The Overly Excited Podcast

This episode is brought to you by Swash Clothing and Sugar Life.

Welcome to the overly excited podcast hosted by Jack Watts and Dale

Sidebottom. 2 friends with a passion for life, learning and all

things that get them jumping out of their seats.

Alright, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. This is episode number

37. My co host Jack, here with me today. And I tell you what,

we are in for an absolute ripsaw of a chat, and, it's

not every day you get royalty. And I say that in

the in the best possible way. Royalty behind the lens. Yes. And that

was before all these camera phones and TikTok and all that

crap. I tell you what, Tony Mott, the original photographer

that took the best photo you've ever seen. Welcome to the podcast.

Welcome, Tony. Good morning. Thanks for the intro.

No worries. You can bottle that one up if you like. Yeah. Tony, we always

start our podcast, mate. Like, what gets you excited? What gets your

blood boiling, gurgling, just gets you jumping out of your seat excited?

A great rock and roll gig, I suppose. I've always

had a huge passion for music. So, yeah, combining

a hobby, photography, with a passion, music, was the,

was perfection. I've been very blessed and lucky and privileged to do what I

do. But I I'd have to say there's been a few nights in the pit

of rolling I chilled with the Rolling Stones three times. And, you

know, when they're doing gimme shelter or you can't always get what you

want, there's been moments where, yeah, I've just gone, doesn't get

any better than that. Doesn't get any better than that. Idiots are paying

me.

Tony, does does he, do you have any musical talent

or it was there no talent there and that's why you had to get behind

the lens? It would be fair to say that my tongue,

musically, is just below nil. Just

the depths of nil. Well, it's it's interesting because I

on the same. I mean, I don't know music, but I it's probably the

one thing that, like, evokes the most emotion out of me. If I'm

thinking about, you know, theater or this or that go

into a good music, live gig here in live music. It's,

you know, it can be one of the most special

experiences of your life. Yeah. Absolutely

is. And it's strange. Midnought Oil have just put a documentary

out, and I don't wanna be negative about the

documentary. It's a great documentary. But to understand

Midnight Oil, you have to see them live. Yeah. Yeah. Even

though a huge frustration for lots of musicians

is trying to get that live onto vinyl or

CD or whatever it is. It just doesn't work because it's the ambiance of

being in the room with the punters, the connection between the 2.

And so, yeah, live music is live music. It's like a huge buzz. That

hasn't changed. When you go to a live gig and see something amazing, it's

just a buzz. Yeah. And and Australia was

blessed, and I was blessed, in the,

in the eighties that Australia had the greatest live music scene in the world.

And I'm I'm no. I'm, I'm

allowed to say that because I'd already lived in London, been to New York and

LA, and Australia had this great secret that the world didn't know

about. Every suburb had a beer bar where bands were playing live. And

as a consequence of that, Australia, the golden age of Australian

music was that time because there was all these bands getting to

perform live. And, I think it was Eric Clapton once said,

the way to get good at live music is to play live. That's

fine. Nursing doesn't cut it. Yeah. You get playing

guitar, but live is live. And Australian bands, yeah,

that was a golden era. And luckily, I picked up a camera and started

pointing the direction of those musicians in that period of time.

And at the time, you don't get it because it's just normal. But

in hindsight, what a great scene it was. Yeah. My my dad

tells us tells this story ever since we were little bit, but he's 6th

form back then. They called it 6th form formal at

Brighton grammar. They had ACDC lined up to play at

their their formal and ACDC wouldn't

sign a waiver sort of, taking responsibility for any

damages that was that was done at the time. So they got rid of ACDC.

They they they had the option to have ACDC, and they got some no name

as soon as Mel has ever heard of, but they could have had Akadaka

playing the form. Bands played in schools a lot in, in

the eighties. It wasn't unheard of at all. One of my favorite bands who

you've never heard of, Temper Tempur, an Australian band, they

did a series. They got hired by the government to go around the schools.

It was quite frustrating because you got a number. What you've that

story you've just told about ACDC is great in hindsight. But at the

time, the kids at school go, who the fuck's ACDC? Yeah. Exactly.

So they were hence, they're playing at schools. So it would only be in

hindsight. You went, oh my god. I saw ACDC and didn't realize how lucky I

was. Yeah. You know, the the first time I saw The

Divinyls, who are very instrumental in me doing what I do,

I walked into a pub in Kings Cross, the Piccadilly Hotel. They had

a residency. They played every Tuesday night for about 6 months. And I walked in,

and there was this unbelievable band that I'd never heard of playing live.

Now, of course, when I look back in it, I go, god, how effing lucky

was I to see that and see that, but that's how great the music scene

was. There was just these I I remember seeing men at work,

in the man's room on a Monday night, before anyone heard of them.

And you could get that front row. You could be 2 meters away. Yeah.

And someone said to me, Sony are thinking of signing them. And I

remember this is why I never worked at record companies. I remember thinking, well, they're

not going anywhere.

I wasn't in here at all. No. But I I love, like, how you said

you just fell into the photography because I I you don't fall into

anything, I don't feel, Tay. Like, you you make your own luck and you get

the situation. And I was going through looking and writing down the bands you work

with. I was like, I'll make a list of and I couldn't I had to

stop writing, mate, because you've actually photographer and worked with the best

bands all time, everyone, individual. How how do you

how did this happen? Like, do you remember do you remember how it happened or

you first saw a big Yeah. I know. I I know exactly how it happened,

and and I'm lucky in in so much as it was

never a calculated, career path. So I was a

French chef by trade, and I worked in King's Cross at the Gazebo Hotel in

the early eighties. And as a consequence of that, I'd finish work

or 9, 10 o'clock every night. I worked 5 or 6 nights a week.

And then you go out for your downtime. And like I said, the music scene

was fantastic, and I had a massive love of music. So I wandered

off looking at bands all the time. At the same time,

just prior to that, I'd done my first trip to Nepal and India, and

I traveled with this girl who did photography. She had these

amazing black and white portraits of people. And I just

went, I wanna do that, and she taught me basic black and white

processing and printing. So that was my love of photography in India

and Nepal. So I've got a a an amateur interest in photography,

and, the Diviners were playing, as I said, every Tuesday night. I remember as I

was because I was drinking quite heavily. And I remember looking through the haze and

going, shit. The lights are going on and off, and she's

running around like a banshee. That's gotta be difficult to photograph.

And so the next week, I turned up. And you gotta remember, this is in

the days where there was less rules and regulations. No one cared that I had

a camera. I stood at the front of the stage, and

took really, really abysmal crap photos

of the files. But they saw me there every Tuesday.

And after about 5 months, the manager came up and said, oh, we'd really like

to look at some of the images. I was totally embarrassed because I knew where

crap my photos were. But through trial and error,

I developed a certain amount of skill, and I had got better.

I ignored him for about a week, maybe 2 weeks, and he he hassled

me. And I made him approach it, and he he bought one,

and it was a tool poster. And I think he gave me $20,

and he said my name was on the door. And I was so green and

naive. I didn't know what the term name on the door meant, and I

continued to pay to go and see the divinals. So he can't be overnight.

