Frank Sinatra, his Las Vegas Mushers & me!

Not forgetting, the lead singer of Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson.

My car was broken and in the garage for repair, I loved that car. It was the first car I had bought, a convertible Triumph TR4 IRS. It was my pride and joy, but, as I said, it was broken at that time. So, a noisy double-decker London bus got my then sidekick and fellow photographer, Matthew Taylor, and me to the Royal Albert Hall. It was February 1977, and for some strange reason, I always thought that I photographed Frank Sinatra in 1976, but after checking, I have since found out that it was 1977. So, it was a very cold February day in London, and I had a good reason to wear my winter coat. As we stepped off the bus opposite the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington, West London, we both did our usual routine of hiding our cameras, lenses and film. There were camera bodies tucked under our armpits, with lenses secured in our underpants. Although this looked impressive to anyone wondering what the tiny bulge was, it was rather uncomfortable. It took a bit of fiddling to get myself back to normal.  I always got amusing looks when I was inside a venue and quietly in the dark somewhere, unzipping my trousers and pulling my lens out. That could often cause quite a stir if I wasn’t careful. The film had to be smuggled in, too. Yes, we used film in those days and tucked film away in places I didn’t know I had. For your own safety, don’t get a visual of where I poked them!

Once we were ready and all camera equipment was hidden, we would grab the tickets we had bought on the black market and aim for the busiest-looking entrance. Obviously, the bigger the crowd trying to get in, the easier it would be for us. The staff were under more pressure to let people in swiftly with the minimum of fuss. More importantly, we stood less chance of being properly frisked and caught with cameras. Matthew nearly always got caught and thrown out before most gigs. But, on this occasion, we both managed to get in safely. Then, the next thing is knowing where to hang around without drawing attention to ourselves until the show starts. We didn’t want to be at the top and back of the Royal Albert Hall where our seats were. We needed to be somewhere near the front. That’s where we will get our photos. However, that’s where we would be spotted very quickly and thrown out. So, we separated as usual and tried our own luck. The Royal Albert Hall could often be a game of cat and mouse. As we wandered into the beautiful Victorian venue, I had no idea quite how much of a game that day would be! If I were the mouse (please visualise a sweet white mouse with big eyes looking at you whilst blinking & squeaking,) the cats would be angry, battle-hardened, scarred street fighters.

What I mean is that the usual Royal Albert Hall staff were being joined by some of Mr. Sinatra’s rather nasty-looking Las Vegas types and not fit for ballet. Big guys with dinner suits and bow ties. They were built for comfort, not speed. I guess they were Franks ‘Trouble Shooters’. Roughly translated meaning, any trouble and they will shoot you! So, you might get the picture if you’ll excuse the pun. After all, Matthew and I wanted to get the bloody picture of their boss, Mr. Sinatra.

After a while, we could see the venue was now full up, it was a sold-out show.  It wouldn’t be long before we would have the one and only Frank Sinatra on stage.

Then, it was showtime as the house lights went down, the orchestra walked onto the stage and picked up their instruments. I didn’t know where Matthew was, as I could only take care of myself and my security. This show is strictly ‘NO CAMERAS’ allowed.  I was now hovering out of sight, not anywhere near the front of house, but in a dark area at the side. I was being approached by Royal Albert Hall staff to ask where my seat was, and I would mutter something like “I need to stand here for a moment as I have a frungle and flabers and a G’etz, which is complicated by diabetes, so, I will stand here for a moment” I was talking complete nonsense (as usual), but it did the trick. I was even asked if I needed to follow them to a seat out of the way where I could rest, which I politely declined. I didn’t have Diabetes or the other nonsensical, made-up medical-sounding names. Anyway, they left me alone.

