 10:00
in the morning

play some more records,
finally pass out.

That was a serious friendship.

Bob Gruen had a way of putting
rock stars at their ease.

It's just his personality,
that he's part

of the rock and roll trade.

It's almost like
he plays camera.

[reggae music playing]

BOB GRUEN: We were on
the bus going across America.

They got off the bus just to
stretch their legs a little,

and they were
throwing a baseball

around on the side of the road.

And that's why
they have the bat.

They were just kind of
kidding around a little,

and as they came back towards
the bus, I said, wait a minute.

Let me get a picture.

So we took like two frames.
That's not a photo session.

That's like two or three frames
on the way back to the bus.

Most of my sessions
are like that.

I'd rather be in a dressing
room with a band

30 seconds before they go
on stage and take six pictures

than try to recreate that moment

on a Saturday afternoon
in my studio.

Because when they're ready to
go on stage, and they're a band,

and the audience is going
like that, and they're pumped,

and they look like a band,
and they are a group,

that's the picture.

[camera clicks]

There's Bob Gruen's
picture of The Clash.

They're going at it with
their guitars blazing.

I mean, there's so
many live shots,

but when I think about badass
rock and roll,

that could be
the most iconic live shot.

[camera clicks]

[rock music playing]

Something happened,
maybe kind of in the late

'70s, early '80s,
when there's starting to be

a lot more photographers.

They had to control the
images that were being taken.

So they couldn't have 20 guys
there shooting the whole show.

That would be thousands
of photos out there

without any control,
so they got to say,

you can only shoot three songs.

[rock music playing]

BARON WOLMAN: The managers
and the PR people,

their favorite word was no.

Can we have some time
with the band? No.

Can we have
five minutes with the band? No.

Can we go backstage? No.

And then, at that point,
we felt totally disrespected.

We said, [bleep] you, guys.

You know, we're taking
our cameras and leaving.

Does anyone know why
"three songs, without flash"

came from?
I fully do.

There were a number
of theories on this.

One of them was that you were
in the way of the audience

because your heads were
bobbing up and down,

and I agree with that.

RAY STEVENSON:
Three songs and out.

Bowie was the first person to...
That I'm aware of... to do that.

I discussed this with
Denis O' Regan and he said

that he encountered it with ABBA
because of the costume changes.

Someone told me the
reason that first three,

no flash was brought in
and it was because of

Ross Halfin because
he was being such an ass.

Three songs, no flash
was started by Rush.

Geddy Lee, he got sick of
flashes going bang, bang, bang,

bang, bang, and he said,
first three songs with flash,

then no flash.

CHRISTIE GOODWIN:
Press, they get in,

and they get three songs,
and they go out.

In those three songs,
it's a chase, a race,

a fight to get as many
pictures as possible.

DANNY NORTH:
I understand where it comes
from because who wants to have

a pit full of photographers
between you

as an artist and the audience.

The three songs and
getting out of the pit thing

isn't there to
control the image.

It's only because of the
distraction of the lenses

and just them moving around
in the pit in front of me.

No, you can't have more than
three songs of that really.

Honestly, I shoot a lot
of shows that are just

the first three songs,
and it's so painful to just

kind of go through
those motions.

To be honest, within
the first three songs,

I'm only getting used
to how the gig is.

OK, OK.
I get it.

Beyonce is on stage.
She just had her hair done.

She's looking amazing
in the first three songs.

Then, you're going
to start to degrade.

So far, you get sweaty
and red-faced.

But to me, I don't mind that.

You know, later on in the gig,
that's when the moments happen,

when you feel like you
get in with the crowd.

One, two, three...

[cheering]

Rather than
the first three songs,

we used to have
photographers come in

and stay an hour into the set.
Where you're sweating.

You've got the energy
of the gig in you.

If you think about it, we'd
be much better off being given

the last three songs than
the first three songs

because the last three songs
is where it all happens.

DANNY NORTH: I mean, the
idea that people say,

three songs, no flash,
I always find a little bit

condescending because,
unless it's a dive bar,

who's using flash anyway,
you know?

I think the great live music
charts are slowly disappearing

because of this rule
that you can only

shoot the first three songs.

I've always been very spoiled
'cause I have either

been with the band
or commissioned by a magazine

that gives me all access.

Any time I have been in
a position where I am,

first three songs,
no flash, [bleep] off.

I'm kind of having
a tantrum in my head,

like, I can't believe I have
to put up with this [bleep].

Generally, when
I'm shooting a show,

I'm hired by someone to
be there, and I'm not...

Mick Jagger doesn't do
a three-song concert,

and neither do I.