Your name's on the door and I sort of went, yeah, I know. Thinking there

was some door somewhere, I rehearsed, but they scribbled my name on the

door. So, I thought this is brilliant. I don't have to pay to get in

now. And, again, another stroke of luck and timing was,

street press had just started in Sydney. It's the mid eighties or

no. It was a bit earlier. 80 2, 83. And I literally wandered into

the office with a a wad of live photos.

No money motivation whatsoever. I I I was just the first time they printed

one and put my name underneath it, I I was just absolutely

thrilled. My name next to a musician in a in a

music rag was just fantastic. That's how I got my name as

well. My name's not Tony Mott. My name's Anthony

Moulds. And the first time I got a photo credit, the girl who was doing

the, layout said to me, what's your name? And I said, Anthony

Moles, and she just laughed. I said, I don't know what a crap

name. I've never thought about it before. And then she

said, no. You gotta get you gotta get yourself a photography. I said, what

do you mean? And she goes, well, Anthony Marles, that's crap. You can't have

that. But my dad's not gonna be impressed with this at all. Anyway,

then she said, well, what's my name then? And she goes, well, who's your favorite

band? And I said, Mott the Hoople. And she said, well, there you go.

Tony Mark. Tony Tony Mark. Wow. And it was decided

in about 10 seconds flat. That's the best way to do it. The best way

to do it. Yeah. And I've been Tony Mart ever since.

And and up until about, you know, I got a level

of, fame in in the music industry. No one knew it

wasn't my name. And then 911 happened. 911 fucked

so many things up. Because prior to that, I used to travel on planes as

Tony Mark. What's my name? I didn't have a passport. No one checked. You just

got a ticket. You got on board. No one cared. After 911, people started checking.

And my my only incident that was really weird, I was with the, with Midnight

Oil in Berlin. And when I came to check out the hotel, I gave

my Visa card, and she said, who are you? And I went,

oh, Anthony Tony Miles. She goes, but your credit card says Anthony Miles. I

said, well, you know, photography now. She wouldn't accept it. And she was

probably about to about to call the authorities when luckily, I

think a band member or a tour manager said, no. No. That's him. And and

he said, who who is Tony? I was like, who is Tony? And I

got my passport out. And luckily, what was really helpful

was I had my first book out there, which had the story of how I

got my name. So I could show them a book with a picture of me

with the name Tony but it did confuse people for a long time.

Yeah. Yep. I'm waffling on now like a dad. No. No. The world's the world's

gone a bit mad. Everyone's getting a bit I think that we've and Yeah. They

are. But I think we're like I love hearing those stories, Donnie, because,

like, success doesn't just happen. And there's no there's

no blueprint of how you love bands and and you'd

become one of the best photographers in the world. Like, there's no course for you

to do that. There's no way to do it. But success Well, I know that's

to be fair, there still isn't. So so what happened was, I

I I was shoot I became then I loved it. I

loved shooting bands. And because of that Divinyls,

at that period of time, I took that photo. They used my photo of tour

poster, and the Divinyls got a record deal, a hit single, and they became

quite famous. And I rode the coattails of the Divinyls

where I remember the choir boys coming up to me and say,

oh, can you work for us? I remember they offered me $50

for the night. And you gotta remember $50 in 1982 was a was

a buck. I thought the bloody idiot. Bloody hell. They could have made me $50.

And then, on The Street, which became Dramedia Street Press,

they started putting me on a retainer. And so I was shooting lots

of bands for them. And I I I really was going out 6 nights a

week. It was fantastic. I I know, again, I've got to emphasize, at no

point did I ever think this was a job. It was just love. I love

it. And then it dawned on me that I was making just

enough money to cover the rent. And I wondered I I should also

emphasize that I'm still cooking at this point. I'm sharing the money. You have a

job at that point. Yeah. I still got a full time job. But then it

dawned on me, could I do this and and and cover the

rent? So I tried and failed. I remember,

trying to make money and failing. And after about 4 or 5 months, I thought

I've gotta go back to cooking because I was making good money as a chef.

Yeah. So I went back. The moment I went back, all the work started

coming in. That's always a way. Within 6 months of that,

I I did it. And slowly but surely, I had loads of great

breaks. I discovered record companies

and how they I discovered that live photography didn't make as

much as sessions portraits, but I had no idea how to do

portraits. I do a a talk where I show a picture

of the Triffids, and people look at it and think, why the hell does he

pull that up? And I explained that this is one of the first sessions of

a big band I ever did, and I hadn't got a clue what I was

doing. And I had this assumption that the band would just direct me,

but they all just stood around. So they're going, what are you gonna do? And

it's just 5 people stood against a wall, and the editor said,

what the hell is this? And she she goes, wouldn't they do anything? I went,

well, I didn't tell them. She goes, no. No. You have to tell them. And

I learned very early on that I was the director and that while I collaborate

with musicians, it was for me to get the best out of them. And so

that was a learning curve. And and I was lucky because

there was no pressure on me because it wasn't really a job. So the

editor just went, yeah. You've gotta you gotta she sort of was very kind and

said, no. You gotta tell them what to do. So it was a a learning

curve, and then I learned a bit from lights and how to do things.

And it was all a learning curve. And at no point I mean, at any

point, I just thought, well, I think in those early years, I just presumed at

some point people go, he's not a photographer.

But he's like, that's that's the interesting thing for I find, I guess,

now, Tony. So, like, you sort of, you know, made it up as you went

and you, you know, you practice and you got better and better. And I

think we've, I think in this day and age, you've sort of lost that

little, that beauty of it because there's so much competition. I just I

don't know. Was it was there a lot of other, you know, people doing the

same thing back then, or was it There was. There was quite a few people,

and and a lot of them a lot of them used it as a stepping

stone, particularly the good ones. So,

in all that period, Tom, I'm I I'm gonna

try not to be a wanky, but I was voted photographer of the

year several times, and I was always aware that I wasn't the best photographer.

There was definitely people better than me all the time. But at one point, I

was without a doubt the most prolific. I was just everywhere.

But there was photographers that were much better than me, but a lot of photographers

used it as a stepping stone to go into advertising,

fashion, or more high brow, photography.

That was never my ambition. I always loved doing music Yeah.

And I didn't wanna move on. So slowly but surely, all the people that were

obviously better than me moved on. Yeah. They weren't my company, but there was

always more coming up below who are better than me often.

But a lot of But they didn't have the connections and the and the experience.

Yeah. I obviously had lots of connections, but also one of my great I really

it took me a long time to realize one of my qualities. One, I got

on with musicians. So fashion

photographers are used to working with models. And when you're working with a

model, you can tell the model what to do. You you you literally go, I

want you to do this. I want you to do this. You can't do that

with a musician. It's always a collaboration. Yeah. They they need to think

that they're involved in the process, and they are. And so I got on with

him. I won't name the photographer, but he was so much better than I

was. But literally, he got sacked by, Tex Perkins

because he was arrogant and just kept telling the band what to do. Yeah. And

they hated it. Yeah. And You gotta enjoy working with

them. When they showed me the photographs, his photographs were

fantastic. Yes. But he just didn't get he just didn't get on with the

musicians. And particularly when you're going on when you get into the hybrid

when I was going on with the Rolling Rolling Stones, I was a fly on

the wall, and, I had to do lots of work with them. But there's a

line where you don't wanna annoy them because you you don't wanna be going

in their face every 5 minutes. So you sort of you sort of get to

know them and you take it easy, and eventually, you almost disappear

where you're they're so used to you. You're just in the corner taking photographs.

