[What A Life! Rock photography by Tony Mott. A free exhibition until 7 February 2016]

[Tony Mott. Metcalfe Theatre, State Library of NSW. 29th October 2015]

[Tony Mott, a lean, casually-dressed, bespectacled 60-year-old man, wearing a flat cap stands at a lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

Good evening. Thanks, everybody, for coming, and thanks to the State Library and Louise and her team for putting on the exhibition, which I went to for the first time a couple of days before it opened and was quite gobsmacked and strangely overwhelmed, having to look at my own images so large. So, a big thankyou to the State Library. So, I'll start at the very beginning.

[A colour photograph of a large crowd of people]

[TONY MOTT]

I'm actually a French chef by trade, and back in the early '80s, I used to work at Kings Cross in the Gazebo Hotel and the Opera House.

[Tony, standing behind the lectern, speaks into a mic]

[TONY MOTT]

I used to finish at about 11 o'clock at night, or 10 o'clock at night, and at minimum, three or four nights a week I'd go out and watch bands, and Sydney had such a vibrant, fantastic live music scene that every suburb would have many venues. And Robert Smith of The Cure told me a couple of years ago that The Cure came here in 1981 and toured Sydney for three months and never played the same suburb twice, which is an indication of what a great live music scene it was. Anyway, in the middle of all that, I went down to the Piccadilly Hotel in Kings Cross at some point and the Divinyls had just started a residency there.

[A black-and-white photo of Chrissy Amphlett singing into a mic, with her arm around guitarist Mark McEntee]

[Tony stands at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

They were an unknown band, and... through my drinking one night... ..I looked at the stage and thought, 'Good God, that must be really difficult to capture on a camera.' And 'cause they played every Monday night, I thought, 'Well, I'll practise.' And I brought my camera along, and this is in the days before mosh pits and security, and no-one cared that I was there with a camera. And luckily for me - in many ways I was lucky, and those pieces of luck were, one, no-one was looking at the photographs apart from me, 'cause I was really, really crap. The photos were just non-event at all, but slowly, by trial and error, I reached a degree of competency, and what I didn't know at the time was I was photographing not the best female performer in Australia - by far the greatest female performer I've ever witnessed in the world. I've toured with Madonna. I've seen Rihanna, Blondie, Pretenders - many female performers. No-one touched Chrissy Amphlett. She was phenomenal.

[Two black-and-white photographs of Chrissy Amphlett performing on stage]

[TONY MOTT]

So, I got really, really lucky that my break was photographing the Divinyls and Chrissy Amphlett.

[Hand on hip, Tony stands at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

After about three or four months, the manager of the Divinyls approached me and said, 'I'd like to look at the photographs,' which was sort of, like, a huge thrill, but at the same time, 'Why do you want to look at my photographs?' And he bought one and he used it on a poster, and that was really beginning of a career as a rock'n'roll photographer.

[Black-and-white photograph of Chrissy Amphlett performing with her hair flying]

[TONY MOTT]

As I said, she couldn't have been better to practice on. I mean, she was wild - a banshee, unpredictable, and just... yeah, just a dream to photograph.

[A black-and-white photo of Chrissy Amphlett holding a mic stand with a light shining behind her]

[TONY MOTT]

Eventually, as I got to know them, they invited me onto film sets, video clips, and this is taken on Back To The Wall video clip.

[A black-and-white photo of Chrissy Amphlett wearing a white slip and standing against a wall with a beam of light on it]

[TONY MOTT]

And I dressed her...

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

..and when I say I dressed her, I suggested the white slip, and she wanted a black slip, and we argued, and even... Only a couple of years ago, or four years ago, when she was staying at my place, she still actually was not happy about the white slip.

[The Back To The Wall photograph of Chrissy Amphlett]

[TONY MOTT]

It ended up on the cover of many magazines and I still like it, but, yeah, she wasn't happy with it.

[Tony stands at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

I'll move on to... I'm trying to find... Have I gone past it? I think I may have gone past it. The first photo is that one. That's the photo...

[A black-and-white photo of Chrissy Amphlett standing behind a mic stand with her mouth open wide and hair flying]

[TONY MOTT]

That's taken at the Piccadilly, in Kings Cross, and that was the first photo that I ever sold, and yeah, I couldn't have been prouder.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

They paid me $20, and to show how green I was, the manager said, 'It's 20 bucks and we'll put your name on the door.' And I went, 'Great!'

[Laughter]

And about two weeks later, he noticed me paying to get in and he went, 'You know your name's on the door?' And I went, 'Yeah, I know.' But I thought there was some mythical door somewhere where they write your name 'cause you helped the band, and continued to pay. So, you can see I was very, very green. So, slowly but surely, as a consequence of that, I liked the idea of being a rock'n'roll photographer. I wasn't trying to make money out of it. I just loved doing it. It was a passion.

[A black-and-white photo of a man holding a light tube over his head]

[Tony stands at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

This shot is quite a well-known shot, and the reason that I personally love it is in the days of punk, people pogoed, and I had about 20 punks pogoing on my head when I took this photo. And there was no mosh pit, so you were in the audience with all the thousand people moshing. So, it was a very, very difficult photo, plus it's Johnny Rotten. So, that's why it's one of my favourite all-time photos. The thing about photos is, particularly live photos, it really is a moment. It's just 125th of a second.

[A black-and-white photo of a bald-headed singer holding a mic and bending towards the reaching hands of his audience]

[TONY MOTT]

As much as I'm proud of this photo, for every one you get as good as that, you miss 50, in the days of film, and 125th of a second before this was taken, I would have not got it, but when I got it, it was 'cause the lights were right, I was in the right place, Peter Garrett's in the right place, and all those hands are female hands, apart from the one male hand reaching out for him, and it's just that moment, and it...

[Tony stands at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT] Particularly when students used to ask me about not getting many photos back, it was really... I think they were going through some sort of image that I was... ..everything I took was brilliant, and the reality was that it wasn't. For every one you got that was brilliant, you had plenty of failures. So, it was always great to encourage. It was always great to get clichéd shots.

[A black-and-white image of an open-mouthed, long-haired man singing into a mic stand]

[TONY MOTT]

Jimmy Barnes with a big Jimmy scream. Press used to love it, and this...

[A black-and-white picture of Jimmy Barnes standing under a beam of light with arms outstretched and holding a glass bottle]

[TONY MOTT]

Also your archives are really... they never go away.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

This shot never got used when it was actually taken, 'cause there's no eye contact. Magazines always like eye contact with the artist, but years and years later, when Jimmy decided to stop drinking, all of a sudden the magazines wanted shots with the drinking, so the vodka bottle just became part and parcel of it, and this got sold many times years after it was actually taken just purely because of the bottle.

[A colour photograph of a lean, blonde-haired man wearing a red suit]

[TONY MOTT]

David Bowie was just fantastic to photograph live.

[Tony speaks into a small microphone]

[TONY MOTT] A true gentleman off the stage and just very easy to photograph, and I did his Glass Spider Live DVD cover, of which this is the photo from it.

[A colour photo of a curly-haired Ian Hunter singing with his guitar]

[TONY MOTT]

The reason I've dropped this in is this a band called Mott the Hoople, who most of you have probably never heard of, but Mott the Hoople are my all-time favourite band.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

There's no better band than them, and when I first... That first Chrissy Amphlett photo, when it got published in a magazine, I was in an art room and the graphic designer said to me, 'You need a photo credit. What's your name?' And my real name is Anthony Moulds, and she went, 'You can't use that as a photographer's name.' She goes, 'You gotta make a name up,' and literally on the spot, she said, 'You gotta come up with a name.' She goes, 'Your favourite band?' and I went, 'Mott the Hoople.' She goes, 'Tony Hoople? Tony Mott?' And that's how I got my name, Tony Mott, just purely 'cause they were my favourite rock'n'roll band. And they re-formed in 2009, and this was taken at the Hammersmith Odeon and I went back and spent a week photographing them and just loving it. They were gloriously shambolic, which they always were. So, after I started doing live photos, slowly but surely I started doing sessions, which is a completely different kettle of fish to live. I treat them as the Yin and Yang of photography. Like, live music, you have the musician in their natural environment, but you've got no control over circumstances, light, or anything, but your job is just to capture the action of the performance of a musician. But offstage, you've taken a musician out of their natural environment, and contrary to popular belief, a lot of musicians aren't comfortable in front of a camera, but you've got total control over the light and the circumstances, but now you've gotta have a comfort with the band.

[A black-and-white fish-eye image of a band of five men. Three sit at a table and two stand behind them]

[TONY MOTT]

This is the Beasts of Bourbon, and the singer, Tex Perkins, used to live in a squat down at Woolloomooloo, which is now a very expensive block of flats, like they all are.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

And I was actually doing the album cover for Black Milk, their album cover, which was just a little set- up to the side, and the band were having a meeting to the side, and as I turned round, as they were just sitting round the table, I just thought it looked great, so I just literally turned my light round and started taking band shots, and I was really happy with the band shots, but it was sort of a happy accident, as often sessions are.

[A black-and-white snapshot of a five-man band sitting on rocks by a choppy sea]

[TONY MOTT]

Clichés in sessions often work. This is The Cruel Sea. So, literally I just took them down to Tamarama and tried to get a bit of a cruel sea in the background.

[Tony Mott stands at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

The other thing about when you're taking photos, you have ideas and you do photos of whatever, and there's a lot of people involved in a photo session. There's the band, there's the photographer, the band's manager, the publicist, the magazine, and a record company, and they may be all coming from different angles.

[A black-and-white photo of a band of five young men. The man in the foreground holds his hand up, creating an O-shape with his thumb and forefinger that frames his eye]

[TONY MOTT]

This was Powderfinger and this was my idea. I've no idea where it came from, but I just thought that would look good, and I loved it. They hated it.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT] and it never got used as a publicity shot, even though I loved it, and to this day, Bernard Fanning always does that to me when he sees me.

[Laughter] But the point being is just 'cause I loved it, doesn't mean they love it, 'cause, like all art and photography, it's subjective. I think it's great. They hated it, so it never got used. They allowed me to use it in a book, 'cause I said... as an example of exactly that, but they just didn't like it, and you had to get used to that sort of thing. Sometimes photo sessions can be really simple and you don't have to overcomplicate things.

[A colour photo with a fish-eye perspective of a brick building with three women sitting on the curb]

[TONY MOTT]

This was a Melbourne band called the Spazzys, who were sort of a female Ramones, three-piece Ramones, very simple.

[Tony standing at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

So, I just literally photographed them against a brick wall. This is a fish-eye lens, and then just a straight shot, and that became...

[A colour snapshot of the Spazzys sitting on the curb with their backs to the brick wall]

[TONY MOTT]

The street press used it, and it worked, and that was the album cover, and it's really, really simple. Sometimes simple works, so it's just an example of simple.

[Tony in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

The first photo session I ever did of an international band was the Eurythmics, and just a bit of trivia.