['Golden Years' by David Bowie]

♪ Golden years, gold

♪ Don't let me hear you say
life's taking you nowhere ♪

♪ Angel

DENIS O'REGAN: I toured
with David Bowie in 1983.

It was an eight-,
nine-month tour.

Early on in the tour,
David and a lot of bands,

they want to see the show
because they've never seen it.

They want to see
what they look like,

how the suits are,
how the lights are,

how the whole effect is.

And so, they're very interested
in the live photographs.

After a week or two,
they don't really want to see

any more live pictures
unless they're really unusual.

So I start to concentrate
more on offstage photography.

♪ Nothing's gonna
touch you in these ♪

♪ Golden years, years, years

DENIS O'REGAN:
I would get to a venue.

And I would look at the audience
and think, well, tonight,

it's going to be the audience
rather than the performer,

and this happened
to Milton Keynes.

I hadn't been there before.

And I hadn't realized
it was a natural bowl,

that the audience
rose up at the sides.

I just thought I wanted
to capture the scene

and the event, so
I climbed up on scaffolding,

up to one side of David
and then shot down

so that he was at one point.

And then, the audience
spread out in front of him.

And all the audience hands went
up, and David's hands went up.

And therefore, I had
that perfect shot.

♪ There's my baby
Lost, that's all ♪

♪ Once, I'm begging you
save her little soul ♪

♪ Golden years, gold

DENIS O'REGAN: There
was another section of a tour,

which was Southeast Asia,
so it was Bangkok,

Hong Kong, Singapore.

What Denis gives us
is that perspective

you can't get anywhere else...

access to a guy like David
Bowie, who we're perpetually

fascinated by, and I think
with good reason,

just incredible pictures.

Here we are, out in the sun,
in a place

that we've never been to.
David was curious.

He wanted to see all
the amazing locations.

So we all got up at 3:00 AM,
went down to the river,

to this boat, and I never
had David out in sunlight

for more than, like, 10 minutes
five... for two minutes.

And he dozed off on the boat,
just with his head

at the very bow of the boat,

and I thought, well,
that ought be a fun picture.

So I walked over,
and I've just stood over

and put a foot
under each armpit,

and just took the picture
down onto his face

while he was asleep.

And... and then, David woke up
and then started laughing.

BOB AHERN: Really, really
great candid photography.

Things that we don't expect
to see David Bowie doing,

we love seeing that.

We want to know what David Bowie
was doing in his hotel room.

We want to know
where he's staying.

When you think of David Bowie,
especially what

I had assumed I would end up
doing, touring with him,

it was not putting a foot
under each armpit

on a boat in the middle
of nowhere in Thailand.

My first night on a tour bus,
I remember thinking, yeah, this.

This is that feeling I want
of just being on an adventure.

And with tour,
it always kind of felt like

being on a school trip.

You have the same thing
every single day,

but the scenery changes
and the people change.

So you've got the familiarity
of sameness every day,

but it's also different.
Everything's novel and new,

and you're kind of looking for
that new adventure.

[music playing]

I can't be in one place for
more than, like, a few days

or a few weeks at a time.

I feel like I'm constantly
wanting to do something.

It's fun. It's...
It's fun getting to travel

and just being around
new things all the time.

I feel like you're
constantly inspired

and see things differently.

It was like being in the band

albeit for a day,
a week, a month.

Your vision and your photos
are gonna give people an idea

of what it's really like.

It's sinking into the background
with your camera.

So you're not
a part of the story,

but you still are kind of
a part of the story

because you're with this group
of people traveling together.

I like being a fly on the wall,

and I like being able to
step out of situations

and kind of see what's going on.

But I also love just being there
and hanging out with them

and building that relationship
with these people.

[music playing]

I think tour is kind of like
an interesting social study,

especially if people
aren't getting on

and I'm kind of like
sat in the middle of it.

Is this person... it's going, oh!

What's going on here then?

The personality of a rock tour
can switch on a dime

due to a bad audience,
a [bleep] record review

in the paper,
an interview gone awry,

the drummer getting the clap,
and you have to

have your feelers up
and your antenna up all the time

because it's an ebb and flow.

There was a U2 tour in 1996.

Oasis is supporting,
and I was watching

Liam who used to sit on
the side of the stage

when Noel was singing
"Don't Look Back in Anger."

The lighting was
beautiful on him,

and I was photographing him.

And then, I remember thinking,
what is that looming?

And I looked, you know,
away from the camera,

and there was Bono.

He was singing "Don't Look Back
in Anger" and sort of miming...

hamming it up for
the camera, actually.

Liam hadn't seen him either

because he was just behind Liam.