And and so that's the line you've got to tread. Being

too I mean, I am relatively loud and I talk a lot, but I do

get on with me. I've always there's very few music musicians I haven't got on

with, and that's why I've been successful.

I'm not until today, I'm still not the best photographer in

Sydney, let alone Australia. Yeah. But I've got on with

musicians. And if you're on the road with them, part and

parcel of it is you gotta you gotta get on with them. They're not gonna

hire someone that they don't get on with. Exactly. And it sounds like

you I guess the purse sorry. The personal

love that you have for music, you know, like, that passion and that love.

You're, you clearly have that respect for the artist and that's what

they appreciate. And so that, you know, they know that you're not going to

be a pain in the ass on tour or we you know? Yeah.

No. It's very important. And also you've gotta you know,

when I do my talks, and then I do a q and a, I'm always

asked who's the biggest asshole you've ever worked with.

I've got 2 answers to that. 1, my dad always said, if you've got nothing

good to say about someone, don't say anything. I never talked to them.

But the other thing is, if I worked in a bank or a supermarket

or wherever, you meet assholes all the time, you know, and you work

with me and you hate them for whatever reason. I I can honestly say in

40 years in music, I've met 3 assholes Yeah. As in

musicians. They're not reliable. They're dreadful timekeepers.

They're sometimes hungover.

I had a classic case of I was up to do Blink 182's cover for

Rolling Stone magazine. Big deal, the whole bit. And I was on the road with

them on the big day out. They were fine, and I told them my

ideas and the whole bit. And at some point, I had to,

I remember being at 4 o'clock in the morning the night the

the morning before the photo session at 10 in the morning. And I'm at a

party, and I'm drinking. And I'm looking over in the corner. I'm Blink

102. It's in the same room. I'm thinking I'm thinking

I should be going to bed. I haven't obviously got the right to go up

to them. Anyway, long story short, 10 o'clock in the morning, I can't remember which

one of them is, but he's so ill. He's throwing up in his

bedroom and doing a cover shop for the Rolling Stones not looking as good as

it was looking. And all the ideas went out the window. And I just said

to them, no worries. Let's do it in his bedroom. And we all

took took my lights up, and the shot that went on the cover is

taking the shower of his hotel room with the 3

of them in the shower, all with bathrobes and stuff, and he did

chunder, halfway through the shoe, halfway through the boat shoot.

But at no point did I get pissed off with them. It was like, these

were the circumstances that we were in now. And

strangely, the next day, they were very apologetic to me and said I

said, no. It's fine. I said I've got what I needed. And I ended up

doing a second session with them, because they said, well, if you want another hour

with us, we'll do it today. We're all fine today. And I did get extra

photos, but that's a sort of circumstance where a fashion photographer or

someone from the newspaper would be so pissed off with them. Yeah. What the

fuck? You know, this is important, but that's not gonna work for musicians. That's

not gonna work for your audience. Yeah. Exactly.

How, how was that? The, the balance, I guess, for you, like

in terms of partying and enjoying the last time, but then still being able to

do your job. Okay. Like, I'll I'll get carried away. That's what I

would do. I'd be absolutely I'd be the bloke in the shower of vomiting when

I'm meant to be taking it. I've always I've always had a good constitution for

partying. I've strangely, I'm now 60 odd years old. I've

never done a drug in my life. Okay. That helps. Seventies

where the only drug around was marijuana, and all the marijuana

people were just smoking and that didn't appeal to

me. Yeah. And then by the time the eighties came when I was an older

and drinking, and I've always been a a a drinker,

Cocaine came along, but I've got quite a good metabolism.

And if I'm on a good time, I'm still at the party. I'm cooking. Okay.

I don't need I don't need to go on. So as a consequence, I've always

been a drinker, but I have partied hard. There's been a

few hangovers as well, so I could I could do without this. And I have

curtailed a couple of photo sessions, and I've

possibly lied to someone. I remember doing I forgot his name now.

Fat Boy Slim. I did the cover of the melody, with Fat

Boy Slim, and I was on the road with Big Daddy. I've been to a

Big Daddy was notorious for its parties, and I did his

shoot. It's his fault. He moved the shoot 24 hours

earlier. I'd been out all night, and I went to his hotel, and I felt

like death warmed up. And I took about 10 minutes of shots. So I

just went, these are great. See you. I've got I've got everything

I need. Norman Cookie. I've got it. Hey. It got the cover of

Melody Maker. Not that no one lost any of it. So fine. So

so that's that's been those moments. And I've I've also fucked up a

couple of times. The classic one was I was supposed to be doing a

shoot with Guns N' Roses who were notoriously difficult to work with

and were yaying, and they the management doing this and this. They finally,

allowed me to shoot. I was given 10 minutes, but they told me at the

last minute. I was in a hotel lobby. I just done a photo

shoot with helmet, that morning. So the film the 2

cameras I had, the film was in the cameras, and they literally gave me 3

minutes in this hotel. I had a light. I shot it really quickly.

And as they left, I realized there was no film in there, Kemper.

Oh. Oh, gosh. They want full they want full approval. So I'm

in deep shit. I'm in a total panic. And then in the morning, I rang

the tour manager and just said, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I said,

I'm not even gonna show you. They're just not good enough. I said, a band

of your stature, these aren't good enough. I haven't done a good enough

job. And the tour manager said, no photographer has ever done that to us.

I said, what do you mean? He goes he goes, they always just use what

they've got. I said, well, you know, big bands, they're just not good enough. He

gave me a session the next day, and I really did it. That's

brilliant. About 15 years later, the tour manager was

tour managing Perry Farrell. And, one night late at night, I told him

the truth, and he he just laughed. He thought it was hysterical. He said the

band the band loved you. They thought, oh my god.

What a guy. Not gonna print them because he doesn't bring the photos. He's good.

What a guy. That is amazing. It was a complete

accident, and I've never used the trick ever again because it's wasn't a

trick. It's just an accident. Treat people well. You know? Yeah. Don't burn your

bridges. Be a nice bloke, and, you know, they give you the benefit of the

doubt. You could talk absolute rubbish makeup stories. I didn't have the

guts to tell him total incompetency. No film in the game.

Well, it worked out alright. Yeah. Obviously, there's a lot of docos

coming out now of, you know, tour life and just how full on it is.

You were saying, you know, 3 times with the stones. What is

touring with, like, the world's biggest bands like? Is it is it

is it like what we see in the Docos? No. It's not. Because the

Dockos condense everything. It depends on what you're talking about. What toying

with the Rolling Stones is unbelievably great. They're really, really

kind to their crew. They have 2 crews. They leapfrog.

So when this crew's setting up Melbourne, there's another crew setting up Sydney.