[A black-and-white photograph of Annie Lennox and David Stewart]

[TONY MOTT]

The Eurythmics were formed in Wagga Wagga, which is sort of a bit weird.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

They were in a band called Tourists and they were touring Australia, and they had the most disastrous tour. A roadie died, and... in fact, two people died on the tour and they more or less split up, and Annie and Dave ended up in a hotel room in Wagga Wagga and formed the Eurythmics.

[The photo of the Eurythmics]

[TONY MOTT]

This is a year later, and it's at the Southern Cross Hotel in Sydney, and I'd literally just started shooting bands, as in session.

[Tony in the lecture hall]

[TONY MOTT]

And the mistake I made was I just presumed that the bands would tell me what to do, 'cause I didn't think I had the power to sort of tell them what to do, and I turned up and sort of just waited for them to say something, and Dave Stewart said, 'Natural light would be nice coming through there.' So, it's a very simple shoot, but really, they more or less directed it, and the same week I shot the Triffids, who are an unbelievably fabulous band, and as I've been going through the archives - I've got a book out where I've put out everybody I've ever photographed - there's these shots of the Triffids. And I was given 45 minutes with them, and it will be eternally a regret that I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and as they turned up under these archways, they stood there and I stood there and really nothing happened. I didn't direct them, and they are the worst photos ever of a great band. And it was then that the singer, Robert McComb, said, 'I think you're supposed to tell us what to do to make it look great,' and I learnt then that, 'Ah! I've gotta take control.' And that's when I started learning light and how to form a band, how to make a band more comfortable, and it was just a lesson that you're actually directing the photo shoot, and as much as you collaborate with the musician, you're in charge. About 1988, I was living in Redfern. It was still sort of, like, a full-time hobby. I wasn't trying to make, really, a career out of it. I was just really blessed that I was, you know, I was taking photographs of bands, which was my passion. And it's in the days pre-mobiles, and I had an answering machine, and I came home and there's a message on the machine saying, 'Hi. This is Tony King. I manage Mick Jagger and I'm looking for a tour photographer.' And I just ignored it, 'cause I thought, 'Which idiot is leaving a message on my machine trying to take a joke on me?' And then four days later the same man rang back and said, 'So, are you too cool that you can't talk to Mick Jagger?' And I thought, 'Oh, my God. It's Mick Jagger's bloody manager.' So, I got the gig, lucky. I nearly blew it, but I got it, and so, yeah, I sort of had to pinch myself, 'cause I think, without a doubt, the Rolling Stones are the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world.

[A black-and-white photograph of Mick Jagger performing in a white T-shirt with 'Rolling Stones' printed on it]

[TONY MOTT]

This particular occasion, it was Mick Jagger solo, but for whatever reason, I got on with Mick very well. Many reasons. Mainly we're both Poms, both have a love of cricket. He took me to the Sydney Cricket Ground and we went into the members stand, and they just presumed I was Ronnie Wood.

[Tony removes his hat and ruffles his hair]

[Laughter]

[TONY MOTT]

And we were treated like kings, and it was fantastic. But as a consequence of that solo tour, I ended up scoring Rolling Stones tours, and I've toured with them twice - once in '91 and '95. And you would presume, 'cause they're the Rolling Stones, that you wouldn't get much connection and they wouldn't be really engaging with a photographer, but they're just the opposite - they're incredibly generous. I was taken into a dressing room and introduced to Mick and... ..er, to Keith and Ronnie, and internally I was sort of going into the room going, 'Bloody hell! It's bloody Ronnie and Keith!' But externally I was going, 'Hi. I'm the photographer. I'll be taking your...' Literally the management said, 'What do you think of the light show?' They listened to what you thought were ideas and they let you go on stage and get whole crowd shots. They were incredibly generous and great to tour with.

[A colour photo of Mick Jagger dressed in black and performing on stage, with his face on a screen behind him]

[TONY MOTT]

They only play three nights out of every seven, they stay in the best hotels and pay for all your incidentals. It's, like, dream come true.

[A colour photo of a bare-chested Keith Richards playing his guitar with a cigarette dangling between his lips]

[Tony speaking in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT] I did Europe in '95 with them, and we played Istanbul, and they said they wanted to do a session with the band and I said, 'Well, it'd be great to get the Blue Mosque in the background.' And it was like the Second Coming in Istanbul and they were gonna close the Blue Mosque down so the Stones could be photographed, and I said, 'That's going too far. We just need to go outside and get the shot.' But it sort of showed just the power of the Rolling Stones in a non sort of... in a town that had never seen rock'n'roll. Anyway, it was the best three months touring and live I've ever had, and they were just fantastic, and on a great night, they really are a great rock'n'roll band.

[A colour photograph of the Rolling Stones on stage, standing behind microphones. A large Rolling Stones poster with the Tongue and Lip logo is behind them]

[TONY MOTT]

I had to shoot everything - the press conferences... I had to shoot Mick Jagger's lunch.

[A black-and-white photograph of Mick Jagger dressed in a dark jacket and standing behind a microphone stand]

[TONY MOTT]

He put a lunch on for his Australian relatives. A lot of people don't know, but his mother was a fourth- generation Australian.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

She lived on the Parramatta Road at Petersham, left Australia in 1939, met Mick's dad, and so he's always considered himself half-Australian. That's why he did the Ned Kelly film in the '60s, and we went together up on the Parramatta Road at Petersham, out of No.362, if I remember right, to see the facade of the building of where his mother had lived. So, you do everything. You just take lots of live shots, sessions, and whatever they ask. You're on call 24/7 - and when I say 24/7, I mean, 24/7. I did a photo session with Keith in his bedroom for a magazine cover at four in the morning 'cause the manager rang and said, 'Keith's ready for the photos now.' So, it's like, 'Four in the bloody morning!' He was, of course, wide awake and was all fine, but... but it's not really much of a drama. It was more than a pleasure.

[A colour snapshot of a band performing on stage. Pink and green light beams stream down towards them and the audience gathered below the stage]

[TONY MOTT]

That's the Rolling Stones at the Enmore, in Newtown.

[A colour shot of Mick Jagger holding a mic on a stand, wearing a black motif T-shirt under an orange shirt]

[TONY MOTT]

Fantastic trick, the Stones have. They do this on a fairly regular basis. They play small venues all over the world and what they do is they put the ticket sales on the same day.

[Tony in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

Everyone rings up to go to the Enmore. It's sold out in two seconds. And they go, 'Would you like to go to the stadium?' And apparently it improves ticket sales by 25% for the big shows. They were actually living in the Enmore. They rehearsed there for five days. So, the last day, when they played there, they were basically in their rehearsal room, but it was very special to see the Stones playing in a venue like the Enmore.

[A black-and-white photograph of a duo on stage]

[TONY KEITH]

So, more shots of Mick and Keith. I always describe them as the Yin and Yang of rock'n'roll.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

Mick does about 30km on stage and Keith does about 2km.

[A rainbow-hued monochrome image of the Rolling Stones on a magazine cover]

[TONY MOTT]

My first ever Rolling Stone cover was of the Rolling Stones on the German issue. So, it was a big thrill to get a Rolling Stone cover, and the Rolling Stones on the Rolling Stone cover.

[Tony standing behind the mic]

[TONY MOTT]

Often, as I said before about musicians, is... Probably the reason I've survived and been relatively successful in the business is I've always treated musicians with respect, but I've also known that musicians aren't necessarily models. Fashion photographers are used to treating models like... They tell the model what to do and they have to do it. You can't really do that with musicians. You have to coll... collaborate - that word, whatever it is - and sort of find out what they're after. Also, it's always really good for a lot of musicians to be convenient.

[A close-up colour image of a bespectacled man wearing a hat and a black leather jacket seated in an empty auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

Elvis Costello does not like having his photograph taken, so this is a sound check. So, he comes offstage, you set up a light, and you do whatever you do.

[A colour photo of Elvis Costello wearing a black and green fedora and black leather jacket leaning against a wall]

[TONY MOTT]

That's outside his hotel room. In other words, total convenience. Even though you found the most beautiful location, he doesn't want to travel.

[Tony inside the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

He sees it as a necessary evil rather than something that's worthy.

[A colour image of a young blonde girl holding a guitar and standing behind a microphone]

[TONY MOTT]

I toured with Avril Lavigne in Japan. I don't know if anyone's seen Lost In Translation, the film, but I lived it.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

We were in the very same hotel as the film was made in, and I had a Japanese rep from BMG Records Japan, and I was doing a DVD cover of Avril Lavigne. She's huge in Japan, and I found the old part of Tokyo, which was the old rundown docks, and I found a couple of locations, and the girl from the Japanese record company was appalled that I would shoot in a shitty - what she described as the shitty end of Tokyo, and just refused to take me, except with the language problem, I never knew we weren't going there. We just never got there! We'd be in a Tarago and we would never get there. She's saying, 'Look at this beautiful building.' And I'm going, 'No, no, the docks,' and we never got there. So, it was a, literally, lost-in-translation tour.

[A colour, fish-eye photo of Avril Lavigne standing on a station platform with the train behind her]

[TONY MOTT]

I think Avril was about 17 or 18 at the time, so she was very young. Very successful tour, and on the final night, the record company took us out - and this is sort of, like, a rock'n'roll story that's a bit amusing.

[Tony in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

So, the band and Avril had said all they want at the party at the end was a band, they'd like to see a live band, so we went to this club and it was a nice live band. We're all drinking away and I like to have the odd drop of sauvignon blanc, and this very attractive Russian lady started talking to me. I thought, 'Oh, I've still got it. This is really good,' chatting away, when the tour manager came up to me and said, 'We need to get out of here now.' I said, 'I'm having a good time.' He said, 'It's a brothel.' I was like... And I said, 'Why is the record company taking Avril Lavigne to a brothel?' and the manager was upset, 'cause in Canada, at 17 you're not supposed to be drinking, you're not... And they thought... They got it in their head that Avril Lavigne was gay and she'd like to go to a brothel, but they just decided. There was no really rhyme, reason, or anything. So, we all hurtled out back to the hotel and the Russian lady didn't come with us.

[Laughter]

And finally that ended up being the album cover, 'cause we never got to the location, so they just used the live shot.

[The colour photo of Avril Lavigne holding her guitar on a magazine cover]

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

These are now examples of photo sessions and the difference between photo sessions.

[A colour photo with a dark background of a four-member band, with three men dressed in black standing behind a dark-haired woman also wearing black]

[TONY MOTT]

This is a band called Little Birdy, from Perth, and the other band you'll see is The Drones, from Melbourne.

[Tony stands behind the mic in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

So, Little Birdy, the singer, Katy, storyboarded this photo session for two months backwards and forwards with emails. This is the look. She was after a '60s look.

[The photo of Little Birdy with the dark background]

[TONY MOTT]

And then the styling. We got her hair and make-up. She went to see the hair and make-up girl about what she was gonna do. Yeah - two months, and we shot it in Melbourne, and we shot it over two full days - about six hours each day.

[Tony speaks in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

The problem with that, and the conflict of the band, is she loves being photographed. The three guys just kept going... 'Are we finished yet?'

