When young Sydney chef Tony Mott started taking photos of the band at his local pub for fun, he never dreamed he was paving the way to become a famous celebrity photographer.
Tony, adept at making dishes like beef Wellington and chicken Kiev, would eventually snap images of the biggest names in music, including Mick Jagger, Michael Hutchence and Kylie Minogue. Those pictures would grace magazines around the world – and now appear in the coffee-table book, Rock N Roll Gallery.
“It all started because I loved going to see bands in my spare time,” Tony, 68, tells New Idea. “In the early ’80s, I’d go and see the Divinyls in Kings Cross. I started photographing singer Chrissy Amphlett running around on stage.
“Then, one day, the band’s manager paid me about 20 bucks for one of my photos. It was a thrill!”
His new career had officially begun. Soon, word spread in music circles that the young guy whose hair smelt of cooking had nailed the recipe for taking a memorable image.
The day Mick Jagger called…
By the mid ’80s, everything changed. One day, Tony, who appeared on The Morning Show last week to promote his book, came home to a message on his answering machine from Mick Jagger’s manager, inviting him to photograph The Rolling Stones’ frontman on his solo tour! Tony was suddenly being paid to photograph the superstar every day.
“This was beyond thrilling. Of course I was nervous!” he admits. “It was the by far the biggest thing I’d ever done. But I would later learn, the bigger the artist, the kinder they are.
“Mick Jagger was very personable and after I’d take sets of photos, he’d go through them with me and explain what he liked. He taught me a lot.”
Touring with Mick kickstarted Tony’s career.
“After that, things began to snowball,” he says. Tours with other giants such as Bob Dylan, MC Hammer, The Rolling Stones and many other famous bands ensued.
Over decades, he’s photographed hundreds of rock’n’roll legends who trust and admire him.
“I don’t publish what people wouldn’t want published. When I photographed Nick Cave with Kylie Minogue, in a couple of the shots Nick’s picking his nose! He wouldn’t want that published. You use your discretion.”
Kylie and Nick came to Tony’s rescue in 1996. They agreed to pose together for him at the Big Day Out music festival, which was a real coup for Tony.
“It was a world first!” he remembers. “Until this shot, they had never been photographed together – the Pop Princess with the indie-cool Nick Cave. They posed together in a stairwell as a favour to me, as I’d just had all my camera gear stolen and they wanted to help me make some money to buy new cameras.”
Tony’s book includes photos of dozens of beloved Australian and international musicians, some now sadly deceased.
He has fond memories of the late Michael Hutchence – “charming, fun to be around, and women loved him!”
Of Olivia Newton-John, he says, “You’d be hard-pressed to find someone lovelier.”
Rock N Roll Gallery by Tony Mott is available at bookshops and from his website.