And when that's finished, Melbourne goes to Brisbane, and so they

leapfrog. The Stones are great because they'll only play 3 nights out of

7. That's their contract. Particularly, even remember, we're

talking the eighties nineties. I would imagine now it's even less. Just

purely from the energy factor. I remember Prince was the same. Prince would only

do 3 nights out of 7. And a lot of other people would do 6

out of 7 or something in Burnham, so they 7 nights out of 7.

Whatever it is. Very conscious of how much money was involved.

Yeah. And I remember shooting her in Spain somewhere, and she was

visibly knackered. I know she was not

and, also, she I'm not knocking Madonna. Madonna's Madonna.

But, vocally, she's not trained very well and,

whereas Prince will only do 3 nights and every

night is brilliant before Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But

when you're on the road, when you're in London, New York,

Sydney, the record company is throwing a party and this keeps going on.

And that's great. You know? I mean, I've I've enjoyed it a whole bit. It

it it's fantastic. Some of the parties are beyond. I got lucky to

tour with the Rolling Stones in Eastern Europe, in the late

eighties, and no rock and roll band had ever been to Istanbul.

Again, I'm bringing up 911. This is way before 911. So we're

in Istanbul, and they wanna get a shot of the band

with something with Istanbul in the background. And I said, well, the biggest iconic

building in Istanbul is the Blue Mosque. They

closed the effing mosque down for the shoe. That was I mean, it was

a world incident today. We didn't mean it to close down. I just

said, we put them in the park here. I've got there, but they closed it

all down. I was like, we have That's a big day. At

the gig, it was everybody from Turkey was there because

they've never seen rock and roll. So it was politicians, the

the hoipoloy, the working everybody was just as

so it was such a thrill and it was almost like gods had arrived, particularly

that east when you got to Paris and London and Berlin, everyone's

seen the Stones before. They're still enthusiastic, but it wasn't quite the same

ambiance. But by then, the I mean, Keith never stopped partying. I

mean, obviously, Keith's a freak. I in all those

years Remains a St. Richard story. Well

well well, in all the years oh, I'm gonna tell you a great Keith Richards

story. In all those years, I never saw Mick

drink more than a couple of whiskeys and I. Really? He would help with

his security, personnel every morning, a heavy

job. Unbelievably fit. So to give you the I always call,

Mick and Keith the yin and yang of rock and roll. They're they're they're all

over it. So I'm on the road in Europe. I think it was their

40th anniversary or something, and Jules Holland from the BBC is on the

road to document it. And we're in Paris, and we go out in

Paris. And, the first night we go out with Mick, and we go to this

nightclub. And it's obviously a nightclub that under no circumstances

would I ever have got in in my life. It's all beauty war

models and the beautiful people. They're serving us the best champagne, and Jules

Holland is nudging me going, look at the bloody women in here.

And, you know, they're serving us everything and it's like caviar. It's unbelievable.

Yeah. And you could see the queue outside the nightclub. Only beautiful people

are oh, just thinking, not in a month or Sunday's right here. We had a

great night. We do that's great. 3 nights later, we go out with

Keith. We go to the shittiest end of

Paris. He's on a first name basis with all

the prostitutes, the drug dealers, and Ethan's

hardened Rolling Stones roadies are going, okay, guys. Let's put

our gear away because this is quite we're a bit worried about what's going on.

We end up in the sleaziest blues club. He seems to know

everyone in there, and he's jamming with some local blues band, and it's

just the shito end of Paris. That is amazing.

Band, and it's just yin and yang. That is so

epic. And the other one the other one with with Keith is

when you can't remember this is in the days of film. So they were looking

for photos, for their American tour that was coming up. So we're

going through the approval process. The Rolling Stones don't have a

manager per se. They've got personal managers. There's a guy called Tony King

who employed me, managed Mick Jagger, and,

Keith was managed by a girl called Jane Rose and still is. Jane Rose has

been with him from the year dot. Anyway, so I go to Mick's room.

I know Mick Jagger relatively well. I know what I'm very aware of what

he likes and what he doesn't like. But he's going through them on a light

box and looking at I'm going to and you're in this room for an hour

and an half where he picks the 6 photos that are approved and they're gonna

be used, and we go through it all the whole bit. And he goes up,

and he he's very aware of a turkey neck. So he loves shops that where

he's stretched out, and the whole bit. It all goes an hour and a

half, he's got his 6 photos. You walk into Keith's room with Jane.

It's firstly, it's dark, and he opens the windows, and he literally hangs up. He

goes, yeah. Yeah. They're fine. Yeah. Yeah. That's good shit. Doesn't

give a shit. Photography is not he's not even remotely

interested in photography whatsoever, whereas Mick's gone through it all. So

they just they're they're gone. Yeah. Just chalk and cheese. They're they're completely

different. I I don't know if you know it, but, Mick's, mother

was a 4th generation Australian. She did not

the leadership. And so he considers himself half Australian because his

mom was for for for a non indigenous

person, in 1939 when she left, Australia,

you couldn't be more than 4th generation. So she was, she was a true

true blue, you know, Aussie, and has always been as consider. And

that's why he did Ned Kelly, the film in the sixties because he his mom,

you know, he considered himself up Australian. They Do

they get along? I guess Do Mick and Keith get along?

Tuesdays, yes. Wednesdays, maybe. Thursdays, yes. Friday.

So one of the reasons I got so much work out of them was I

got hired, and, they're after shots of Mick and

Keith on stage, you know, bouncing up each other. And the manager

turning king is in, oh, fuck. They're still not talking to each other.

Well, I got extra days out of it. But you would never you you never

witnessed, as in you never witnessed any hostility. Public.

Yeah. But but Keith was always into the music. He'd always be at

every sound check, and he'd do the set list. Mick knew the

business and all that. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's fairly well on

record. They've had their spats over the years. I mean, you can't be that polar

opposite and not not get on. Yeah. But it'll probably also

help them work, I guess. Like Indeed. They they complimented each other in a way.

And almost you need someone keeping the straight and narrow Yeah. Or not straight and

narrow. And I and I and I think probably Ronnie Wood is the glue. Ronnie

and Charlie were the glue that put them together as well. Yeah. Ronnie and Charlie

couldn't be nicer people. Not that Mick and Keith aren't nice

people, but, yeah, they they definitely have,

they've had hostilities. But, you know, I never witnessed anything like that at

all. Yeah. I just never witnessed it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. They are they are they are who they are that

Yeah. Do you have a, does is there a gig that or

a couple of gigs? Give us, you know, I mean, it's Probably pretty odd.

Pretty tough. Have you got a top 3 that you've been at that have just

blown your head off? I can probably do your top 10. And if you if

we did this podcast tomorrow We'll do the change. Top 10. I'm thinking

but strangely, I was only thinking of it the other day because I I was

thinking of sound checks, have special sound checks up. One of

my favorite sound checks was, I I did Ray Davies of the

Kings, huge hero of mine, and he was playing the Seymour

Centre in Sydney. And I knew Tim Rogers from you and my who's a friend

of mine. Loved Ray Day. And I took Tim along as my

personal assistant. Just took me Ray Davis. It was in the early

days of UMI. Anyway, for whatever reason, Ray wasn't

feeling so good, and he asked me if he could cancel the session, do it

another day, which I did. It was no problem. We did it another day. But

we sat in the auditorium on our own, just me and Tim

and Ray Davies and his manager and a guitar player, and we sat through,

8 song soundcheck of Ray Davies, and it was unbelievably

special. And the reason I'm saying this is I was thinking Credit

House just announced that they were doing some more gigs. They when they did their

first ever farewell tour in 95, they were supposed to play on

the Saturday, and it pissed down with rain. So they moved it to the

Sunday, but they still did a sound check on the Saturday, and there's

200 kids there. So they did this special sort of again, maybe

only 12 songs, but it was so special. It was great. Wow.

