London unveiled an English Heritage Blue Plaque

On Thursday, July 14th 2022 the Scala in London unveiled an English Heritage Blue Plaque commemorating the 50th anniversary of two live concerts. In what was the King’s Cross Cinema, during the weekend of 14th July 1972, the first UK appearances of Lou Reed and Iggy Pop were performed. Mick Rock was there on both nights, capturing his iconic photos that became the album covers for Lou Reed’s Transformer and Raw Power by Iggy Pop.

The plaque was the idea of local musician Darren Van Asten ad the unveiling was filmed for a forthcoming BFI-funded documentary Scala Club Cinema directed by Jane Giles and Ali Catterall, scheduled for release in 2023.

For my sins in a former life, I’ve been forced to spend an inordinate amount of time with musicians in this life. Of course, I love them.

A camera is a wonderful ally. It requires minimal maintenance and provides entry to a world of endless imagery.

My ambition was not to be a great photographer (though that certainly would have been a worthy stance). It was a lust to embrace anything that startled or energized me.

I am not in the business of documenting or revealing personalities. I am in the business of freezing shadows and bottling auras.

Without the rock ‘n rollers, I would not have developed as an image man.

You want to shock people with a bit of mystery and beauty. That’s my favorite kind of shocking.

I’ve never felt like a voyeur, although I’ve certainly done plenty of looking!

There’s an art to looking back - how to celebrate the past without being entrapped by it. Photographs provide the great physical link.

My allegiance was always to the act. I wanted them to be happy. I wasn’t owned by a magazine or a record label.

I smell pictures more than I see them and I hear pictures more than I can smell them. It’s very habit forming.