The music had now started, and Frank Sinatra walked onto the stage. The audience applauded wildly, and the excitement was palpable. I was now scanning around to see what security was where and also planning my route to the front of the stage. It was going to be a kamikaze mission in many ways. It was quite likely that I was going to get caught. But, if I did, I wasn’t going to hand over my film, and that’s the tricky bit. I couldn’t see Matthew anywhere. Either he was doing a fantastic job of hiding or had already been caught and thrown out.

The time seemed right as it was between songs, and the crowd was applauding loudly whilst Frank Sinatra was facing away from the audience and looking at his band. Off I went as fast and as stealth-like as possible. The stage lights went up as the new song started. Frank Sinatra was in full flow and I started to shoot.

The stage at the Royal Albert Hall is about waist height if you were standing in front of it. So, I was low and also aware that I would be spotted. When I was looking through one of my Nikon F2As cameras, I kept my eyes open, and I could see in my peripheral vision I could see to my left a few Albert Hall staff and a few of Mr. Sinatra’s Vegas boys looking and pointing at me. I could now see a similar set-up off to my right. I didn’t dare turn and look at them. If I had done that, there might have been a mad rush towards me by them. I just appeared not to know that they were there. What I did know was that the big guys dressed in dinner suits (tuxedos), were getting slowly closer towards me. I just thought, right, time to leave. Then, I was more or less trapped. They were coming from the left and from the right. So, I thought, okay, I am on my knees. Just crawl along the front row between the front seats and the stage. As I did this, Frank Sinatra was very aware that I was there. I couldn’t have been more than a few feet away from him. His men were clearly quite keen to grab hold of me. But, not as keen as I was to get the hell out of there. So as this song came to an end, I jumped up and jumped over the seats from row one to row two and I kept going. The big guys were at either end of the aisles, moving along as I did. I was jumping over the seats with paying customers, wondering what the hell was going on and to be honest, I would guess that is what Frank Sinatra was also thinking. Finally, I got to the the end of the block of seats and I quickly jumped over the last seat and just ran like hell. These big guys were right on my tail. I could hear them puffing and panting. I was off like a whippet. Those of you who know me now may find that hard to believe. But as my kids will testify, I was bloody fast in a straight line for a big guy. I was a bit dodgy on corners, or bends, but I was good on a straight run. There, I was managing to get a few feet away from them, and I actually got quite a big gap between us. I ran downstairs into what is now The Lanson bar. I ran around the circular building with them behind me, and then I found a staircase. Up I went as fast as I could. This really did cause them a problem as they were running along, puffing and panting. I kept on going, not knowing if I was going to be confronted by other guys coming down the other way towards me. This didn’t phase me at all. I had been used to this sort of thing all of my life. I would usually have crazy things like this happen when the school bullies started. So, for me, this was just another adventure. I also knew that I had managed to get a great shot of Frank Sinatra and I was NOT handing over my film to anyone. As I got to the top of the flights of stairs, I was now on the top floor and that was where the private boxes were. I carried on running around the circular building, and I leant over one of the ledges and took a few shots of Frank Sinatra as I ran. These make me laugh every time I see them. They are blurred and show the speed of me running, and they also show that I was high up above the stage but still being chased.

I carried on running and could hear the American voices sounding very much out of breath coming quite close up the stairs. I ran like hell and found one of the doors slightly open to a private box. Wow, perfect I thought and in I went. I firmly and quietly closed the door behind me. The people who were sitting in the box turned to me to see who I was and what I wanted. I just said in a whispering voice, ‘Good evening, are you enjoying the show” They said ‘Yes, thank you, very much”. I then gestured for them to turn around and enjoy the show. Almost like I worked there and I was checking on their well-being. Obviously, I waited there for some considerable time and eventually made my exit. But that was towards the end of the show, and I would be surrounded by many other concertgoers. When I left, I went outside, waited at the bus stop, and wondered how Matthew got on. I mentioned earlier that he got booted out quite near the start. I took the bus and headed off for the night. That was quite a crazy show to try and shoot when you are specifically not wanted. Well, at least I got a bit of a workout, and Franks boys didn’t get me or the film.