When I'm looking back at the greatest gigs, Mott the Hoople on my the band

I named myself up, they reformed in 2009. I saw them at First

Mythology. The Rolling Stones, in Cardiff, I don't know

why, but they just went off. They were always great, but that night, they

really went off. This, The Divinyls

are more than one occasion. I I rate

Chrissy Ampler as the greatest female performer I've ever seen. I've seen Beyonce,

Diana Ross, Madonna, Blondie. No one touches Chrissy Ampler. So there's

been a few Diviners gigs. Cold chisel,

Midnight Oil, are world class live

acts, comparable with anybody. And and

particularly in the eighties, Midnight Oil, unbelievably intense.

Not that they're they're still a great band now, but those eighties gigs, unbelievably

special.

I can't think of it. Lucinda Williams, the first time I ever saw her,

she blew me away. But like I said, in 5 minutes, I can

come back with another You made you for Queen Queen at Knebworth.

Queen at Knebworth. Oh, I hear you. That which turns out

to be the last ever gig they ever did. That that was pretty that was

pretty special as well. So that goes Paul McCartney

at Paramatta Stadium, would would rate,

yeah, the the big Dow. 1st traveling big

Dow, they took it into there was no headliner. It's the

only Big Dow that didn't have headliners. And and, Iggy Pop,

Sonic Youth, and someone and Nick Cave took it in turns to be

the the last band playing. And in Melbourne, I

think Nick Cave was headlining Iggy Pop, Sonic Youth, Mudhoney, B Suburban.

They came on and just jammed to I wanna be your dog, and it just

went on and on. It was just it was shambolic,

chaotic, million.

That's amazing. What about, Woodstock? Generally.

What about Woodstock? I I've watched that documentary Woodstock 99 or

whatever. Were you at that? Because that is one of the Oh,

wow. That was

yeah. Yeah. What's the what's the really my

criticism of those shows are once it gets above 50,000,

it loses something. I've been to Glastonbury, and, so, yeah, Glastonbury is

a 100,000. And I mean, Glastonbury is fantastic, but at the same time, it's

fantastic looking it on the television and the whole bit. But if you're the poor

soul that's miles back at the back, I'm in I was gonna ask you that.

Spoilt because I'm in a photo pit, so I'm right next to the band.

But I've gone to the back a couple of times. I remember the exchange. Some

bands can project and some bands can't. I remember, Billy

Idol, and I'm not knocking Billy Idol. He was great. But I remember being at

the entertainment center, and I was in the pit, and he came on, and I

shot about the first half a dozen songs, and it was fantastic and the first

twenty were completely into it and as you went back it

lost it it lost it and then people just sit there going and there's

nothing wrong with it, but he didn't project. Whereas you 2 are really good at

projecting. The Rolling Stones are good at projecting. Yeah. It's loads of

bands that start on small stages. They're really great. Mhmm. And then they go

to the main stage. I always think and this causes a bit of trouble

every now and again. The Coldplay was very aware

they weren't very good, on a big stage, and

so they surround themselves with what I call bells and whistles. Yeah.

And the the band themselves are only 10% of the show.

It's an entertainment thing rather than that. All the all the tricks. And

that's because they're not that they're not charismatic, and

they're not that great performance. Chris Martin puts a huge effort into it, but they're

they're clever. Kylie Minogue would be another one. And, again, I wanna emphasize, I'm not

knocking interviews, but Kylie Minogue would have the bells and whistles, it wouldn't

be that great. Well, what you see you can see prince

bear with no tricks, and he's phenomenal, and he also

does it with the tricks. Yeah. I've seen I toured with Rihanna

who surrounds herself with bells and whistles, but I've also seen her play a small

club. Fantastic performer. Yeah. So, there is

and it's very important that those bands learn that. The the worst thing I ever

saw was Kings of Leon on the side stage of the big gap, fantastic

band, main stage, this poor guy is just playing. It was

like which is great for the 20 kids at the front, but they all saw

that a mile back, they go Yeah. Yeah. And it's like Yeah. They give it

nothing. Yeah. Stadium rock is very weird. Pink Floyd are brilliant. There's

certain bands that are good at it, and there's other bands you go like, you

would never want to see Paul Kelly in a massive venue. Yeah. He's a fantastic,

fantastic musician,

intimate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thomas Costello, intimate. You

can't do big. So, you know, so so but, of course, the money, they go,

oh, I could do at stadium. 80,000 people paying $100 a part.

That's a lot of money. Well, we can play this. So yeah. But it probably

almost doesn't with the service, doesn't it? Yeah.

What, what about when you obviously, you've mentioned you've mentioned

so many names. Like, I don't think there's been one band across the

people of loved along the years that you haven't obviously been part of. But

also from your journey, obviously, starting out as a chef and then

finding a passion, you know. And I think that's, if anybody's listening, like, if

you love what you do, you'll make a way to make it work. And I

think that's the best thing that your intention wasn't to go out and be the

best photographer and rock and go around and tour and all these things. But

because you loved it so much and you'll be able to form good relationships and

understand people, you made it work. What are you most proud of from, you know,

when you were, you know, at doing your pastry chef, earning good money there,

but every night still going to gigs, starting off with the vinyls, and, you know,

the whole career you've had, everything you've just mentioned to us today. What are you

most proud of? Well, I'm I'm probably proud of the

body of work in general. But, I mean, the first time you can get a

photo credit on the front cover of a magazine, it was a huge thrill. I've

now done over a 1,000 front covers. And if I get one next week, it's

still a thrill, which means I'm still enjoying what I'm doing.

One of my I'm proud of a a few of the CD covers I've done.

I'm like I said, I'm proud of the body of work. I'm proud of my

books. I've done 4 books on music, which I'm sort of And where can we

buy those? Where can we buy those books, Tony? Www.tonymott.com.

Or or email me at tonymott@optusnet.com.au, and

the book's available for me. And the latest book is basically 40 years, the best

of. It's got loads of stories in it, and it it it's sort of yeah.

You describe as the best of. Yeah. What am I

I I could never tell you what I'm most about. I'm proud of the whole

thing. Yeah. Go ahead. Probably not the right word for it. I'm

just chuffed that I've, that I've done it and that

people allowed me to do it and that people paid me to do it.

