Rock photographer Wendy McDougall shares stories in her new book It’s Only Rock’n’Roll But I Like It
Wendy McDougall spent 40 years photographing the most revered rock stars in Australia and the world, and there is plenty to show for it in her new book.
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As a teenage gig goer, Wendy McDougall would go to Divinyls gigs and became obsessed with seeing Chrissie Amphlett’s face.
“You could never see her face; she was always hiding behind her hair and I later found out that was because she was nervous about performing,” McDougall said.
“She taught me about not revealing everything at once.”
At a gig at the old Tivoli in Sydney in 1983, four years after McDougall left high school to break into the wild frontier of rock’n’roll photography, she got the dream shot of Amphlett’s face as she brandished her light sabre microphone stand.
Over 40 years of capturing performers in full flight or for record covers and sleeves, McDougall is releasing her It’s Only Rock’n’Roll But I Like It retrospective book.
When she first started out, she remembers the crowd would often part like the biblical sea to allow the diminutive snapper with her camera unencumbered passage to the front rows to shoot.
Other times, McDougall found herself plucked from the heaving moshpit and its wayward elbows and cans of beer by respectful roadies keen to relocate her to a less threatening vantage point.
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That was all long before minders restricted rock’n’roll photographers to “first three songs, no flash” at gigs, and McDougall was one of a clutch of shooters at the front line of capturing the halcyon era of Australia’s pub rock scene and the international artists who graced our stages with their presence.
The first photo she sold, at 17, was of the charismatic The Angels frontman Doc Neeson performing at the Hordern Pavilion in 1979.
“I’d left high school early because they weren’t offering the photography course in Year 12, got a job in a photo lab and took my camera everywhere,” she said.
“The Angels were known for their theatrics and their lighting – you could hardly see the band.
“They liked one of shots and bought it and that kept me going.”
The Australian music industry is a village and word of mouth quickly spread about McDougall’s work, with artists then approaching her about shooting album covers and artwork or the promotional images which would accompany a new release.
One of those was Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over, the single which propelled the band to the top of the charts worldwide.
“It was a two-day shoot and the images featured on a small run of seven-inch singles in Australia,” she said.
“When they were signed to America, their label there wanted to do a reshoot because that’s what American labels would do with Australian artists. It was very annoying but I came to understand that’s the way it is.”
In her early days, she was also hired to shoot for the influential Smash Hits magazine which placed her at a press conference with Freddie Mercury in 1985.
“You had much more access in those days. I remember after the press conferences there were drinks and Freddie hung around for ages talking to all sorts of people and enjoying himself,” she said.
She shot Mick Jagger at his first solo concert at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in 1988, determined to get a quintessential image which captured the Rolling Stones frontman’s signature assets, including those iconic lips.
“In those days, the restrictions on how many songs you could shoot started but once I got that photo, I didn’t need another one because it said everything about Jagger, so I could just sit back and watch the show,” she said.
But it was the homegrown heroes who became friends and patrons including Paul Kelly.
Her image of him sitting in an old car they found randomly wandering the streets of St Kilda whose owner was happy for them to use as a prop for a few minutes now adorns the cover of his How To Make Gravy book.
“Those were the guerrilla shoot days because I never wanted to repeat the same concept. I got to shoot people in places you couldn’t dream of now because of security or permits,” she said.
The launch of her book this week will be tinged with a veneer of sadness in the wake of the passing of her friend Greedy Smith.
She shot the gregarious frontman with the final Mental As Anything line-up less than a year ago and had worked with the various incarnations of the band over the decades.
One of her favourite images of the musician was shot in front of a random garage in the Sydney beachside suburb of Maroubra and then hand-painted for the artwork of their 1998 album Garage.
“That last shoot we did almost a year ago, we had long chats about what he wanted to do and on the day, he was so lovely, cooking a meal for all of us, insisting w all had to eat before we got to work,” she said.
“He was such a delight … going through the results of the shoots, he was like a big kid going ‘Look at that one!’ He was really caring about the band and how he treated people.”
McDougall launches It’s Only Rock’n’Roll But I Like It at the Coogee Diggers on Tuesday and it can be ordered for $50 via wendymcdougall.com.au