After four decades (and counting) of photographing rock stars and rock bands, one of the best intangible perks of hanging-out with music icons and legends is hearing their songs that suddenly appear out of nowhere on the radio – whether at home or in my car. It immediately brings back great memories and puts a satisfied, knowing smile on my face.
After hanging out with Debbie Gibson recently, I happily add “Lost In Your Eyes”, “Only In My Dreams”, “We Could Be Together”, “No More Rhyme” into my list of personal radio songs.
Debbie joins the long list of recording artistes that I have personally hung out with and shared some fun, personal moments including the likes of the following:
BLONDIE – “Heart Of Glass”, “Call Me”, “The Tide Is High”, “Rapture”, “Maria”, “Sunday Girl”, ““Hanging On The Telephone”, “Dreaming”, “Atomic”, “One Way Or Another” (image below). Fact: I type this as “Tide Is High” is on the radio.
Blondie invited me, twice, to photograph the making of two of their iconic albums, “Panic Of Girls” and “Pollinatior” in Woodstock and Soho, New York City respectively (above image). Thanks, guys!
Chris Stein at Meditation Chamber, the music room in my home (image below).
BEACH BOYS – “Good Vibrations”, “Don’t Worry, Baby”, “God Only Knows”, “California Girls”, “Kokomo” (image below).
Honoured to have my Bowing image of Beach Boys featured on the cover of their “50th Anniversary Tour” live album (above image). Being the sunny Beach Boys, all their album covers have been in colour. Mine’s their first album cover to be in monochrome. Thanks, guys!
BRIAN WILSON – Honoured to have hung out backstage with my hero, Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys genius (above image).
BEATLES – “Hey Jude”, “Get Back”, “Here, There And Everywhere”, “Yesterday”, “Something”, “Let It Be”, “A Hard Day’s Night”, “Here Comes The Sun”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Penny Lane”, “Yellow Submarine”. I met Allan Williams – the first Beatles’ manager, Allan brought the young Beatles to Hamburg where they cut their teeth and the rest is history (image below).
ALLAN WILLIAMS – at Meditation Chamber, the music room in my home (image below). He kindly invited me to an upcoming Beatles Fest in Liverpool, which I accepted and went, the following year. I was Allan’s shadow for 3 days.
JOHN LENNON and YOKO ONO – “Imagine”. Yoko is co-writer of the global peace anthem (image below).
GEORGE HARRISON – “My Sweet Lord”, “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth”, “Got My Mind Set On You” (image below). Barry Feinstein – the photographer who shot the cover of George Harrison’s magnum opus triple album “All Things Must Pass”. I visited Barry at his Woodstock home several times and even stayed one night on his bed. I was the last friend, a fellow rock photographer, (besides his wife) to see Barry alive in the hospital.
BARRY FEINSTEIN – me at his home in Woodstock (above image). Chris Stein of Blondie took the shot. I invited Chris along for the historic visit. Chris picked me up from the Greyhound station and off we went to pay homage to our photographer guru, Barry.
DAME OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN – “Xanadu”, “Physical”, “Magic”, “Helplessly Devoted To You”, “You’re The One That I Want”, “Suddenly”, “Don’t Stop Believin'”, “I Honestly Love You”, “Have You Never Been Mellow” (image below).
I’m featured in Dame Olivia’s autobiography, “Don’t Stop Believin'”. One day, her signed book appeared at my home. The inner wrapping came with the cheery “Surprise” scribling (above image).
CARLOS SANTANA – “Black Magic Woman”, “Oye Como Va”, “Samba Pa Ti”, “Smooth” (image below).
AMERICA – “A Horse With No Name”, “Ventura Highway”, “Sister Golden Hair“, “I Need You” (image below).
ROGER McGUINN / THE BYRDS – “Mr. Tambourine Man”, “Eight Miles High”, “Turn, Turn, Turn”. Roger at Meditation Chamber, the music room in my home (image below).
DOLORES O’RIORDAN / CRANBERRIES – “Linger”, “Zombie”, “Dreams” (image below).
EXTREME – “More Than Words” (image below).
STEPHEN BISHOP – “It Might Be You”, “Save It For A Rainy Day”, “On And On” (image below).
TOTO – “Africa”, “Roseanna” (image below).
SIMON PHILLIPS – Toto drummer, at Meditation Chamber, the music room in my home (image below).
STEVE LUKATHER – me and Luke are email pals (above image). The last time we “spoke”, was two weeks ago.
VILLAGE PEOPLE – “YMCA”, “In The Navy”, “Macho Man”, “Go West”. Hung out with the Cowboy in the band, RANDY JONES, in an invite-only party in New York City (image below).
ALAN PARSONS PROJECT – “Don’t Answer Me”, “Days Are Numbers”, “Time”, “Eye In The Sky”, “Sirius”.