All of it is what you said before is combining a passion into a

job means it's never a job. There's no point I've got up and gone, oh,

good word. There's never been that point at all. It's always been, you know,

even and and you gotta remember, you don't always love the band you

photograph. There is, you know, I remember I toured with Sonic Youth, who

I loved, and I did an EP cover with him. And I went straight to

Michael Bolton. And I wanna emphasize, Michael Bolton couldn't have

been a lovelier guy, and I had dinner with him. And when I say him,

there's about 10 people at dinner. And he knew I'd been on the road with

Sonny Euston. He said, Sonny Euston, And he sort of, you know, he

sort of Yeah. It's not my

cup of tea. Yeah. But still great. It's still interesting to

watch. It's interesting to watch people that you don't

have, that you don't particularly enjoy their music, but

seeing them perform. Michael Bolton's consummate performer and pleases

the audience. He's really good. I I remember being completely

converted with Barry Manilow, who I wouldn't play Barry

Manilow's song in a month of Sundays. And but, fuck, he's a good

performer. And another one is, Metallica.

I have never played a Metallica song in my house

ever, but my god, they're an amazing powerful

band. You can't not see the power that they've got. They they were

the best of the heavy metal bands in pure power. And and what

was great about Metallica, which gets forgotten now is when they started

getting big, all the heavy metal was very much into colors,

satins, and big hair. And this was 4 blokes all dressed in

black with a plain white, light show, but the power that

they could project from that stage was fantastic. Yeah. And I've always

loved photographing, but I'd never play their music. Their music's and that's

not knocking their music. Their music's great. It's just not my cup of tea that

I'll be playing at home. But so that that's a sort of an example of,

you know, when you're playing with people. The Metallica's of the worlds are the great

ones to photograph. The Lucinda Williams, who I absolutely adore

love, not so easy to photograph because there's nothing happening. It's a girl playing it

up page. That's a lot more there's a lot more effort going into how can

I make this look more interesting? Where's Metallica and Kiss?

The interest is right in front of you. If you can't get a good photograph

of Kiss, go home. You're not gonna get Go back to me to paste your

shift. Yeah. Yeah. I remember the first time I shot

this and just went I just thought I got the best photos I've ever

taken till I realized it's because they've put it in front of you, and

every photographer next to me has got exactly the same program. And they've

put an enormous effort to make sure you've got it. I remember Gene Simmons

looking at me in a big

And he just lined up until I got it. Until I

so, yeah. So but back to your original

question. It's just proud not pride is the wrong word. I

feel privileged and I and I've and just fantastic that I've done it for

all these years and just loved it. I don't think pride comes into it,

really. I mean, I'm proud of what I've done, but it's not really something.

It's, But on on that point of, you know, knowing that

line between being a photographer and and being a friend almost, are

there any bands that you did become really close with and good mates

with that sort of, you know Cross the line? Yeah.

Transcended that work. I I I think it's

fair to say I've never crossed the line with anybody,

but at the same time also, I'm not really I I remember someone coming

up to me and said someone, oh, you're really good friends with Mick Jagger. I'm

not good friends with Mick Jagger. If Mick Jagger walked into a room, he might

remember me as, oh, it's photographer guy who looks a bit like

Ronnie Wood. A Ronnie Wood impersonation.

But he'd remember me, but I haven't got his phone number, and I don't

go for a beer with him in London. Yeah. So I'm not his and he

yeah. But, you know, I'd say there's about 10 or 11

musicians who who I'm good friends with. Yeah.

I I'd say I'm fairly good friends with Jimmy Barnes, Casey Chambers, Tim

Rogers, Lucinda Williams. I keep in touch with Sarah McLaughlin.

I was good friends with Chrissy McVree from Fleetwood Mac. Yep. I

was touring with the insane. Touring with

the insane. Strangely, Chrissy was the

only non non, was the same member of the band. Really?

So so but I've never really crossed the line. I've upset a couple of

people, accidentally, and I I'm mortified. The

2 upsetting ones, Jeanette from Concrete Blonde, who

who I got on with really, really well. We had a massive falling

out, and we're now really good friends again. And, I got

hired in London to reach to shoot her. And I said to the journalist,

this is probably not a good good idea. We had a massive falling out a

couple of years ago. She walked in the room, gave me a big hug. We

ended up going out to dinner that night, and neither of us could remember what

it was about. Yes. What it was about. But she got

upset about something about photos that got published somewhere. And the other

one, which is a new story, was Veruca Salt. And and so what I'm

with Veruca Salt was, during COVID,

I was homeschooling my twins. I've got twins who are, I don't know, 10

or 11 at the time. And like everybody, I was going mad.

That's why I started scanning, my back catalog. And on

Facebook, I did an a to zed, and I put a photo of someone

up and do a funny story with it. And people you know, as a consequence,

The Guardian did a story on it and people enjoyed it and I kept doing

it. When I got to v, I got to Veruca Salt. So I did a

photo shoot with Veruca Salt and it was going really well. Really enjoyed

the I thought it was a really good shoot. And in the middle of the

shoot, Louise, I get the 2 girls

mixed up, but it was Louise, sort of went off for a phone call, came

back, and I could tell something had happened, and it wasn't going. And and she

just said, have you got enough? And as it happened, I knew I'd got great

photos. I said, yeah. And she walked off, and the other girl said, I'm sorry

about that. She goes, she's just been dumped by her boyfriend by

text. I went, oh god. That's why she's upset. She didn't wanna ask. No. That's

dreadful. And she goes, oh, it's Dave Grohl. I went, oh, fuck.

Oh, it's dreadful. Anyway, after that,

I shot them live. And every gig, Louise was

going on stage and just putting shit on Dave Grohl, just

literally bombarding. So I told that

story in the Facebook, and there's 2 live photos, and they're they're

great life photos. And about a week later, I got an email from

Louise Post, and she was appalled by and

told me I got it all wrong. And I was really quite upset, and I

emailed back saying I'm I'm taking it down. I'm really sorry. I apologize the whole

bit. I never meant it. I I said I forgot. Yeah. It's personal. I

I shouldn't have done it a whole bit. Anyway, I forgot and she said you

got it wrong. Anyway, about 2, 3 days, I was thinking, I haven't

got it wrong. I got a few clips of her

being pretty shit on Dave Brill. A week later, I get

another email from the said Louise post apologizing for telling me off and

saying, look. I overreact to yada yada. She goes, but what I really wanna do

is buy a print because that photo is the best live photo

I've ever seen of me. And she said, I want the print. And I said,

yeah. It's fine. I'll do your print. And then she told me why she wanted

the print. She goes, I've got a 14 year old daughter who

was completely unaware that her mom was once cool, and I want it

in my kitchen to show my daughter. I thought that was a

great end to the story. Yeah. She was up for a couple of weeks, but

she did forgive me, and she did say I don't think she liked the

fact that I made it public. Yeah. But at the same time, I had

a lot. You weren't wrong, though. Yeah. But I wasn't

wrong. That's all that matters. I sort

of crossed the line with Bob Dylan. Bob

Dylan, I was hired by him, so I was working for him. But I was

warned he hated photographers. And middle of the song, he saw me and

told me to fuck off in front of 12,000. And my first

reaction was to show him my laminate saying Axel's earlhurst, but I thought, oh, it's

Bob Dylan. I've gotta go. And when I saw his manager, I said,

oh, I've just been thrown out. He goes, who sprung you out? And I went,

Bob Dylan. And he went, oh, fuck. He saw you. But 2 nights later,

I was shooting him again, and he was fine. So that was a that was

a weird experience. Oh my goodness. What a

lot. Oh. What a lot. Sorry, mate. Like, I get the flight. I just, like,

even my sister Sydney, you just love me. That's right. Speaking to you for

45 minutes. Like, that's I could tell, like, I'd imagine that these, you

know, musicians would just love you, you know, like, love having you around. You're an

amazing character and, you know, no wonder you've had such success

in your career because you're you're you seem like a bloody ripper.