[Laughter]

So, you're the diplomat between the two. Now, The Drones - I'd never met The Drones before, but I was doing their album cover for their German record company, and I was staying in a really beautiful hotel - the old Windsor in Melbourne, which is a fantastic... Dame Nellie Melba died there. I'm going off on a tangent, but I don't know if you know what Dame Nellie Melba died of. She was the first person to die of a facelift. She had complications with a facelift in 1923. I know that 'cause there's a plaque on the door at the Hotel Windsor. Anyway, I've digressed.

[A colour photo of The Drones - three men and one woman - standing in a hotel corridor]

[TONY MOTT]

That was my hotel room, and that's outside, and what I did with The Drones, 'cause I'd never met them, I said, 'I'll just do 25 minutes of what I think's gonna look good.'

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

I really like the long corridor and the olde-worlde of the Hotel Windsor and I took a couple of shots, and I said, 'I'll download them. We'll go have a beer, and you can look and you tell me.'

[A colour photo of the Little Birdy band members sitting in a room]

[TONY MOTT]

Meanwhile, back to Little Birdy, 'cause they were done the same week, we're doing another four hours, more and more photos. That was another one of the shots.

[Tony standing behind the mic]

[TONY MOTT]

Finally we went down to the bar and The Drones looked at the photos and said, 'These are great. See ya! Bye!'

[Another colour photo of The Drones dressed in black, standing in the hotel corridor]

[TONY MOTT]

So, we did 25 minutes, got paid exactly the same amount of money, and they didn't want to do any more. They were more than happy with what they got. Little Birdy, meanwhile, we're going on and on.

[Another colour shot of the Little Birdy members in a room. Katy Steele, dressed in a black pant suit and a white shirt, touches her hair]

[TONY MOTT]

Oh, I've gone past. But neither are right or wrong, it's just the difference between two bands, and one takes the artwork and the photos incredibly seriously and the other band, they don't really care about the photos. They thought they looked alright and then they just moved on.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

The difference between, again, fashion photographers and rock'n'roll is you meet really, really eccentric characters.

[A colour picture of the bust of a lean man with short hair and a neatly-trimmed goatee wearing a lavender silk shirt. He has a small Indian design on his forehead and a garland around his neck]

[TONY MOTT]

This is Perry Farrell, of Jane's Addiction and Porno For Pyros, and he toured with the Big Day Out, and this was for a front cover of the Melbourne Age.

[Tony in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

And I'd set up a studio - again, the convenience - in a hotel room in Auckland. Got a... Drop a canvas. Perry walks in and says hi. I said, 'I'm Tony Mott,' and he said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Do you trust me?' So, I said, 'Yeah, I suppose I trust you. Yeah, I trust you.' And he goes, 'We gotta have real trust. No trust, no photos.' So, I said, 'Yeah, I trust you.' He said, 'I want you to just sit there and close your eyes.' So, I closed my eyes and after about ten seconds I opened them up and he goes, 'Where's the fucking trust? You've opened your eyes!' And I was going, 'Well, what was I supposed to do?' And he said, 'We want trust. Close your eyes.' And after about four or five seconds, he got hold of my private parts and gave them the most almighty squeeze. And I was like, 'Arggh!' And he went, 'Now we have trust. Now you can take my photo.' And that's the eccentric character of Perry Farrell. Lovely guy. Possibly insane.

[A colour photograph of an elderly man in a checked shirt sitting on the curb and leaning against a wall with bright graffiti]

[TONY MOTT]

Kev Carmody - the reason I slotted this one is love Kev Carmody, lovely guy, but my God, it's difficult to make him smile in photos, 'cause he, again, hates having his photograph taken. So, this is me telling him a silly joke and finally got a laughing shot.

[A colour close-up of a winking woman with a punk hair-do]

[TONY MOTT]

Eccentric character No.2 - Bjork. This was taken a long, long time ago at the Big Day Out, and it was for a front cover of Q magazine in London, and they wanted just a straight portrait.

[Tony speaks behind the microphone]

[TONY MOTT]

And I just wanted to capture her eccentricity, and I set up sort of a studio backdrop outside her dressing room, and she talked to me and said, 'Oh, I want to do it in the late afternoon sun.' I said, 'That's fine. It'll be 5:30,' whatever. I knocked on the dressing room and she came out, and she came out with a little ruler and she went, 'Oh, no, the sun's nowhere... I want it half an inch from the horizon.' And I just scuttled off. Came out another time. Half an inch from the horizon - no, it's still not there. And finally - she was right, 'cause the light was beautiful - she came out and she said, 'What sort of portrait?' I said, 'I really want to capture that eccentricity that you have on stage,' and like all true eccentrics, she went, 'What eccentricity?' I went, 'Well, you know, all those weird mannerisms.' 'What weird mannerisms?' I said, 'Well, all that winking and twisting and turning,' and I could never tell whether she was taking the micky or she was serious, but finally she did this, and it's an example of...

[The winking portrait of Bjork]

[TONY MOTT]

This works with Bjork, whereas it wouldn't work with other artists, and I was very proud of it 'cause I just thought this was Bjork, and that is Bjork, and again...

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

My first wife was Swedish, not that there's anything wrong with that, but she found that out, and I sat next to her on a plane, and she proceeded to speak Swedish to me the entire flight. The fact that I kept saying, 'I actually don't speak Swedish,' made no difference. Mad as a cut snake.

[A colour photo of a smiling man with a cigarette between his lips]

[TONY MOTT]

Tim Rogers - eccentric character No.3. I love Tim to death. He's like a...

[Tony in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

I rate Tim Rogers as one of the great underestimated songwriters of Australia. Fantastic songs. Possibly his own worst enemy, and doing photo sessions with him usually involves about three bottles of red wine. So, you have to be prepared in advance, but lovely bloke.

[Colour snapshots of Tim Rogers jumping on stage and doing splits in the air with his guitar in hand]

[TONY MOTT]

And I've always wanted to capture the big sprints and the big windmill guitar antics on stage. Sometimes bands...

[A colour photograph of a three-man band. The man in the middle had his short hair dyed green]

[TONY MOTT]

Bands like Green Day are great to photograph in so much as they're not conscious. They don't want to be serious. They're quite happy to be photographed fairly, you know, in a zany way, so they're really easy to photograph.

[A multilayered photo of the members of Green Day pulling faces]

[TONY MOTT]

Pulling faces, and with Green Day, that's fine.

[A photo with a dark background of a middle-aged, long-haired man dressed in black and wearing round sunglasses. Large rings enclose his little fingers on hands held out beside his face]

[TONY MOTT]

Ozzy Osbourne - eccentric character No.5. This is taken before The Osbournes, and it's at the Park Hyatt Hotel, which is down on the harbour.

[Tony speaking in the hall]

[TONY MOTT]

I got taken into his room, and it's for the front cover of Kerrang! I was using a nice studio light. He was very pleasant. Couldn't have been a nicer guy, and I was doing a couple of shots, and eventually I said, 'It'd be really good if I just got a couple with natural light. Do you mind if I open the curtains?' He went, 'Yeah. No problem at all.' So, I opened the curtains and he went, 'Fucking hell! Look at the view - the Opera House, the Bridge! This is brilliant! Sharon, you gotta come and look at the view!' He'd been there for three days.

[Laughter]

He'd never opened the curtains once. Eccentric character No.6. Eccentric character No.7.

[A colour photo of a dark-haired man with tattoos on his arms and wearing make-up. Elbows resting on a surface, he holds a withered bouquet in hands]

[TONY MOTT]

Erm, did Marilyn Manson. Like all my photos, a lot of them are very quick. Set up a studio in a hotel lobby. This is the Sebel Townhouse.

[A multilayered, psychedelic photo of Marilyn Manson in the same setting]

[Tony stands at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

And Marilyn walked into the room. 'Hello, Marilyn.' Introduced himself, said, 'Hi, I'm Brian. How are you?' I thought, 'You don't look like no Brian I've ever met before.'

[A brooding colour photo of Marilyn Manson grasping the bouquet in one hand and holding his head with the other]

[TONY MOTT]

He came with his own contact lenses, multi-coloured contact lenses, said, 'What lens would you like?'

[Tony in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

Basically, you get a sense of cheating, 'cause you can't take a bad photo, 'cause the image is just there right in front of you. So, he was very easy to photograph, and got a lot of mileage. I got about six front covers of metal magazines around the world, but lovely bloke, really articulate, and yeah, really nice guy - but not, like, a real Brian.

[A fish-eye colour street shot of an African-American man sitting on a footpath with his fingers on his chin]

[TONY MOTT]

Ben Harper. I think this is eccentric person No.9. This is taken in the backstreets of Newtown. I liked the Aboriginal artwork in the background - it's an art gallery at Newtown - and started taking photos and said this is what we're gonna do.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

And he said, 'Oh, I love the background. It's great. Aboriginal artwork.' He said, 'What's that doing here?' I said, 'Well, it's an Aboriginal art gallery.' He said, 'Wow! I thought it'd be Maori.' I went, 'Why?' He goes, 'Well, in New Zealand.' I went, 'We're in Sydney.' 'No, we're in New Zealand.' 'No, you're in Sydney.' He flew in that morning. No memory.

[Laughter]

Just because people are rock stars, as I said before, doesn't mean they're necessarily comfortable in front of a camera.

[A portrait of a man with messy hair and wearing a black shirt with red lipstick and eye make-up. He is sitting in front of a red curtain with a black guitar on his lap]

[TONY MOTT]

Robert Smith, who, at this point, would have been photographed minimum 1,000 times, and he shakes in front of the camera, he's that nervous of the camera, and the reason I used the guitar was I just wanted him to hold something to give him something to hang onto, sort of a prop.

[Tony speaking in the hall]

[TONY MOTT]

But as I said, you'd think, all the photo sessions he's done over the years, he'd be comfortable, but definitely not comfortable.

[A black-and-white snapshot of a curly-haired man sitting with his fingers steepled over his mouth and looking skyward]

[TONY MOTT]

I toured with Bob Dylan very early on, which was a strange and weird experience. This was taken at a press conference at Brett Whiteley's studio in Surry Hills. I was the tour photographer, and he knew that, so I'd been hired.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

And as I took this photo, I just said to Bob, 'Could I have one with eyes down the camera?' And he stood like that for another 20 seconds and I went, 'That'd be a no, then? Alright, we'll move on from that.' I also had to shoot him live. 'A black-and-white photograph of Bob Dylan on stage, holding his guitar:

[TONY MOTT] Again, I'm the official photographer - I'm being paid by his manager - and about six songs into the set, he suddenly literally points at me and goes, 'Fuck off!'