Met Alan Parsons at private party in Liverpool (above image).
CHRISTOPHER CROSS – “Sailing”, “Ride Like The Wind”, “Arthur’s Theme”, “Never Be The Same”, “Swept Away”, “Think Of Laura” (image below).
HOOBASTANK – “The Reason” (image below). The Hoob at my Meditation Chamber, the music room in my home.
BILL MEDLEY / (RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS) – The Voice of “You’ve Lost That Living Feeling”, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”, “Unchained Melody” (image below).
FRANKIE VALLI / FOUR SEASONS – “Grease”, “Oh, What A Night”, “Who Loves You”, “My Eyes Adore You”, “Sherry” (image below).
SIR CLIFF RICHARD – “Some People”, “We Don’t Talk Anymore”, “Suddenly”, “Congratulations”, “The Young Ones”, “Summer Holiday” (image below).
SLASH / GUNS N’ ROSES – “Sweet Child Of Mine”, “Paradise City”, “November Rain” (image below).
GEORGE BENSON – “This Masquerade”, “Give Me The Night”, “Turn Your Love Around”, “The Greatest Love Of All”, “Nature Boy”, “On Broadway”, “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You” (image below).
GRAHAM NASH / CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG – “Our House” (image below). Me at the entrance of “Our House“, Inside, I saw the “fiery gems” and the piano where Graham Nash composed the song for Joni Mitchell, his then-girlfriend.
POLICE – “Tea In The Sahara”. Me in front of the Giza Pyramid, enjoying a glass of tea in the Sahara in 1998 (image below). My quirky life-long rock dream accomplished.
THE DOORS / (JIM MORRISON) – “Light My Fire”, “The End”, “L.A. Woman”, “Riders Of The Storm”. I visited Jim Morrison’s grave at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France (image below).
GENE SIMMONS/ KISS – “Rock And Roll All Nite”, “Beth”, “I Was Made For Loving You”. Gene teaches me how to smile properly for the camera (image below).
BAND AID – “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (image below). I own the original lithograph, signed by Sir Peter Blake and Sir Bob Geldof (image below).
KENNY LOGGINS – “Meet Me Half Way”, “Footloose”, “Danger Zone – Theme from Top Gun“, “What A Fool Believes”, “I’m Alright”, “Heart To Heart”, “Celebrate Me Home”, “Whenever I Call You Friend”, “Forever” (image below).
Kenny Loggins was the very first rock star I shot, while as a college student in the USA (above image). I never stopped shooting.
DONNY OSMOND / THE OSMONDS – “Puppy Love”, “Crazy Horses”, “Paper Roses”, “I’m Leaving It Up To You” and any Osmonds hit songs (above image).
GERRY MARSDEN / GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS – “You Never Walk Alone”, “Ferry Cross The Mersey” (image below).
JUDY COLLINS – “Amazing Grace”, “Both Sides Now”, “Send In The Clowns” (image below).
NILE RODGERS / CHIC (image below) – “Good Times”, “Le Freak”, “Everybody Dance”, “I Want Your Love”, Madonna’s “Like A Virgin”, “Material Girl”, David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”, Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”, Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family”, Diana Ross’s “I’m Coming Out”, Duran Duran’s “Notorious”.
JANIS IAN – “At Seventeen” (image below).
SUZANNE VEGA – “Luka” (image below).
KENNY G – “Songbird”, “Silhouette” (image below).
BUDDY GUY– “Damn Right, I’ve Got The Blues”, “Mustang Sally”, “Hoochie Koochie Man” (image below).
SONNY TURNER / THE PLATTERS – the original voice of “Only You”, “The Great Pretender”, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” (image below).
RICHARD CLAYDERMAN – “Souvenirs d’enfance”, “Ballade Pour Adeline” (image below).
RICKI LEE JONES – “Chuck E’s In Love” (image below).
KITARO – “Silk Road” (image below). Always fun to hang out backstage with my camera comrade, Kitaro,
My portrait of Kitaro is featured in his Grammy award-winning “Thinking Of You” album sleeve – Vinyl and CD (image below).
Slipknot – Slipknot songs are, unfortunately, not on the radio playlist. Chris Fehn (Long Nose) hung out at my Meditation Chamber, my home’s music room (image below).
KIT CHAN – “Home” (image below). “Home” is like a pop national anthem to Singaporeans. I visited Kit’s home, she visited my home. Life is fair.
CLEMENT CHOW – “Count On Me, Singapore” (image below). A favourite song played, without fail, during National Days in Singapore. Clement came a-visiting to my home.
Final tally – I’m fortunate to “count” two local iconic singers of Singapore’s pop national anthems hanging out at my “home”. Haha.
Video did not manage to kill the all-mighty Radio Star!
Long Live The Radio! Hear, Hear!