Well, also the the one thing to get on with musicians is talk

about other musicians. I remember I shot Powderfinger's first

ever publicity photos before they'd ever, saw him in the record

company. I didn't know who they were. Someone hired me to do it. And all

they wanted to talk about was I'd met Soundgarden, and Soundgarden were

their heroes. And we spent the entire shoot just talking about Soundgarden,

which is which is really funny.

So, yeah, my advice to young photographers

is if if you're given an hour with anybody to do a photo,

spend the first fifty means over a cup of tea, a glass of wine,

and just have a yak so there's some sort of rapport. Yeah. Don't go in,

start taking photos because that's a complete stranger, and it's

quite intimidating, put it pointing a lens. And I said, if you give it an

hour, spend 15 minutes just talking to them. And if it's a musician, you know,

when I met Sarah McLachlan, she knew I'd shot Lucinda Williams and that was a

hero. And I just started telling her how dreadfully shy

Lucinda Williams was and how difficult it was. She went, oh, really? She's shy.

Yeah. And we just say again and so by the time the 15 minutes were

up, you know, I'll tell you, I said, so this is what I'm thinking of

doing with you. There's some sort of rapport. Yeah. And if I if I

met you 2 guy if I met you 2 guys this morning before we've spoken,

and I'm about to do your photo. If I just come in and start taking

your photos, you go, you don't know me from above. So so we just have

this conversation, a short version of this conversation. Yeah. And then you go,

guys, go, oh, he's alright. Yeah. And so there's a because I think a lot

of, a lot of photographers make mistake of of self importance.

Yeah. And they think, well, we're here to do a photo session, so we're doing

the photo session. It's much better to have like I said, even if it's just

10 minutes over a cup of tea just to get to know someone. And,

also, it's quite often a good idea to find out what they don't want, what

they don't like in photos. So you don't go down that path.

My greatest mistake with that was, Marion faithful hired

me on the strength of she'd seen one of my Keith Richards photos

where I'd shot him in his hotel room with no makeup, no

lenses, no filters, and it was just raw. He looked

like death warmed up. She just thought that was

the fucking bee's knees. She goes, that's great. They always try to she goes, you've

done a great job. My mistake was I interpreted that's

what she wanted. That's what she wanted. She didn't. She

didn't. Never did. She wanted never did. Never did. And she wanted the

whole thing. But luckily, we sat down over a cup of tea before we did

the shoot, and I said, oh, you know, I was thinking of doing it like

I did Keith and just the she sort of went, I don't think

so. So I immediately came that no. No. I'm going to filter it and do

a lot of lights nice lights and soft box it a little bit. So that

that that's where the 15 minutes was very useful because I realized had I just

started how was I thought, she would have been horrified. But that was a main

mistake because that was exactly the opposite of what she wanna do. She complimented the

Keith photo, but she certainly didn't want to do that. Yeah. I think, exactly what

you've just said, great advice for photographers, but I call it connection before

content. I don't think whatever you're doing in life, so if you don't have a

relationship with someone, you've got no chance. Like No. The investment

of that 15 minute cup of tea will make that next 45 minutes

tenfold if you don't just go back in. Yep. Yeah. Absolutely.

Absolutely. I I and, yeah, like you said, it's a good it's a it's a

relatively, good system for life because, you know, yeah, whoever you're

talking to, it's best to sort of, you know, get some sort of rapport going.

You you're never gonna get on with everybody. That's just life. But, yeah.

But the 15 minutes the 15 minutes will tell you you get on with someone.

The misinterpret the other misinterpretation I have, which is quite funny was I was

doing a shoot with Tory Moss, and I'd never met her,

and I met her in the hotel lobby. First of all, she came up and

gave me the biggest hug, and she was talking to me like a long lost

friend. And I knew I'd never met before, and she said, what are we gonna

do? What are we gonna do? And we went up to a hotel room, and

she wanted my advice on clothes, which is not a good

move, but she was literally taking tops off and she was just there

in a bra. This is a person I've never met before and she was very,

very flirty. Anyway, we did a really good photo shoot and she was

very flirty to the point. So I thought me and Tory really get on.

This is fantastic. So the first person came

in, and I realized she was flirty with everybody. That's

true. It had nothing to do with me whatsoever. Bad for my

ego, but really good. But that was me thinking, oh god. She

really she's taken a bit of a shine to me, but she hadn't. She was

just that's just her personality. Musicians

are eccentrics. There's a lot of an eccentric behavior. It's the industry where

eccentric behavior is totally allowed. Yeah. Most

eccentric person I met was Perry Farrell from Pornhubairo's Jane's Addiction.

I met him in a hotel lobby, we're doing a shoot. And I'd set up

a piece of canvas and a light, and he said to me, you and I,

we have to we're gonna be working over the next year. We gotta have trust.

I went, yeah. Yeah. I suppose we must have trust, and we'd had a bit

of a yak and he seemed like a nice guy, a bit left to center.

And he said, I need you to just close your eyes and trust

me. Fine. So I closed my eyes.

After about 10 seconds, I opened up and he went, where's the trust?

So I said, oh, I didn't know what's going on. So I closed my eyes

again. And after about 10 seconds, he got hold of my

private parts and gave him one almighty squeeze. I

and he goes, now we've got trust. Now it's now

we Like a lot of plants. A good plant

bag. A good plant. Well, isn't it? No better trust building it. Within

a week within a week of that, we were at Melbourne on the big day

out. We're at the party afterwards and drinking. And there's about 4 of us in

a in a circle and Perry comes over and goes, Mike. Mike. So

what we're gonna do is we're gonna go into the rainforest in the next couple

of days and do this gig, but we're not taking any electricity whatsoever, nor

whatsoever. And we're gonna set ourselves up in a it's gotta be a triangle. We're

setting ourselves in a triangle, and the UFOs will come

and create the light show on top of us. And I'm laughing, and the tour

manager nudges me and goes, don't fucking encourage him. He's

serious, and I've gotta organize this shit. Oh

my goodness. It's completely eccentric character. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now it'll be know which planet he lives on.

Exactly. Exactly. It would be remiss me not to ask. Any

Angel stories, Tony? The angels? Yeah. Yeah.

Doc Neeson. Yeah. Yeah. No. Doc Neeson. I I rate Doc Neeson

as one of the great lost, lead singers for the world. He

should have been he he's he's up there in the best

best front man that's ever been doc Nielsen. And the Angel as a

combination of Bam were fantastic as well.

Docs related to Ned Kelly. I don't know if you knew that. He's a dog.