[Tony Mott speaking in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

And I'm sort of, like... I wanted really desperately to show my laminate and go, 'Well, I'm...' I go backstage and I find the manager and I said, 'Oh, I've been told to leave.' He goes, 'Who the hell told you to leave?' I went, 'Bob Dylan.' He goes, 'Oh, God, he's seen you.' And then two days later I thought I was going to get a rollicking, 'cause I was asked to meet him. Gillian Armstrong shot the video, and it was under really, really low light. It was really difficult to shoot and I wasn't particularly happy with my photos. I remember thinking, as I went to meet the great Bob, that I should come up with whatever, and I was going, 'Oh, the lights,' the whole bit, and Bob just mumbled to me, 'The middle bit's not working for me.' I go, 'Well, the lights are really low,' and the conversation continued about the middle bit, and later I said to the manager, 'He kept going on about the middle bit.' He said, 'He probably thinks you're the sound guy.' And I could never work out whether he was really out there or he was just taking the mick, and I have a feeling it's the second. Keep harping about making people comfortable.

[A photo of a shy, smiling, wavy-haired brunette in a purple dress standing against a wall with butterflies on the wall paper]

[TONY MOTT]

Sarah McLachlan - not particularly comfortable having her photograph taken. I went on the road with her for quite a while.

[Tony speaks in the hall]

[TONY MOTT]

We had a couple of dinners and met her and we sort of got some sort of rapport together, and then I started joking that I was gonna photograph her in a toilet, a la Motorhead, 'cause I thought that'd be really great. She laughed, but I said, 'Seriously, we're gonna do it in a toilet.' And that, in fact, is a toilet. That's the State Theatre Butterfly Room, which is probably the most ornate toilet on the planet, and we did the album cover for Afterglow in there, and...

[An album cover with Sarah McLachlan standing behind a microphone stand and holding a guitar with a yellow, green and brown blotchy background]

[TONY MOTT]

Oh, that's the live album cover. Oh, I've gone too far again.

[A photo of a smiling Sarah McLachlan holding a wireless mic, dressed in jeans and purple full-sleeve T-shirt]

[TONY MOTT]

The best story I've got about Sarah McLachlan was... At this point she'd sold 30 million records, so she was quite a, you know, successful artist.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

And for whatever reason the record company wanted to change her image, and they'd hired this stylist guy from LA, who came to the studio, and he got a rack of clothes, and he kept going on about labels. Labels don't mean a lot to me, I wouldn't know one label from another, but apparently the blouse that I dissed was worth $16,000, but I just didn't like it. But Sarah came, 'cause obviously Sarah gets to choose, and was looking at them, and every single one had a plunging neckline, and she's just not a cleavage sort of girl. And you know, the record company - this was their surreptitious way of trying to get a cleavage shot, because they wanted to sex her up, as the guy from the record company told me. And luckily... Well, the stylist had to go away, 'cause she hated him, and I made the suggestion, 'If you wore a T-shirt in every one, you could wear whichever you like,' and this guy went ballistic, going, 'This is a Jean Paul Gaultier blouse! You can't put a bloody T-shirt underneath!' And we put the T-shirt underneath, but that's what you have to put up with record companies who decided they want to change her image, even after 30 million records.

[A colour portrait of a short-haired woman in a striped T-shirt sitting on the step of a blue-and-white bus]

[TONY MOTT]

The Missy Higgins photo there - I was quite proud of this, 'cause again, Missy Higgins was unbelievably uncomfortable in the camera, and the manager kept saying to me, 'For fuck's sake, make her smile just once.' And finally I succeeded.

[A snapshot of a smiling Missy Higgins looking away from the camera on the album cover of Peachy]

[TONY MOTT] Took about two days, but finally I got a smiling shot, and it ended up on the single cover.

[A colour photo of an Aboriginal man wearing a black leather jacket sitting in an empty auditorium]

Erm, Gurrumul was the first time I had shot a blind person. The embarrassing thing one of my call signs when I'm doing a photo session is, 'Just look right down the barrel of the camera.'

[Tony stands in the hall and gestures]

[TONY MOTT]

And of course, the guy's blind, so he can't actually see the camera, and it was very, very disconcerting for me, rather than him. He was completely comfortable. He didn't really care. But he did say that he - again, little props for musicians - he's so in love with that leather jacket. He just changed. As soon as he got to wear the leather jacket, he was so comfortable in it. So, it was finding the trick of what makes the artist comfortable.

[A snapshot of a long-haired guitarist kneeling on stage with his guitar in the air]

[TONY MOTT]

Clichéd shots are great. Clichéd rock shots. Magazines always like them. This is Adalita from Magic Dirt, and although it's clichéd, it's sort of ... ..and you can't see her, it still stands out.

[The silhouette of a guitarist on stage looking out over a crowd whose arms are raised]

[TONY MOTT]

Same with Wolfmother. This is at the Homebake festival. Homebake was always great to shoot, 'cause it's always great having green in the background, 'cause it's sort of not rock'n'roll.

[Another colour photo of the guitarist playing to a large crowd]

[TONY MOTT]

That ended up on the cover of one of the street mags.

[The photo of the guitarist on the cover of Brag magazine]

[Tony Mott standing at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

Next is an example of what I said before about how so many people are involved in a photo shoot. I got hired to do a Rolling Stone magazine cover of Living End while they were on the road with the Big Day Out. Journalist went on the road with them.

[A dark colour image of two guitarists performing on stage. One guitarist lies on the stage]

[TONY MOTT]

This was my favourite shot, with all the crowd in the background.

[A photo of the three men of The Living Dead on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine]

[TONY MOTT]

I did lots of shots, but ultimately that's what they put on the cover and that's just a backstage shot on their road cases.

[Tony at the lectern]

TONY MOTT: But this is the sort of thing you just have to accept, 'cause that's what happens.

[A portrait of a young woman in a spaghetti-strap dress standing against a dark red curtain]

[TONY MOTT]

Delta Goodrem - another example. This was for a magazine cover. I had a hair and make-up girl and a stylist there.

[Tony stands behind a mic in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT] Delta Goodrem, it'd be fair to say, I'm not a huge lover of her music, but you know, she is what she is, but she couldn't be a nicer person and really easy to photograph. She's easy on the whole bit.

[A portrait of a smiling Delta Goodrem wearing multiple necklaces over her spaghetti-strap dress and standing with her hands on her hips]

[TONY MOTT]

So, we spent quite a bit of time making everything good, and this was the one that she picked for the cover and this is what the magazine did.

[Numerous captions on the TV Hits magazine surround the photo of Delta Goodrem, leaving only her smiling face uncovered]

[Audience exclaims]

[TONY MOTT]

So, it's sort of, like, you've gone to a hell of a lot of trouble to make a really nice photo and then that's what happens to it.

[Tony in the hall]

[TONY MOTT]

And that happens, and as a photographer you just have to accept that sort of thing. And sometimes photos, as I said before, are archival. I did a shoot with INXS in the year dot, and at the end of the shoot, we all went back to the Kings Cross management office, and Michael Hutchence wanted to show me his brand-new Harley-Davidson that he loved, 'cause he put his helmet on and he became anonymous, and so he just sat astride the Harley-Davidson. There was a gumtree in the background and I had six frames at the end of a roll.

[A grainy black-and-white close-up of Michael Hutchence]

[TONY MOTT]

I'd just done a band shoot, and I just took these. I suppose they're happy snaps. I just like the light and whatever, and then they went into the archives.

[Tony speaks in the hall]

[TONY MOTT]

And unfortunately, when he died, everyone was after Michael Hutchence photos, and basically unseen ones - everyone wanted a cover of an unseen Michael, and I said, 'Look, all my INXS shots have been done to death. I haven't got anything that's new.' Finally I went, 'Actually I did take a couple of happy snaps,' and when I went into the archives, I found these. This is why they're so grainy - 'cause I'd shot the film in a studio in really dark light, and I'd had them very grainy, and of course, I've gone outside.

[A black-and-white portrait of Michael Hutchence on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine]

[TONY MOTT]

So, it's really grainy, but they just so worked as a portrait, and they ended up on the cover of Rolling Stone, just post him dying. So, that's sort of an example of when things just... ..certain things get archived and will carry on.

[Back in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

What I said before about simple shoots - this is Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters, who were huge at the time I did this photo shoot, and it was for a couple of magazines wanted covers.

[A fish-eye perspective of a grinning Dave Grohl standing beside a red RV and pointing to a small heart tattoo on his left middle finger]

[TONY MOTT]

And we went to a bit of trouble in the studio, and then when we were at the actual gig, this is literally him just outside the dressing room next to a generator, and he just pulled that finger with a heart and stuff and it ended up on several magazines and it's all worked.

[The photo of Dave Grohl on the cover of Massive magazine]

[Tony Mott at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

So, sometimes you go to a lot of trouble, and then sometimes you go, you know - very simple shots can still work. Photoshoots that sort of are strange.

[A black-and-white photograph of a young man with half his face in shadow]

[TONY MOTT]

This is Nick Cave in his Kensington... He lived in a flat in Kensington. This is '90... '90, so it's a long time ago.

[In the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

Anyway, Mute Records had hired me, which is his record company in London, and before I went to his flat, I recce'd round his flat for a nice cafe, a nice little gennel, which had nice light. Asked the cafe if I could use the back. They were cool. Went and knocked on Nick Cave's door. He came to the door in his jimjams, and I went... And he went... and he's looking at me. I said, 'Tony Mott, photographer.' He goes, 'Yeah, I know who you are. Why are you here?' I went, 'Photo session?' He went, 'What photo session?' I went, 'Photo session with Mute Records.' He went, 'Oh, God.' He said, 'I'll do a photo session, but we're not leaving the flat.' So, we went upstairs, he made me a cup of tea.

[A colour photo of Nick Cave beside window curtains, his chin resting on his fingers]

[TONY MOTT]

He never got out of his jimjam bottoms, but he put a shirt on, and it's sort of an example again - just doing it on the fly, just doing it as it happens.

[The black-and-white portrait of Nick Cave in partial shadow]

[TONY MOTT]

He had a beautiful natural light through the window, and I'm really happy with that portrait of just the natural light, and all he did...

[Tony speaks at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

This was taken in 20 minutes. When I got back to Mute Records and delivered, I said, 'He didn't seem to know a thing about the photo shoot.' They went, 'Yeah, we never told him. He never does photo shoots. We thought 'cause you know him, we might get a photo shoot.' So, they sort of tricked me and tricked him, and as it happens, it was fine, because next time I saw him, I sort of said, 'You know Mute Records had no intention of telling you?' and he goes, 'Yeah, I knew what was going on.' Anyway, he is actually quite easy to photograph. I've shot him here at the State Library in the Shakespeare Room, and he's fairly easy to photograph 'cause there's the character there.

[A colour photo of Nick Cave wearing round sunglasses and a grinning Kylie Minogue with her arms around his neck. A blurry vignette surrounds the duo]

[TONY MOTT]

This was with Kylie Minogue on the Big Day Out - Where The Wild Roses Grow.

[Tony Mott in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

And I remember when I first was told he'd done a duet with her, I actually didn't believe it. I went, 'Nick Cave? Kylie Minogue? That's like two people from different planets,' but it sort of worked, and it was... Yeah, I got a lot of mileage out of these photos. Nick Cave's great to photograph in general.

