On the Road

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]