I was lucky enough to work with Queen for over a decade from 1981. So when the Queen office gave me the go-ahead to share my work with the world I was over the moon.

My first phone call from the Queen Office:

At the time the call came through, I was looking at a shoot I had done a day before and I was picking my favourite shots. I couldn’t hear properly due to a very soft Irish accent coming through to my dodgy phone and anyone that knows me knows that I’ve never been very good at multitasking at the best of times! Cobbling a conversation together, the lilting voice asked me about a possible shoot, asking after my availability, fees, whether I had a passport and all the usual stuff. I asked who the band were. ‘Cream’ he said. Or at least, that’s what I thought he said. Having said ‘pardon?’ roughly 4 times at this point, I didn’t want to say it again. I knew I’d misheard as Clapton definitely hadn’t reformed Cream but trying to multitask, I knew I’d find out at some point and didn’t think much more about it. Not until, about a week later when the softly spoken man called back and said, ‘Ok, you’re on. I’ll book the flights and hotel for you. You’re going to Munich’. I said ‘Great, who’s the band?’ By this point, I think he assumed I was a bit deaf. ‘QUEEEEN’ he said. I heard him loud and clear that time. I nearly fell off my chair when I realised the job I’d just booked.

He then said ‘Listen, just to warn you; you might only get 10 minutes… or nothing at all. They’re not keen on photo shoots.’ With that running around my head, my assistant Rob Brown and I trotted off to Munich where the band were recording Hot Space.

I remember it vividly: There was a corridor outside the Studio where I set up a paper backdrop and my lights. It was nothing special, I purposefully wanted it to be a simple set-up to focus on the band – especially if I only had 10 minutes! But three hours later we were still shooting. In the corridor at first and then they let me in the recording studio, taking candid snaps with boys at work. It was a surreal and utter privilege that began my journey of working with the one and only Queen. Not many photographers get to witness such immense talent up close like that. I have very fond memories of working with the band and it was such an honour to get to capture them again and again through the years.

Me my camera and Queen: 

In summary, my relationship with Queen started with ‘Hot Space’ and ran up to the ‘Headlong’ and ‘I’m Going Slightly Mad’ sessions for their final album in Freddie’s lifetime, ‘Innuendo’. In between there was ‘Radio Ga Ga’, ‘I Want to Break Free’ and ‘It’s A Hard Life’ from ‘The Works’, then ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’, ‘The Miracle’, of course, plus some solo work with Roger on ‘Strange Frontier’ and Freddie’s ‘I Was Born To Love You’.

The Prints:

So here is the first collection of Fine Art Prints of Freddie, Brian, Roger and John from The Miracle shoot.

Shot at Olympic Studios in Barnes in 1989, which is now the Olympic Cinema.

Working closely with the amazing MERCURY PHOENIX TRUST – 50% of the profit from each sale will be donated to the trust. The MPT has reached millions in the fight against HIV/AIDS worldwide, providing £17M to over 1.5K projects in 57 countries (and counting!). The MPT predominantly funds smaller organizations it assesses and vets as they effectively work at grassroots level, where governments, larger NGOs and markets don’t often reach.

The photographs will be digitally printed onto giclee gallery fine art Hahnemühle Pearl, 285gsm.

Each print is sustainably produced. You can check their Carbon Footprint here: https://www.hahnemuehle.co.uk/sustainability/