So I just... I remember just
thinking, don't [bleep] it up.

And I just shifted the focus
to the right;

and luckily, it worked.

['Rock 'n' Roll Star' by Oasis]

♪ I live my life in the city

♪ Well, there's no
easy way out ♪

♪ The day's moving
just too fast for me ♪

JILL FURMANOVSKY: Oasis
is my best body of work.

It was a gift for me.

They took me on their comet

and they were roaring
off into the cosmos,

and I came with them
on the ride.

♪... just too fast for me

Oasis was a challenge
for a photographer

because they did so little.

Liam, sitting on the
drum riser doing nothing.

But then, when he got up and
he prowled to the microphone,

put his hands behind his back...

♪ Now, you're
concerned about the way

♪ I feel tonight.
I'm a rock 'n' roll star ♪

♪ Tonight,
I'm a rock 'n' roll star ♪

The tension was all
in body posture

and in ineptitude,
which came from punk as well.

There was a kind of ineptitude
between the stage left.

You had Guigs and Bonehead
sort of looking to the maestro,

Noel, to sort of direct
them all the time

and then Liam sort of doing the
prowl or else looking bored.

It was just the
oddest combination

of things to try and shoot.

They had as much Sex Pistols
in them as anything else,

a kind of a punk ethic of,
you know, arrogance, really,

which they sure did pull off.

Well, the thing about Oasis
is that they were the same

offstage as they were on stage.

And there's no preparation
period or sort of, you know,

gargling or anything
before they went on stage.

They went from hanging out
with their mates

in the dressing room,
just walked

onto a stage like Knebworth.

So therefore,
offstage, they were just

wonderful to
photograph because...

Because all that
kind of strutting

that Liam did on stage,
he strutted off stage as well.

As a kind of admirer of
Diane Arbus, who photographed

families and things like that,
photographing these brothers

was... was also
really interesting

because there's a dynamic
between brothers

that's got nothing to do
with rock and roll

but was manifest in this
particular band in a big way.

The tensions were there.
They really were there.

But the really interesting
thing about them

is that they understood
that that tension was part

of the reality,
and that if it was shown,

it's not a picture
that should be rejected,

but, on the contrary, embraced.

I did a shoot in Paris,
which was terribly tense.

I thought they might
fly at each other,

and it produced these
extraordinary pictures

of tension, which were genuine.
They weren't made up.

I thought they'll never use the
shoot because it's too tense.

And when I showed it to Noel,
he looked at them,

and I'm thinking, oh,
he won't like that.

Then he went, I just
don't like that jacket.

[laughs]

[rock music playing]

I also think that Noel
knew that their career

should be documented.

He understands that,
actually, this is all part

of the rock and roll
visual language.

[heavy metal music playing]

If you're going to go on stage,

you have to be in control
of what you're doing

and know what you're doing.
You can't just wander

around the stage going,
oh, where am I gonna go?

You look like an idiot.

He's not a shy person, and so,

where he really triumphs
is on stage.

You have to know
where you're stepping,

what you're doing,
who you're shooting.

You have to be able
to read the face

of the person you're walking up
to because they are performing.

He always finds
the best places on stage,

and that's why his live
photography is so incredible.

[heavy metal music playing]

There's one of Lars
at Stade de France

I took 10 years ago where he
got up and put his arms wide,

and I've got him
at this massive stadium.

[heavy metal music playing]

James Hetfield...
People think you just go

and shoot Metallica,
and you take a picture of him

screaming into the mic.

The trick with Hetfield is when
he moves away from the mic,

you'll get your picture,
not when he's like this.

['Now That We're Dead'
by Metallica]

♪ All sinners, a future

Ultimately, when you have
a relationship, when you have

a level of comfort,
when that trust exists

between the photographer
and the subject,

you feel free to go wherever
the energy takes you.

♪ We can live forever

[music playing]

RACHAEL WRIGHT:
It takes a certain kind
of person to have the balls

to stand on a stage
and front a band and perform.

[music playing]

It's usually a very weird clash
of insecurity and huge ego,

which is a very interesting
dynamic because

those two things shouldn't mix.

[music playing]

These magical creatures
that make beautiful sounds

and have to write lovely
things and know how

to play their instruments really
well, it's how I react to that.

[music playing]

Jill is responsible for,
I would say, the most

iconic shot of my band, Chic.

We're... all four of us
doing that dance The Freak,

it's beautiful.
It's amazing.

The really special quality
that... you can't predict it.

You can't fake it.
You just have it or you don't.

[music playing]

The best shoot
I ever did with Elton

was at the Dodgers stadium.