[A side profile of Nick Cave leaning against a band member taken from the back of the stage as the audience looks on]

[TONY MOTT]

He lends himself to the camera.

[A black-and-white image of Nick Cave sitting on a stool with a woman holding an electric guitar taking a step beside him]

[TONY MOTT]

This is him jamming with Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth at the Big Day Out. The Big Day Out was a huge break I got in the early '90s.

[Back in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

I started with the Big Day Out in the beginning and was the official tour photographer every year, and it had a huge advantage, 'cause you're on the road for three weeks, and three weeks on the road's really great, 'cause by the last week, everyone's seen you, and the familiarity means you get much better access and much better photos as a consequence of being on the road with bands.

[A colour photograph of Brian Johnson on a well-lit stage with a large bronze statue of a guitarist behind Angus Young]

[TONY MOTT]

AC/DC - the same thing. I've toured with AC/DC many times. AC/DC don't change.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

They stay exactly the same, God love 'em, and neither should they change, but always great to photograph. And photo sessions - they don't want to go to any trouble either.

[A photo of Brian Johnson with one arm around an open-mouthed Angus Young, the other hand forming a fist]

[TONY MOTT]

That's just a curtain backstage in the Entertainment Centre and they ham it up to the camera.

[A colour photograph of Angus Young on stage dressed as a schoolboy with the image of a steam engine behind him]

[TONY MOTT]

It's always good to have a locomotive in the background.

[A black-and-white photo of a dark-haired woman sitting on a gravestone in a cemetery]

[TONY MOTT]

Locations - this is Johnette from Concrete Blonde, and this is us in Clovelly graveyard - I love Clovelly graveyard, I've shot there many times - and that's actually Banjo Paterson's grave.

[Tony in the hall]

[TONY MOTT]

Just so anybody knows, Banjo Paterson's buried in Clovelly graveyard.

[A sepia-toned portrait of a blonde woman with her arms crossed in front of her]

[TONY MOTT]

Duffy. No idea why that's there. It's just a shot of Duffy.

[A colour snapshot of a laughing brunette dressed in a black top and white necklace standing by a wire fence]

[TONY MOTT]

Kasey Chambers. Sometimes it's not good to know someone so well. I've known Kasey Chambers since she was 15.

[A shot of Kasey Chambers standing on stage and looking away from the crowd, a guitar slung across her back]

[TONY MOTT]

I've always got on with her, but she wouldn't stop laughing at me.

[In the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT] Don't know why, but she does, but the record company always wants dead serious photos of her. I think they want her to be morose and sort of, like, the country and western, very sad, so my photos have never really fitted the record companies, but you know, she's great to photograph, and in the exhibition, we did a shoot - we did a Rolling Stone cover, and the four Rolling Stone covers are all picked by different people. One by the graphic artist, one by Kasey, one by me, and I don't who picked... Oh, the manager picked the fourth one. And they were all done in the State Library, which was... We got access to the Mitchell Library, and on the roof and everywhere, and it was just great. She's fantastic to photograph... when she stops laughing.

[A colour portrait of a blonde woman sitting on a step near a large pillar with her chin resting on her hand]

[TONY MOTT]

Lucinda Williams is her hero, and also probably the worst person I've ever photographed in so much as she really, really is uncomfortable in front of the camera.

[Tony speaks at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

This is taken on the steps of the State Library, and about 20 seconds later she burst into tears, and she just went, 'I just can't do any more.' So, delicate, to say the least.

[A colour shot of a short-haired blonde woman in a sleeveless sequenced dress raising her tattooed arms in peace signs]

[TONY MOTT]

This was for a DVD cover of Pink, who spent an inordinate amount of time upside down during the concert, but this was when she was the right way up.

[A blonde woman wearing sunglasses holds up a black-and-white photo of herself with a shirtless man]

[TONY MOTT]

Happy snap with Kim Gordon with Iggy Pop. Like all musicians - all musicians have heroes - and Kim Gordon, Iggy Pop was just god.

[A black-and-white portrait of an unsmiling blonde woman dressed in a leather jacket]

[TONY MOTT]

This was Deborah Harry on her 48th birthday, and if you see the photo that's in the exhibition upstairs, you can see really close up on her face and everything - not a single line on there, and she told me that she'd never spent a single minute in the sun.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

New York girl, just, nah, no sun, and just great complexion. Toni Collette did an album about three years ago, and I know her as a music fan, and I know her as a friend rather than an actress, but she asked me if I'd do some photos and I thought, 'This is brilliant. An actress - easy. She's so used to having her photograph taken.' The night before we did the shoot, she actually rang up and said, 'Oh, I'm really, really nervous about tomorrow,' and I went, 'What are you nervous about?' She goes, 'No- one's ever really photographed me.' I went, 'That's silly. You've been in...' She goes, 'No, I'm always in character. I'm never me.' She goes, 'You could photograph me as a prostitute, as a single mum, as anything, but you've never photographed me,' and she was nervous.

[A photograph of Toni Collette in a green dress sitting on the floor of a white room. One leg is outstretched and the other is folded at the knee. She has her eyes on the floor]

[TONY MOTT]

Consequently, we shot her in her favourite dress in her bedroom and we never moved from there, and that was the photo she used for the CD cover. Oh, I've gone the wrong way.

[A colour photo of a young man in a sleeveless black T-shirt and jeans sitting beside flowers on a footpath]

[TONY MOTT]

Bon Jovi. What can I say about Bon Jovi? Erm, disgustingly nice guy.

[Back in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT] It's, like, you shouldn't be that good-looking and also be a really nice guy. You cannot take a bad photo of Bon Jovi, and like I said, nice guy.

[Group photos of a six-member band taken in front of large red cases]

[TONY MOTT]

Fleetwood Mac, who are in town at the moment. Erm... six of them were insane, and there was only one sane member.

[A colour photo of Stevie Nicks in a frilly white dress]

[TONY MOTT]

So, a very difficult band to photograph and get them all together.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

What I did was I set up all their road cases, which are red, backstage, and it's just round the corner from their dressing rooms, and just before they went on stage, that's when we did the photos, and Stevie Nicks more than once went wandering off, as she's wont to do.

[A photo of Stevie Nicks bowing on stage]

[At the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

But you know, they are Fleetwood Mac. Great band to tour with.

[A photograph of a guitarist leaping high off the stage in front of a large crowd]

[TONY MOTT] Erm... John Butler. This is at the Big Day Out. I went digital in 2009, kicking and screaming. I still preferred film and probably still do. This was taken at the end of the day, and I'd more or less finished work and I was...

[Tony speaks in the hall]

[TONY MOTT]

I like to have the odd glass of sauvignon blanc, or even more than one, and so I'd had a few and then John Butler's manager said, 'We're really desperate for a photo of the Maton guitar. You know, you'll get paid, the whole bit.' I said, 'Well, actually, what about me on stage behind the amp and we'll take a photo, you know, on stage?' And John said, 'That's great.' It was all set up and I'm just stood behind the amp, and I got this shot, which obviously I'm very proud of and it's great, and I showed the manager and everybody, I'm showing the back of the camera. It's the same year that they were on the road with Flaming Lips. Flaming Lips were playing the other stage. The Flaming Lips got everybody on stage in costumes, and Drew Barrymore, who was going out with the drummer of Strokes, said, 'I've got to have a shot with Flaming Lips. Come over to the other stage.' And I was late, so I had to run, and my camera was going...

[Tony taps the side of his thigh]

[TONY MOTT]

..on the side of my...

[TONY MOTT]

And what I didn't realise was it was delete, delete, delete, delete, and I've already shown everyone the photo of John Butler, and then when I got to the Flaming Lips, I said, 'You've got to see this shot I've got of John Butler!' And I thought, 'Where the bloody hell's it gone?' I finally worked out I've deleted them, so I spent the next two hours drinking a few more more glasses of wine and also going, 'Bloody digital! That wouldn't happen on film.' And then this random girl was walking past as I was having a rant and just said, 'There's no such thing as delete.' I said, 'What the hell does that mean?' She goes, 'Go and see someone who knows what they're talking about. No such thing as delete.' And it sort of stuck in my mind and I rang someone, an IT expert, and... there's no such thing as delete. And they got the memory card, and even though it's deleted, it's still there somewhere, and a girl took about ten minutes to find it and that was the image she found. So, it survived. So, that's my story of 'there's no such thing as delete'.

[A photo of a well-dressed performer leaping off the stage with the mic in his hand as a face on the screen at the back of the stage looks down at him]

[TONY MOTT] Again, a Big Day Out shot that I just liked the image of the eyes and everyone's in focus, and yeah, it's just a good shot.

[A photograph of two middle-aged men on stage with the image of the Sydney Harbour Bridge behind them on a large screen]

[TONY MOTT]

The video screens in the background are getting... ..the definition is just getting better and better and better, and it's just Cold Chisel - not this tour, the tour previously.

[A black-and-white portrait of a rotund African-American man dressed in a suit and playing his guitar with his eyes closed]

[TONY MOTT]

BB King with his guitar, Lucille. Obviously I really love the photo, but this has been sold so many times to guitar magazines 'cause of the guitar and the fact that I got the guitar head in the shot, and the Lucille bit, and that's his original Lucille.

[Back in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

And only guitar players, or guitar freaks, know - 'cause he's got quite a few Gibson Lucilles, but this is the original, and that's not really me being clever. I just happened to capture it with the original one that he originally got, and it's been published I reckon about 400 times in guitar magazines round the world. A black-and-white picture of a bare-chested man with numerous tattoos in his arm. His mouth is wide open as in a scream:

[TONY MOTT]

Henry Rollins - just a fantastic artist to shoot, particularly live.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

Really lends himself to the camera. Builds himself up for about 15 minutes for performance, and the performance is always great to capture.

[A colour shot of the back of a performer holding up his guitar to the crowd in front of the stage]

[TONY MOTT]

As I said about clichéd shots - Jet doing a clichéd shot on stage.

[A colour photograph of three casually-dressed young men. The boy in the centre holds out his hands, fingers stretched]

[TONY MOTT]

My father always said if you haven't got anything nice to say about somebody, don't say anything.

[Laughter]

[A colour photo of stage gear with two men performing to a crowd before them]

[TONY MOTT]

This is the Go-Betweens and this is their final ever gig. Unfortunately Grant died about three months after this was taken, and for whatever reason, I was just behind the curtain and they were there, and I liked all the green, so I took that shot.

[In the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

And their retrospective CD in America was called The Final Curtain, which I knew was in process, and as soon as I heard the name, I went, 'That's the perfect photo.' So, that got used on the cover of their retrospective in America. A dark, colour snapshot of Michael Jackson in a shiny costume with the American flag hanging behind him:

[TONY MOTT]

Toured with Michael Jackson, and it would be fair to say that Michael Jackson is probably...

