Denis O'Regan

Denis O’Regan has photographed every rock star from AC/DC to ZZ Top, toured with the Rolling Stones and shot more than 200 David Bowie concerts. Now, as he contemplates a significant birthday, Denis tells Keith Wilson his guest list – and who he’d like to capture for one final tour…

- Keith Wilson

The first time I tried to interview Denis O’Regan was back in 1987 when he was the official photographer for David Bowie’s Glass Spider world tour.

Of course, such a meeting wouldn’t have been of any use for this magazine (even if it had existed all those years ago), because back then Denis was shooting with a Minolta! Although the interview failed to materialize, I still went to the sold-out concert at Wembley Stadium. For the opening half of the show, Bowie was dressed head-to-toe in red, but my distant view from the opposite end of the stadium meant the Starman mostly resembled a tumbling red streak as he was thrown or pushed from one end of the stage to the other by mime artists and dancers.

So, where was Denis in all this? My guess was that he was on stage trying to get the Minolta’s autofocus to lock onto the great man’s kinetic figure for just long enough to get a blur-free frame. Now, 36 years later, he is talking down the line to me from his West London gallery, where Bowie’s presence is preserved for all time among hundreds of images of other legendary artists that Denis has photographed: Queen, the Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, Thin Lizzy, Blondie, The Who, Kiss – the list, like the beat, goes on. But it is the incredible Bowie who remains the most influential on his own life’s performance…

It was a Bowie gig as Ziggy Stardust that inspired you to become a photographer. What did you feel at the time? An epiphany?