That was a great outfit.

It was the Dodger's team's
baseball outfit,

all in sequins. It was fab.

Elton hated being photographed,
believe it or not.

You'd never believe it,
would ya,

with all those garish outfits.

David Gilmour is not
very good with the camera.

He absolutely loathes it,
but he's extremely nice-looking

as though you can't really
take a bad picture of him.

[rock music playing]

DENIS O'REGAN: I shot
Debbie Harry at the [inaudible]

lying down on the stage,
and you can see

the lust of some of the fans
at the front of the audience.

There's something a little
bit scary about Debbie Harry.

She managed to offset her
beauty with this very striking

sense of who she was behind it.

GODLIS: I was in
such awe of her.

Her presence was so cool,
and she was so relaxed

and comfortable
in being that cool.

I wasn't thinking of her
like a punk Marilyn Monroe.

I was thinking of her like a
rock-and-roll Marilyn Monroe.

Debbie Harry's the most
beautiful woman I've ever seen,

and I don't think you can take
a bad picture of Debbie Harry.

But that said, that's 'cause
Debbie always looks good.

You can't take bad
picture of Keith Richards

because when he's looking good
or bad, he looks like Keith,

and he's cool.
And if he looks really good,

he's cool, and if he looks
really bad, he's cool.

['We Will Rock You' by Queen]

If you can't take a great
picture of Freddie Mercury,

get out of the business.

♪ Buddy, you're a boy

♪ Make a big noise,
playing in the street ♪

♪ Gonna be a big man someday

I've never seen anyone like that

who can hold an audience of any
size in the palm of his hand.

- -♪ All over the place, singin' -
- ♪ CROWD: We will... ♪

Whatever he wanted them
to do, they did.

Whatever he wanted them
to say, they said it.

♪ QUEEN:
Singin'... ♪

♪ CROWD:
We will,
we will rock you ♪

The shot I took
of Freddie Mercury leaning back

in front of the entire crowd
at Wembley Stadium

was shot in '86,
the year after Live Aid.

Everyone thinks it's Live Aid,
but it's not.

♪ QUEEN:
We will...
We will rock you ♪

There was a little runway
that came out

from the front of the stage.
I don't know.

I was huddled in
this little corner,

and it's shot with a 24.

So he's very close to me.

When I went back
and looked at the proofs,

I realized it was the third
frame I had shot that day.

I could have taken
the rest of the day off.

Of all the performers
I've seen, Alice Cooper

is one of the best.

['Feed My Frankenstein'
by Alice Cooper]

♪ Feed my Frankenstein

BOB GRUEN: He's a great actor.

He works very hard,
and he puts on a show.

ART ALEXAKIS: I grew
up loving Alice Cooper.

Talking about
iconic photographs,

there was no photographs
of him that weren't iconic.

If I see a guy with a guitar
and there's a flame

shooting out of it
and he's like this

and behind him you see a clown
and over here you see a girl

going like this,
I'm going, what?

I gotta see this show.

Iggy was like an animal.

[rock music playing]

I thought, wow.

Mention right in the lyric,
I want to be your dog.

[rock music playing]

People have often asked me,

what photographers
influenced you most?

I say, no photographers
ever influenced me.

But I think the unique charisma
of a bunch of my early subjects

did have an influence on me.

The management company
that had just

signed Ed Sheeran,
they said, we need

some pictures of this new
artist we have, just come along.

He was the support act
in a little club.

There was maybe 20 people.

And he had just finished
his first song,

went into his second song,
and all the lights...

the power went out.

And I saw him move
away the mic stand,

and then he shouted to the
crowd, I'll just go acoustic.

And I thought, what?

And he'd just ask somebody
in the crowd to do the beat,

and he finished his
gig acoustically.

And I thought, wow.

And I used to keep a diary,
and that evening in my diary,

I said, we have to watch him.

He's going to be big.

[acoustic guitar playing]

Him and what he did and how
he performed hasn't changed.

It's still the same.

[music playing]

I was the only photographer
at Wembley.

During the day, it was nice
because you had the reflection

of the stadium
onto the stage because

it was like in Plexiglas.

But once the sun went down,
it became dark,

of course, you had
those big spotlights

of the stadium, which
cast a very nice shadow,

so I was playing with that.

And all of a sudden, the
whole scene was full of light,

and I thought,
this is my moment.

I have to get this right.

And I went for it, got it.

A lot of people complain
about cameras in the audience,

particularly phones.

There's so many shows
that I'm at and I...

I actually have images
where there are

30 phones in front of my face.

KEVIN CUMMINS: Now,
people want to document

every second of their lives.
They want to take a picture.