[Tony speaks at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

I rate four people No.1 - Freddie Mercury, Prince, Michael Jackson, and the Rolling Stones. I'm not particularly a huge fan of Michael Jackson's music, but my God, as a performer, no-one touched him. Absolute phenomenal performer. This photograph was taken and two hours later he got married in Sydney. He married his nanny, which you do.

[A black-and-white picture of Prince, dressed in a suit, performing on stage as a beam of light falls on him]

[TONY MOTT]

The aforementioned Prince. Prince, without a doubt, unbelievable performer, unbelievable. I've met Prince a few times and I realise the myth of... If you don't talk to media, myths just build up.

[Black-and-white photographs of Prince performing on stage]

[TONY MOTT]

He couldn't be more normal or pleasant or knew exactly what he was doing. Totally music-obsessed, but a really nice guy and fantastic performer.

[In the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

The only small conundrum I have with him is he became a Jehovah's Witness, not that there's anything wrong with that or right about that, but when he played Melbourne, he had to go and do the door-knocking. So, he was doing the door-knocking. I imagine somebody opening the door on a Sunday morning...

[Laughter]

[Tony mimics opening a door and being taken aback]

[TONY MOTT]

Strange! Erm, so, yeah, great.

[A black-and-white photo of Paul McCartney with the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background]

[TONY MOTT]

Toured with Paul McCartney in - I think it was '95, and that was a huge thrill, just purely because he's a goddamn Beatle.

[A black-and-white image of Paul McCartney on stage with his guitar behind a microphone stand]

[TONY MOTT]

It doesn't really get much bigger than a goddamn Beatle. I was warned in advance not to bring The Beatles up.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

You just don't talk about The Beatles in front of him. I would say he lasts about ten minutes before he brings up the Beatles. Just stories all the time. Oh, no, it's not there. There is a photo... One day I got to... We did a shot... He loves yachting, and he was yachting on Sydney Harbour. He stayed in Mosman. He doesn't stay in hotels. He hired a house, so I had to go and meet him on the harbour on a boat. Course, Paul McCartney's yacht, you think, 'Well, this is gonna be great. Luxurious!' It was about... 9ft and there was just him in it. Anyway, we had lunch with him and I had to do a photo on the harbour of him, and we started chatting, and of course, he hears my accent. He said, 'So, how come you came to Sydney?' And he knew I was from Sheffield, and we were literally on the harbour, it was the perfect moment. 'Sydney? Sheffield or Sydney?'

[Tony mockingly gestures his surroundings]

[TONY MOTT]

Sheffield's a shithole, just in case anyone doesn't know.

[Laughter]

[TONY MOTT] He told me that he missed Liverpool, even though I told him it was a shithole, and he missed the double-decker buses. And he loved going on double-decker buses, and he wrote Penny Lane on the double-decker bus, and all the lyrics come from the bus going past places. So, that was sort of, like... As I said, he just told Beatles stories almost perpetually.

[A photograph of a blonde young woman in a silver costume performing with a microphone fitted around her face]

[TONY MOTT]

Madonna - I only met Madonna for about five seconds when I was on the road with her, and her comment to me was, 'You don't look much like a rock'n'roll photographer.' I said, 'You don't look much like a rock'n'roll star.'

[At the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

And she just smiled and we never spoke again.

[Laughter]

[A colour photograph of a middle-aged man dressed in a black suit and performing on stage with a guitar. One arm is outstretched with the index finger pointing upward]

[TONY MOTT]

Neil Diamond - I can't say anything bad about Neil Diamond. Fantastic performer, lovely guy.

[Tony speaks at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

Couple of little funny stories is I was on the road with him for about two weeks and they always have dinner afterwards and they all mix together. And at one point I was up in the crowd taking shots, and this girl just nudged me and I went, 'Oh, laminate,' and she went, 'Yeah, I know. How's it going?' I went, 'Who the hell dresses him? He's Harry High Pants and they've got lights... How daggy could he be?' And she sort of just smiled and went off, and we did the gig. As I said, everyone meets backstage afterwards and I was given a glass, and Neil came over and said, 'Have you met my daughter?'

[Tony gestures to an imaginary person behind him]

[TONY MOTT]

I went, 'Oh, my God,' but she put me out of my misery and said, 'Yeah, I know. He's daggy.' And then we were at Homebush at whatever it is - the All Points... whatever the stadium's called now, and we're backstage and this is after sound check, and this bald guy came past and said, 'How's it going, Motty?' I went, 'Yeah, fine.' I'm thinking, 'Who the hell's that?' And ages later after the show, Neil said, 'You didn't recognise me this afternoon, did you?' He's got a hairpiece and he doesn't really care. He wanders round backstage completely bald and wears a hairpiece, which I thought was really cool that he didn't seem to care.

[A photograph of Megan Washington, a young, short-haired brunette in a black dress, standing against a wall with numerous American licence plates on it]

[TONY MOTT]

You really should be careful when you're doing photo sessions. I don't know how well...

[Audience exclaims]

[TONY MOTT]

Oh, yeah, you can see it quite well.

[One Nevada number plate beside her head has paint peeled off and the word reads 'Sluts']

[TONY MOTT]

This was done in New York and the Village Voice was on a deadline for a photo, and I picked this one out, she saw it - we were in a coffee shop, she picked it out.

[In the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

In the day of digital, I just did it on my laptop and sent it off, emailed, and the Americans are very, very, very, very prudish, and it got published and there was a huge scandal 'cause it says 'sluts'. And it's, like, literally I'd never seen it. It was a total accident. I picked it for the Washington on the other side. But it just shows you you have to be careful when you're looking, but it was done on deadline.

[A snapshot of Megan Washington dressed in a black winter jacket and red scarf standing in a narrow alley between tall buildings]

[TONY MOTT]

That's my old flat in New York. So, I took Washington to my old flat 'cause I always said it had great light in the corridor.

[A black-and-white photograph of an African-American woman holding a mic up to her mouth with her head hanging back]

[TONY MOTT]

Whitney's there just purely because Whitney's, you know, left us, and she was a phenomenal performer and phenomenal voice. Very sad end.

[A black-and-white image of a bare-chested performer]

[TONY MOTT]

Smiths. I think Morrissey was probably... The Smiths were one of the greatest bands I've ever shot, and I wasn't a Smiths fan until I saw them live. Very sad that they never...

[A colour photo of a large crowd with two men crowd-surfing]

[TONY MOTT]

Crowd shots are always great for big sort of spreads, and they lend themselves to strange looks.

[Photos of a concert audience where a man and a young girl are held up by the crowd while they are on small boards]

[A sepia-toned portrait of a young Tex Perkins]

[TONY MOTT]

I'd rate Tex as probably one of the best faces. Lends himself to the camera, and some people are just photogenic and lend themselves, and Tex can be very difficult, but always you get a great result out of him.

[The black-and-white photographs the five-man Beasts of Bourbon]

[TONY MOTT]

Again, that's going back to the Beasts of Bourbon on stage. Tex, Don and Charlie, who are very close to me. My favourite all-time Australian band after the Divinyls.

[A colour photo of Tex Perkins dressed in a singlet and holding a microphone in one outstretched hand]

[TONY MOTT]

As I said, Tex - great to photograph.

[A photo of a man's hip with the fly zip of the jeans undone and a tap sticking out through it]

[TONY MOTT]

I'm not short on pinching ideas. This is a direct rip-off of Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers.

[A colour snapshot of two men with their arms around each other]

[TONY MOTT]

Tex with Iggy Pop. This is Iggy Pop at 69, and, like, phenomenal performer, phenomenal performer, and a really nice guy.

[A photo of a bare-chested Iggy Pop sitting atop an amplifier and pointing both his middle fingers up]

[Tony Mott speaking at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

Anyway, I... Yes, here it comes. I was hired to do a front cover of Spin magazine, which is in America, a music magazine, and Iggy said, 'I don't want to go to a studio. I want you to shoot me straight off stage.' So, I said, 'Yeah, yeah, fine.' I said, 'What - I'll let you cool down five, ten minutes?' He goes, 'No. First person I see off-stage is you.' I went, 'Er, OK.' So, I set up a light and I'm watching his performance, and he is running around a million miles an hour, he's smashing into amps, he's got blood coming off, he's fallen, and it dawns on me halfway through the performance that when he sees a camera pointing at him, he's just gonna deck me.

[Tony ducks imaginary punches and swipes at the air]

[TONY MOTT]

'Cause he's, like, all over the place, hitting out. He's got blood coming down. And I go to the manager, I said, 'You know, maybe I should...' He goes, 'What did Iggy say?' I said, 'He wants...' He goes, 'Then you're there!' So, Iggy's coming and he comes off-stage.

[A photograph of a bare-chested Iggy Pop standing against a tree with his arms crossed across his chest. A small bruise marks his left upper arm]

[Laughter]

[TONY MOTT]

Just totally in control, and that's the photo that ended up getting used, and that's the bruise from ramming himself into amplifiers.

[Another photo of a bare-chested Iggy Pop on stage]

[TONY MOTT]

Just... at 69 - this was on the Big Day Out - people half his age nowhere near the level of performance.

[Images of Iggy Pop with other performers]

[TONY MOTT] Phenomenal performer. That's with Kim Gordon and Michael Franti from Spearhead. Yeah, I could photograph Iggy all day, and I have.

[A black-and-white fish-eye photo of three men in front of a building with Gothic architecture. One man holds out an arm as a frame]

[TONY MOTT]

Blink-182. This was for... Blink-182 was for the front cover of Rolling Stone magazine, and we had lots of ideas.

[In the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

Unfortunately, this is what you have to... not put up with, but this is what happens. They went to a party and they stayed up all night, and this is them at six in the morning coming back from the party, and that's when we did the shoot, just outside the hotel, and that's what you have to do.

[A photograph of three members of Kiss performing on stage in full make-up and costume]

[TONY MOTT]

Kiss, er... The trouble with the Kiss is they're the easiest band in the world to photograph.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

That's the image that everyone gets, but when you're actually shooting it, you think, 'I'm brilliant, look at it,' but you realise everyone's got it. Gene Simmons actually looks at you in the pit and he's going like that and goes... (Whispers) ..'Did you get it? No?'

[Tony imitates Gene Simmons sticking his tongue out and air strums an imaginary guitar]

[TONY MOTT]

He just keeps doing it till you get the photo. So, you felt a sense of cheating.

[A fish-eye perspective of three boys sitting against a wall]

[TONY MOTT]

Silverchair - this is when they were 15-year-old. So, they were very, very young and they had the attention span of a peanut.

[A colour photo of a young, long-haired Daniel Johns playing guitar on stage]

[TONY MOTT]

So, the main thing about the whole thing with Silverchair is speed. Just shoot them as quickly as possible.

[Tony speaks in the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

Yeah, so, I just shot Daniel, I don't know, about three months ago, and it's hard to believe he's only 32.

[Various photos of Silverchair performing]

[TONY MOTT]

He seems to have been around forever.

[In the lecture hall]

[TONY MOTT]

Yeah, the trick was, yeah, just shoot fast, 'cause they got bored very, very quickly.

