You know, I was a jazz drummer from 14 in the London Jazz Clubs and American Air Force
bases. So, you know, by the time I reached 20, I was a fully fledged professional jazz
musician. And I wanted to get, I've been in the army, I came out and I wanted to get to
America because I'd found out BOEC was flying to America. And I went down the airport and
I accidentally took a shot of a, well, not accidentally, I just caught my eye. There
was a bloke in a pinstripe suit, you know, middle-aged man. And he'd fallen asleep amongst
a load of African chieftains. So, I took this picture and the next thing I know, a guy comes
up to me and said, I'm from the Sunday Dispatch and I've told my editor about this picture
and he wants to see it. So, I took out the film, gave him the film. And he said, ring
him up at six o'clock and you'll tell you whether he wants to use the picture. And I'll
ring up, said, loves the picture. And he'd love me to work there every Saturday as a
photographer. And I said, but I don't know what I'm doing. I said, I'm really a jazz
drummer. He said, well, I've seen your contacts and you've definitely got the eye. So, just
continue to take pictures like you're taking, you know, and watch out for famous faces,
which was quite easy in those days because in those days, all the people who used to,
all the press were the other side. They used to stand by the plane steps and shoot people
coming down the stairs or going up the stairs waiting. They never went in the lounge. And
of course, I was going around, I was getting Petula Clark and Jackie Collins and all these
people. After three months, I sort of caused a stir down there. A guy came up to me and
his name was Brian Fogarty. He was a brilliant photographer for the Daily Sketch. And he
said, look, I'm meeting all these movie stars like Sophie Loren and people like that. And
they're asking me to come down and photograph them on the, because he's a really good looking
guy, come down and photograph them on the film set. Anyway, I started working with him
and then he got killed in the plane crash. And the paper that who he was the main guy
for offered me his job. And I told the picture and I didn't know what I was doing. I mean,
I didn't really, I had a little leg for select camera. I mean, it was a joke. Anyway, I'll
go up there and let's start the job. And believe it or not, the very first job I get, he said,
one of the reasons we want you, he said, why I took you on here. He said, we've got an
editor on the paper called Kerr Robertson. He does a thing called call for cats. And
we need pictures of pop groups. We think pop groups are going to take over in music. I
said, Oh, so he said, go down the studios to Abbey Road. There's a group down there
calling, please, please me. They called the Beatles and just go and do a shot. So I go
down and I'll do this really amateurish shot. I've got the plan, the guitars and Ringo holding
the symbol. I mean, it was the first pop group shot ever. They didn't publish it. They waited
three months for the record to come out the day they published it, the papers sold out.
And they thought they struck gold. So they thought, Oh, well, you know, you know about
music. Who do you? Well, I said, I like the Rolling Stones because they're a blues group.
I mean, it's it's nearer to jazz than pop music. So I went down photograph them and
they were horrified. They thought they were with five prehistoric monsters. And so they
said, Well, you got, there's got to be a good looking group. I said, Well, there is a group
called the only one of the guys can really play. It's called the Dave Clark five. So
I photographed them. They ran that it's Beauty and the Beast. And that was the sort of style
in my career. And then from then on, I mean, I started at the top in one way during the
Beatles and never looked back.