Even if it's blurred, if it's
out of focus, doesn't matter.

It's an "I was there" moment.

I see all these people
when we play,

they got... they're looking
at us through their iPhone.

Can you imagine going and seeing
Jimi Hendrix with your iPhone?

Put the phone down,
man, and dance.

Nowadays, you see people
in the front row with a...

with a [bleep] iPad.

It seems like the wrong
answer to the right question.

The question is, how do
I remember this forever?

And I always reckon, you just,
like, try to remember it.

So I've got a different take
on people holding the phones.

I like it.

Because for years,
unless we had the show filmed,

we didn't know what
we looked like on stage.

People use cell phones
because they love what they see,

and they want to show
what they see,

not because they want to
take a good picture of it.

And I think that's...
This whole hype now

of everybody want
to be a photographer,

everybody shooting,
it will slowly fizzle out.

Professional photography
will become important again.

[camera clicking]

In the 55 years since
I went on the road

with the Rolling Stones in '65,
the changes have been

just phenomenal,
and yet with all of that,

the excitement
of rock and roll continues.

The energy, the power,
you see photographers

nowadays capturing that
every night in small clubs.

The photographers of today,
their challenge

just to get their good pictures
is much different

than the challenge that we had.

The photographers that
I'm often impressed with

are the photographers that are
able to pick up with the band,

stay three weeks, join the next
one for the next three weeks,

and what they're creating is
really incredible moments,

not just live music moments,
but behind the scenes.

And most of the time, it's...
It's pretty amazing.

There's a growing number
of really young and really

talented photographers who are
able to live this kind of life.

There's Daniel Topete.

There's CJ Harvey.

There's Pooneh Ghana.

Pooneh Ghana, her enthusiasm
and her energy that she brings

to the game, it...
This is all that she's known.

She... she doesn't know what
it was like 10 years ago,

let alone 55 years ago,
and I don't think she cares.

Maybe I always just
wanted to be in a band,

and that's why I started
doing music photography.

I just bought
a really cheap Holga

and a Polaroid from Walmart.

And I would go,
and I'd be really excited.

Like, I would wait, sometimes,
like, 10 hours just to be,

like, front row, center.

And then, I'd go and try
to meet the band afterwards

and get a photo with them.

And then, from there,
I started slowly developing

this passion of, like... this
is... this is what I want to do.

[rock music playing]

I've worked a lot
with Courtney Barnett

over the last five years now.

♪ I saw you in
the lane next to me ♪

POONEH GHANA:
I was on tour with her.

And she said,
you know, we work with

so many other photographers,

and you're just able
to get the shot.

It'll be a second,
and you just got it.

And she's like, I don't
know how you do it.

♪ You're swimming cap,
but it appeared that you had... ♪

POONEH GHANA: I always
have a camera with me,

but I think, just on
a basic human level,

you can kind of
sense when there is

a right moment to take a photo.

♪ They were getting foggy

POONEH GHANA: A lot of
what I do is on the fly.

You just kind of walk around.

You'll be like, oh, there's
Courtney in the corner,

playing her guitar,
getting ready for the show

or her putting on her suit.

Like, that's a good moment.
I'm gonna shoot that.

If we're out walking,
you just see something.

It just... it just hits you,
and you're like,

Courtney, go stand there.

She'd be like, OK.

It's also both ways, you know?

On tour, the artist
knows, like, OK.

Pooneh is taking photos of us,
so we're doing this together.

So that's nice.

It's not so much
like making the band

go out of their way
or bothering them.

It's like you're
doing this together.

[music playing]

I don't know how she can
live this way, you know?

I'm wildly impressed
and jealous,

but the result is a
ridiculous portfolio of work.

POONEH GHANA: I chose this life.

I know a lot of
people don't really

like living out of a suitcase.

Really, at the end of the day,
I like being my own boss

because I get to do whatever
I want, and I get to, like,

make it as exciting
as I want it to be.

[music playing]

DANNY NORTH: I watch her
Instagram every single day.

I'm, like, looking at it and
cheering her on because I see

that what she does are like...
I know there's no way

you can do that without
that absolute connection to...

and love for the music
that you're photographing.

POONEH GHANA: It's my
best job in the world.

There's always something
to be shooting.

There's always someone
I want to be working with

and something new
you can be doing.

With photography,
it's completely in your hands,

like whatever you do creatively,

and that's the exciting part
of it.

[rock music playing]

The excitement and energy
of rock and roll

is something that photographers
want to capture

and will continue to capture.

It's always going to be about
music, artistry, and energy.

[rock song concludes]

[rock music playing]