[A colour photo of the young members of Silverchair standing against a metal fence]

[TONY MOTT]

This is in the backstreets of London - video clip. He always lends himself - he was very experimental - to mascara, and he had no problem trying to play around with things.

[Photos of Silverchair posing amongst red curtains]

[TONY MOTT]

And great for the camera, and that shoot ended up on the cover of Juice and on the cover of Rolling Stone.

[Two magazine covers featuring Silverchair]

[TONY MOTT]

Locations are strange in so much as nearly every band is embarrassed by their own location.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

Like, Madonna made me shoot her in front of the Opera House. So did the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

[A photo of four men dressed in buccaneer suits with the Harbour Bridge in the background]

[TONY MOTT]

Coldplay in front of the Harbour Bridge.

[Three men stand against the backdrop of high-rise buildings]

[TONY MOTT]

Dirty Three on a New York skyline. But you will never get a Sydney band to be photographed in front of the Harbour Bridge or the Opera House.

[At the lecture hall]

[TONY MOTT]

You will never get a New York band to get the New York skyline. I can get a Melbourne band to go on a ferry, but I can't get a Melbourne band to go on a tram, but I can get a Sydney band to go on a tram, but not on a ferry.

[Laughter]

[TONY MOTT]

So, people are strangely embarrassed by their own iconic images, which is sort of, like, a bit of a conundrum. The good thing for me with the Opera House, the Bridge...

[A picture of three young African-American women posing against a dark sky and the Opera House]

[TONY MOTT]

This is Salt-N-Pepa. Whenever I shot a band with the Bridge and the Opera House, you will sell double the amount of photos overseas, 'cause obviously everyone knows the Opera House and the Bridge.

[A snapshot of Janet Jackson with the Harbour Bridge in the background]

[TONY MOTT]

So, it was always great, and Janet Jackson - no problem. I wanted a shot outside the Opera House, Bridge.

[A fish-eye perspective of a man standing against a pole on the footpath as yellow taxis drive past]

[TONY MOTT]

This is Matthew Sweet in Times Square. Like I said, no New Yorker would ever be photographed there.

[A five-man band poses in front of a New York Post van]

[TONY MOTT]

This is Died Pretty, a Sydney band, in front of a New York sort of background and quite proudly doing it.

[A young man with closely-cropped hair sits on the steps of the Opera House]

[TONY MOTT]

Jack Johnson had that because his mother couldn't believe that he was actually playing the Sydney Opera House.

[Tony speaks at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

When you're doing locations, it's always clever to look exactly where you are.

[A photo of a neatly-dressed man standing against a large mirror]

[TONY MOTT]

This is Dave Graney and this is in an old antique store in Surry Hills, and it was only after we'd pushed it and it had just wobbled a bit that I saw the price tag was $48,000.

[In the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

I thought, 'Mmm, maybe we should be just a wee tad more careful.'

[A black-and-white image of a band in front of the Opera House, with the Harbour Bridge in the background]

[TONY MOTT] This is Crowded House at the sound check of their final ever concert that really wasn't their final ever concert, and it ended up with it on the DVD cover.

[A picture of a guitarist in front of the Opera House on the DVD cover of the Farewell To The World album]

[TONY MOTT]

Guns N' Roses at Darlington.

[A black-and-white photo of Axl Rose standing beside amps on stage]

[TONY MOTT]

I've no idea why I put that in there, but it's there.

[Another black-and-white image of Axl Rose performing]

[TONY MOTT]

So, Queen.

[A black-and-white photograph of Freddie Mercury, dressed in white, singing on stage with Brian May playing the guitar beside him]

[TONY MOTT]

I said before who I rated the four... Freddie Mercury, without a doubt, number one on stage.

[Another black-and-white photograph of Queen performing on stage]

[TONY MOTT]

Just phenomenal. Like... Freddie - there was no-one like him.

[In the lecture hall]

[TONY MOTT]

I shot Knebworth, which no-one knew at the time, but it was their last ever show, and at the sound check, Freddie got a roadie to go a quarter of a mile back, put a flag in, and he was saying to the lighting guys, the video guys, 'That's who we entertain. If we've got him, these people are easy.' And he had loads of vaudeville tricks to split the audience up, make them sing - girls versus boys, left versus right. He had a trick that, oh, six songs in, he'd always sort of go down to the front and he'd be singing away, and he'd go...

[Tony points and gestures to imaginary people]

[TONY MOTT]

..as if he'd recognised someone. He never had, but all the crowd go, 'He's one of us! He knows one of us!' But he was, like, just a phenomenal performer. His audience was predominantly a male leather and denim-clad - not heavy metal, but hard rock, and at the Knebworth one, he walked on-stage, and I'm only paraphrasing, 'cause it's quite rude, but he basically walked on stage, 'A quarter of a million guys in one field and I'm gonna... you all up the arse!'

[Laughter]

[TONY MOTT]

And the whole crowd went, 'Yeah, Freddie!'

[Tony pumps his fist in the air]

[TONY MOTT]

If he'd have done that in a pub, he would've been killed!

[Laughter]

[TONY MOTT]

But he just had the charisma. He was literally phenomenal.

[Aerial shots of an enclosed, crowded arena where a stage stands at the far end]

[TONY MOTT]

And that's the Knebworth crowd. They gave me a helicopter for the day, and that's a quarter of a million people, and it was absolutely... It really was a phenomenal concert.

[Tony speaks in the lecture hall]

[TONY MOTT]

After the concert, and as I said, it was the final concert, they had a big party at the Kensington high gardens in London, and I got invited. I was told, 'Under no circumstances bring your camera.' I went up in the lift and there was a nude model, male and female, giving you a glass of wine. I could have been quite happy just going up and down the lift all night. Went into the party, went to the bar, and sort of said, 'I'll have a glass of sauvignon blanc.' There was no messing with glasses. They just gave you a bottle of 1950s French sauvignon blanc. If you were drinking vodka, you got a bottle of vodka and a pitcher of tomato juice, and it was just complete decadence. Oh, the other thing is every second person in the room was famous. Like, oh, that's the girl off the news, there's a soap star, there's Eric Clapton, there's the Eurythmics. Within about three hours, people were slightly inebriated. It's the first time I'd ever seen females with females, males with males. It was bordering upon a Roman orgy. I was very green. I was new to the industry. I knew nobody in the room. I just needed one friend that I could just nudge and go, 'Can you believe what's going on?' but I didn't have anybody. But then, as you walked to the end of the ballroom, there was another room on the other side, and there, in another room, was all of Queen's family and children and they were having a very, very nice afternoon tea party, with grandma saying, 'Wasn't Freddie good on stage this afternoon?' So, when you stood at the top of this rostrum, all you could see that side was the most debauched party ever, and on that side, English afternoon tea party. It was very surreal, but I thought, 'God, welcome to rock'n'roll.' I have never been to a party that came to a smidgeon of the Queen party. Fantastic band.

[A photo of a brunette in a pink jumpsuit and wearing heavy make-up]

[TONY MOTT]

PJ Harvey is my definition of a real rock'n'roll star.

[A black-and-white photo of PJ Harvey playing a tambourine]

[TONY MOTT]

She uses everything that she's got sensual to just portray an amazingly sexual person through the music and her personality.

[In the auditorium] TONY MOTT: She's not the greatest-looking woman in the world, but my God, there's no-one onstage quite like her. Prowls the stage like a lion. Fantastic performer. This was at Glastonbury, and it was a pink jumpsuit, Dusty Springfield mascara, and just, yeah, fantastic performer and fantastic... great to photograph.

[Portraits of PJ Harvey against a painting of a desert landscape]

[TONY MOTT]

Ended up on the cover of Rolling Stone.

[PJ Harvey standing with her arms crossed on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine]

[TONY MOTT]

Sonic Youth - I was really proud of doing the Sonic Youth EP cover.

[Multiple images resembling a film roll on the album cover of Sonic Youth's Burning Spear]

[TONY MOTT]

The band designed the whole thing and it's quite weird.

[Tony at the lectern]

[TONY MOTT]

Sonic Youth were unbelievably cool, and I'd just come back on whatever day it was from finishing Sonic Youth, and the very next day, I started on Michael Bolton, which is not quite as cool.

[Laughter]

And as I arrived at whatever sound check, I noticed about five crew had come from the Sonic Youth tour and not one of us had mentioned that we were going to Michael Bolton. I should point out that Michael Bolton couldn't have been a nicer guy. Pity about the music. Conflict with record companies. A band called The Verlaines.

[The album cover for Ready To Fly features three band members against a large blue sky]

[TONY MOTT]

I got hired by their American record company for their album cover. The band insisted they weren't on the album cover and the record company insisted they were, so that was my compromise.

[A black-and-white silhouette of a long-haired performer with a guitar with stage lights shining on him]

[TONY MOTT]

Kurt Cobain, Nirvana. This was at the original Big Day Out, and, well, it's Kurt Cobain, so it's, like... it's really special because it was Kurt Cobain on the first ever Big Day Out.

[A blurry, orange-toned photo of a performer]

[TONY MOTT]

Really difficult to photograph under unbelievably low light.

[A colour photograph of a singer dressed in black and holding a mic]

[TONY MOTT]

And then there's historical photos, particularly when bands continue to tour and they're a huge band. I've been shooting U2 since 1984.

[A photo of members of U2 against the green tiles of a pub]

[TONY MOTT]

This is a very early shot of them. That's outside a pub in The Rocks.

[A black-and-white photograph of Bono and BB King with guitars]

[TONY MOTT]

Then touring with BB King. God knows what tour that was or what they're up to.

[A black-and-white photo of Bono and a guitarist wearing full-sleeved T-shirts with ripped muscles printed on them]

[TONY MOTT]

The ZOO TV would probably never be bettered.

[A colour photo of Bono performing on stage with The Edge playing guitar behind him]

[TONY MOTT]

It was just such a phenomenal tour with phenomenal tricks. They were great.

[Photos of Bono on stage, holding a video camera]

[TONY MOTT]

I noticed that Bono particularly, when he went in the pit - this is him filming the photographers in the pit, and I noticed if there was a cute girl photographer, that's who he aimed for.

[In the auditorium]

[TONY MOTT]

So, I found the cutest girl and I stood right next to her to get that shot.

[A picture of a band performing on stage]

[TONY MOTT]

And that's Powderfinger at Wave Aid, and it's always difficult getting a whole band shot live, so that's that.

[A photo of the band waving to the crowd]

[TONY MOTT]

And that's Powderfinger sort of waving goodbye, and that's me waving, 'cause that's the end of the talk.

[Tony at the lectern]

That was it.

[Applause]

[TONY MOTT]

Thank you!

[MAN]

Tony, you mentioned before about you looking like Ronnie Wood. Have you got any stories about people actually mistaking you for Ronnie?