Reference to Ned Kelly. That's I did a shoot. I

did a he turned up at a gallery in Paddington where they were what's his

name? I forgot the artist that used to do the Ned Kelly, very famous Australian

artist with all and he turned up, and I said, what the hell are you

doing? He said, I'm a distant relative to Ned Kelly. But I remember,

making the fatal mistake. I did a shoot with him for a Duke cover magazine.

We wandered around Sydney a little bit, and I made the fatal mistake of going

to the pub with him. We

got absolutely hammered, absolutely

pissed out of our brains. And then he said, I'll give you a lift home.

And it it's pre breathalyzer where people did drink and drive a

lot. But we're in Glee. I always remember it's the youth hostel

hotel. We came out. We're both very, very drunk. And

our our first shot was he says, oh, I drive a Golf.

And Doc Mason and a VW Golf didn't seem to fit to me. But then

we couldn't find a Golf, but he found another.

And he decided that was good enough. And we tried

to break in to someone's golf.

We, without a doubt, would have been arrested. Police police came.

So I mean, we were so inept at it, and the police turned up. And

luckily, the police the guy sort of went, it's Donnie. It's

Donnie. And and I made this sort of excuse

going, oh, yeah. He's got a he's got a golf. This is

wrong one. We mixed up. And, he did find it

eventually, and we got left off. Anyway,

Doc Neeson, what can I say? He he I missed Doc. He was apart from

the fact he was a lovely bloke, and he had the most fantastic

speaking voice, really, his tones and everything. But,

it it they were a lost front they were a lost band because they should

have been massive, massive band. Well, and I'm not talking Australia. I'm talking

worldwide. They were they had all the ingredients to it.

The only other one I can tell was that, in the days when bans weren't

well liked, particularly in the country areas, doc Neeson's trick was to put

prawns in the air conditioner as he left.

That's horrendous. That's so weird. They'd fish in the air.

Yeah. Up in the cupboard. Oh. And he always said he said the worst thing

about that was he loved it, but the worst thing was he said, I never

saw the punch line. No. Yeah. Exactly. He wouldn't wanna see it either. He's already

long gone. He's not long gone. And he said, yeah. I missed the punch

line. And while we're doing punch lines, the other punch line was

ACDC. Angus told me a story, where they missed the

punch line. So they they were playing Castle Donnington,

metal rock, and, they played at the Marquee, 2

nights before. Basically, it's a warm up unannounced, but everyone knew about

it. And, Ritchie Blackmore from Deep Purple said, oh, I wanna

get up with you guys. They didn't like Ritchie Blackmoor from,

Deep Purple because he treated them like shit when they were nobodies

at the Sunbury Festival, but they hadn't forgotten. So anyway,

it was Bond Scott that played the trick, and he said, no. No. No. No.

Said to the guys, yeah. Yeah. Come on. He goes, we wanna do smoke on

the water. Not yeah. Smoke

on the water. At the end of the gig. He said, what was this? We'll

finish. We'll go off. You go on, and you go

And then we'll come back. We'll just put a stomp. And Ritchie Bachmann's going,

yeah. Great. The gig, you know, it's a small club. And they come off

and they say, you go on in it, and they go out the back and

fuck off. And they just leave him on his own. And he's out there

going, looking,

and the band's long gone. And Angus said, it's a great shape, but he said,

but we don't see the punch line. Yeah. He said, we were just

desperate for the roadies to come back to tell us what the fuck happened. And

they said he just kept doing it and kept turning around and he said it

took him forever to work out they'd done a trick on him, and they've never

really they've never really spoken to him. Oh, well,

Tony, you're a bloody champion, mate. I think you're one of the by far the

best storyteller. The best. Are you are you up in Sydney, Tony?

If I ever come up to Sydney, I'm giving you a call. I'm in Sydney.

I'm in downtown Redfin Sydney. I'm giving you a call because I came and did

a thing at the Brunswick Ballroom about, 2 months ago. Oh,

yeah. Did did an hour's talking and yakking. And

it's funny because the publisher said, oh, you keep going off track. I said,

that's how I talk. I go in one room,

somebody reminds me, and I go up on tangents. And he said, put your script

here. I'm like, I can't do scripts. Alright. I think there's too

many stories in that brain. Funny. He said he said to me, you he he

said you promised me the Madonna story. I said, no. I just forgot it. That's

alright. Well

upset. Which is why funny? Because the room seemed to enjoy it, but he he

he got upset that I didn't do what he I told him I was gonna

do. Yeah. Everyone's patient be perfectly. You know? About beyond

what, with the stories we've got today. Exactly. That

was amazing, Tony. Yeah. You missed the Aussie Osborne story for

another time. Oh, okay. You missed the Aussie. I finished one Finished with

the Aussie. Finish finish finish on the Aussie. So I got

hired to shoot Ozzy Osbourne, and it's pre the Osbournes on the MTV.

So he's only famous for Black Sabbath, and he's staying he's on a

promo tour in Australia. So it's just him and his manager who's Sharon

Osbourne, and they're staying at the Hyatt Hotel, the Park

Hyatt, which is on Sydney Harbour. And, the record company has

obviously hired him the best room. Anyway, I get to the lobby, Sharon comes

in, and I said she said, Ozzy won't leave his room. I

said, that's fine. I said, I can put a piece of cameras up, one light,

and it's for the cover of Kerrang in London. And I've never met Ozzy

Osbourne before, and I walk in the room. And I was shocked

about how old and dodder he was. He was quite late. I thought, fuck. This

is not gonna be as easy as I thought. But soon as I put the

lights on him, he just woke up and got these great shots of him

within seconds. He was a professional. It was like, I was more than happy to

get it. I wanna emphasize at this point, he's been in this hotel room

for 3 days. The record company have paid for the room. He's on a promo

tour. And we've done about the 15 minutes, Oshun. And I just

turned to Ozzie, who's a really nice guy, and I said, this is great, but

I've got what I need. Would you mind if I open the curtains and just

use some with a natural light just to give a bit of variety? He said,

yeah. No problem at all. No problem at all. Yeah. I opened the curtains up

and he just went, fucking hell. Sharon, come and look. It's the

and the bridge and the fucking magic view everywhere.

He'd been in the room for 3 days. He had no idea he's in

a room with a view. The record book is that he paid a fortune for

this room because of the bloody view, but he's the prince of darkness and he's

never owned the curse. So as a consequence, he went out He said, oh, let's

go for it. He goes Let's go now. You're closer to him. He'd been there

for 3 days. He was not he was anywhere near the bridge in the opera.

So I got this great shot of the bridge in the opera house as a

consequence of that that thing, but it was just so funny because when he went

off, he just got fucking out. I thought, fuck. I'm upsetting. What's wrong? So

he's like a vampire. He's scared of the harassment. He kept going on about the

operation. And then he goes, Sharon, you've gotta come off the fuck. I'm in so

much trouble. And Sharon came in and went, and he goes, look at the view.

And she went, oh my god. The view. It's beautiful.

Everyday. Now that's my Aussie Osborne story. Well, great way to

fish. Well, Tony, thank you so much for your time, mate.

Start your enjoyable hour. Www.tonymott.com.

Jump on. Buy the book. Get the books, the stories. And, yeah.

Thanks so much, Tony. That was incredible. No worries.

Cheers. See you

soon. Bye.