[TONY MOTT]

When I was on the road with the Stones all the time, and I was on a Lufthansa flight, and I was with the crew out the back in the cattle class, and the stewardess came up and said, 'Could I get your autograph?' I sort of said, 'Oh, I'm not Ronnie Wood,' and she went, 'We know you're Ronnie Wood.' And I went, 'I'm not Ronnie Wood.' She goes, 'There's no need to be a shit about it. I just want your autograph.' And of course, the crew are going... egging her on, so eventually I just signed it. And I said, 'Wouldn't you think I'd be up the front if I was Ronnie Wood?' and she went, 'You're eccentric.'

[Laughter]

[TONY WOOD]

And I lived in New York in, I don't know, '89 for a few years, and I did notice I got tables at restaurants real easy for a long period of time, and then the local restaurant said, 'For ages we just presumed you were Ronnie Wood,' 'cause they can't tell that mine's a northern accent and his is southern. But when I finally met him, and he was still with his wife, Jo Wood, and everyone said, 'Oh, you resemble him,' and Jo Wood, the wife, just said, 'He doesn't look anything like Ronnie,' and Ronnie said the same. But the best that ever happened was Ronnie Wood was on Bondi Beach. Some girl from Channel V shouted, 'Hey, Motty! What are you doing?'

[Laughter] So, I got one back.

[WOMAN]

You said only one member of Fleetwood Mac was sane. Which one?

[TONY MOTT]

Christine McVie.

[Laughter]

[TONY MOTT]

And the rest are completely insane. Some more than others.

[MAN]

You said that your father said that if you haven't got anything good to say about anyone, don't, and you skipped it. If I guess, will you tell me if it's the same band?

[TONY MOTT]

Oh, I can tell you who the band is. That's not a problem. Beastie Boys.

[MAN]

I thought so. We just don't talk about them. I don't talk about Van Morrison either.

[Laughter]

[Tony sips from a small bottle]

[TONY MOTT]

It doesn't mean their music's any less, just Van Morrison's a really grumpy man. Very.

[Laughter]

[MAN]

Have you ever had an understudy, or do you have an understudy?

[TONY MOTT]

I've had assistants over the years, but I have found that I am really my own one-man band, as in I like things that way, and I actually prefer to lug and do it all myself. But I have had assistants. I had a girl called Amanda Prior, who's now quite a well-respected photographer. She'd only been with me three weeks when I knew she knew more than I did, so God knows why she was assisting me. Yeah, I find it very difficult to have an assistant. Yeah, I very much work on my own. I got an advertising gig once. It paid stupid money, and my wife's a film producer and knows all about advertising and stuff, and I told her the budget and she was like, 'Well, are you gonna do it?' and I said, 'Well, it's a doddle of a job.' Like, they want people to look like roadies. It was AAPT, the communications company, and they wanted all their execs in roadie uniforms and all the cables. I said, 'It's gonna take me ten minutes to light it and I'll shoot it in...' She goes, 'No, it's gotta last three days, and you have to provide lunch, and you must have minimum four assistants.' And it was sort of, like, a really, 'Welcome to the world of advertising'. It's the only one I've ever done and I won't be going back. It was just... It was really quite painful, even though I was being paid. I could have literally done it in 45 minutes and we spread it for three days, and it was just ridiculous. The amount of money they were paying, I realise... But literally I got an email from the guy from the advertising agency, saying, 'What are you serving for lunch on the Tuesday?' And I thought he was just joking, so I sent back, 'Oh, fish and chips from the local,' but he was deadly serious, and the client sits on set with you and watches the shoot, and it was, like... Yeah. So, I did have assistants for that, just purely because apparently I had to, but no, I have not really had assistants over the years.

[MAN]

Since you went digital, have you sort of stuck with the one brand, one company? Have you experimented with different models or...?

[TONY MOTT]

No, I'm with Nikon, and I love Nikon, but the reality is Canon, Nikon - there's not a heap of difference, but all my lenses are Nikon. And finally Nikon rang me and said, 'Oh, we've got this new one called the D3 and it's really good for concerts.' And they gave me one to work with, and the first night I ever shot was Rihanna. And I was on the road with her, so I was shooting a few nights, and I shot one night digitally and I got a sense of cheating. I got so much back, it was so easy to shoot, and of course, I was thrilled, but at the same time it sort of demeaned photography in so much as it's so much easier. The skill levels are less, so more people are photographers, and I do feel sorry for people who are starting photography, going out, shooting, developing a roll of film, hanging it, drying, and then putting it on an enlarger. And that moment when you put it in chemicals, and an image that you really want, when it's great, comes up is an enormous thrill, and it was a thrill 35 years ago and still today, and that's been taken away. And I feel, like, sort of, as much as digital is great, and it's inevitable, film's still... I still shoot black-and-white film, and digital hasn't caught up black-and-white. The colour's fantastic, but the black-and-white's still better. So, I ended up with Nikon, so that's why I was with Nikon. Not that there's anything wrong with Nikons, but I was stuck with them, all my lenses and that, and yeah, their cameras are great. I've got no complaints about them, but it's not... When people go on about Canon and Nikon, it's, like... whatever. It's, like, when you're spending that much money on a camera, they're good. Or they should be.

[MAN]

I've spoken to a lot of photographers and they're always sort of, um, don't like Getty, who's got a bit of a monopoly nowadays, and just sort of wondering how you feel about that.

[TONY MOTT]

They're not wrong. I find Getty quite evil. They tried to get me removed from the Big Day Out. They offered the Big Day Out, 'We'll do your photography for free, but then no-one else is allowed in,' so everyone has to buy from Getty, and they did the same with the Olympics. About three Olympics. They tried to get rid of everybody, but everybody said, 'That's not gonna happen.' Yeah, they definitely try and monopolise, and to a certain extent they've succeeded and to a certain extent they haven't, but yeah... Getty were never... They're certainly not kind to the photographers, and when they were buying up all the agencies, they were ruthless. Poor old Annie Leibovitz, not that she needs that much sympathy, but she lost a huge amount of money through Getty. She was represented by Redferns in London - er, in New York, and you know, to get an Annie Leibovitz exclusive was, like, eight grand for this photo, and Getty started massing them out - $2 a pop, as many as you like, as in mass - without her knowledge, and by the time she found out it was happening, she found out she had no legal standing, that everything they were doing was legal. So, I'm not a Getty fan, and whatever people say, they're not wrong. Getty's not pleasant.

[MAN]

Is there a way around it?

[TONY MOTT]

Well, there's always room for freelance, and ultimately, if you've got photos, you've got photos, but Getty, from a news point of view, that's where they were trying to monopolise, which is a bit more easy to monopolise. But ultimately, you know, photography's everywhere, and if you're a freelancer and you've got an image that someone wants, you can circumnavigate Getty. But my problem was - when it hurt me - was Rolling Stone, not America, but Australia, used to buy off me fairly regularly, and the graphic artist - who is a close, personal friend, I've known him for years - rang up and said, 'Oh, we need a Pink photo.' So, I sent him a couple of Pink photos and he said, 'Oh, this is great.' He said, 'I've got a bit of a problem.' I said, 'Why?' He said, 'How much is it?' It was a quarter page, and I said, you know, '$250's your rate.' And he said, 'I got $20 in the budget.' And I went, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'We've done a deal with Getty where they supply everything for $10, the whole magazine,' and basically I've got to now have a photo that they haven't got to beat them, so to get my $200, and basically that was the end of getting a lot of photos in Rolling Stone. That's gone, that's still gone, because they flooded the market so heavily that there was nothing new. So, magazines always want something that no-one else has seen. So, they overdid it. They went broke - they were in liquidation for a long time - but their idea was, you know, not unsimilar to Amazon, who was trying to dominate. They were trying to dominate. It didn't quite work, and I don't know quite where they're at now, but there has just started to be new agencies starting to pop up, particularly in Europe, so they obviously didn't succeed in completely dominating. But the frightening thing for photography in America is the Washington Post and the New York Times don't have a photographer. Not a single one. They buy everything online or from the public or wherever, but they don't have a staff photographer. So, all the cadets that used to be, you know... that's all gone. And that's in America, and that could well happen everywhere, 'cause people... You know, Murdoch particularly would be happy not to have a photographer, 'cause there's a huge budget.

[WOMAN]

Leading on from that, I'm interested to know your thoughts on how the death of hard copy magazines has changed your work.

[TONY MOTT]

Erm... I've got twins, four and a half years old, and when they were born, for two years I was at home a lot with the children, and I sort of neglected my work, and quite gladly - I was quite happy about it - but after about two years, I thought, 'I should really be doing something.' And in that interim period, the music industry, per se, had disappeared, had changed radically, as had hard copy magazines. So, yeah, my world has disappeared. What I did there, which I'm forever grateful for, has gone. You couldn't do it now. It's just... no more. The record companies aren't signing bands anymore and there's no development of music, and in the year 2000, when I toured with the Big Day Out, I had 182 music magazines on my books. So, when I got a shot of Anthony Kiedis and Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters together, I could email 182 magazines, 'This is what I've got. Is anybody interested?' Yeah, and 10, 20, 30 bit. Of those 182 magazines, 169 of them don't exist. America has only got one music magazine left. All gone. Europe's still surviving, particularly the metal magazines have survived, but, yeah, they're all going. Huge difference, but that's the world. I mean, I'm not complaining. That's what the world is. It's a changed world. You know, digital and music, the whole thing - it's all changed.

[WOMAN]

So, how does one deal with it?

[TONY MOTT]

Well, I'm in a bit of a fortunate position. One, I've been doing it a long time, so I'm still known. I still get a bit of work, but not as much as I used to. I've moved into film stills and TV stills much more than music. How do you beat it? You can't really beat it in that sense. Like, that's reality. That's what's happening. Obviously the Internet, there's loads of new sites, and slowly, but surely, they're learning to buy things, so that's happening. At the beginning they wouldn't buy anything, and it's very easy to drag low-res for a website, as opposed to a hard copy in a magazine. But slowly, but surely, the Internet is getting a new outlet, so there is good news from that point of view. But the hard copy magazines - I keep doing that.

[Tony strikes the microphone]

[TONY MOTT]

Hard copy magazines aren't coming back. I don't want you to think I'm being whinging or complaining. It's just reality. It's just the world changed very quickly. Digital just went... what it did.

[WOMAN]

Last question.

[MAN]

Speaking of money, as you were before, in the early days particularly, did you have any interesting stories about how you got paid?

[TONY MOTT]

Couple that can't be repeated.

[Laughter]

[TONY MOTT]

In those early days, anything I got paid was a bonus. It was pure pleasure. It was really a passionate hobby, and the fact someone paid me was always like... When I was on the road with the Rolling Stones, I was in Red Square, and they were playing, and there was one point there I was just rockin', having a bloody good time, and I thought, 'Some idiot is paying me to do this? This is brilliant! Ka- ching!' So, it was never really about the money. It was always about the passion anyway, but I've been offered a few strange things, rather than paying me, and I've always preferred money.

[Laughter]

[WOMAN]

If you can please thank Tony again.

[TONY MOTT]

Thank you very much.

[Applause]

[A black-and-white logo for the State Library, New South Wales]