One has to remember that there were no mobile phones or internet in 1977. So, the only way for me to speak to Mattew was by landline phone, which would not happen until the next day. When I did finally speak to Matthew the following afternoon, he did indeed confirm that he was launched out by some very heavy-handed geezers in dinner suits with Amercian accents and his film was removed by them. He certainly wasn’t secret agent material.

So, that incident with Frank Sinatra was in 1977, and I was persona non grata (not welcomed).

Many years later, in or around 2003, I was in New York with Iron Maiden. It was a busy time there as I was shooting Ringo Starr at Radio City, and Iron Maiden who were playing at Madison Square Garden. My wife, Lyn, came to New York with me as all of the wives and families of Iron Maiden were meeting there, and they said to bring Lyn over too, which was nice.

Lyn & I travelled from the hotel to the gig with Adrian Smith & Nicko McBrain and their lovely wives, Nathalie Smith on the left & Rebecca McBrain on the right. This was a photograph I took of them both just outside the hotel.

Later at MSG, I was in the dressing room chatting with Bruce Dickinson, among others.

I mentioned that I would have loved to have seen Frank Sinatra as he once performed and recorded an album here called ‘The Main Event’. It was produced by Bob Dylan’s manager, who also managed Frank Sinatra and his name was Jerry Weintraub. Bruce asked me if I had ever photographed Sinatra, and I told him I had, back in 1977. He then said I must tell you about my time with him. That was all he said, and the band then got ready to perform. Ronnie James Dio was one of the support acts, and I went with Ronnie down to my mate Nicko McBrain's dressing room, where we took some photos.

Iron Maiden at Madison Square Garden, New York City.

This photo above is of the brilliant Bruce at MSG. He is always so fast when on stage—running and jumping everywhere. Almost as fast as Mick Jagger on stage. It is well-documented that Bruce is also a rather brilliant Fencer. No, not one who sorts your garden out. A Fencer, as in the sport. He has Fenced at a very high level, and every time I photograph him on stage, it shows, that he is incredibly fit and agile. That has just reminded me about an incident whilst on tour somewhere. I will write about that another time.

This show at Madison Square Garden was amazing, and afterwards, we had a little party. After which we all headed back to the hotel.

The next day, at breakfast, I said to Bruce, so come on then, what's your Frank Sinatra story? He then told me that he was in California in 1998 when Frank died and was asked by a few paparazzi photographers and film crew if he could urgently fly them over Frank Sinatra's funeral cortege and circle around and let them get shots from the air of it all. I was rather surprised, and I thought, blimey, Bruce is part of the Paparazzi team, and then I thought as he explained it to me that it was more like a war mission (without the guns and danger). It was a frantic rush, and they had to find Frank’s funeral in the Palm Desert (Palm Springs) and stay above and around enough to get the shots they wanted. Then head back to LA.  There seemed to be more to this story, and I should have asked Bruce to elaborate a bit more. I will remember to ask him when I am with him next time. For those of you who don’t know, Bruce is not only the lead singer for Iron Maiden but, in his downtime, a commercial airline pilot who even captains the Iron Maiden jet, ED-Force One, which has the call sign, 666 (the number of the Beast).  He has flown the rather large jet all over the world while they are on various global tours. So, there you have it, neither of us was wanted or invited to shoot Frank.  I can't help thinking mine would have been more of a spectacle to watch.

In 2019, I held my first big photographic exhibition in Hampstead in North London, UK. We had quite a few of my photos displayed there, and one of them was, in fact, a shot of Frank Sinatra. Next to the photograph was a brief description of where it was and what happened. One particular day, a lovely man approached my wife, Lyn, who was there with my other family members. and he said he was at that Sinatra concert in 1977, and he remembers clearly someone jumping over the seats and being chased through the crowd during one of Frank’s songs. We thought it was amazing that this lovely chap remembered the event and me, causing a little stir. What a shame he didn’t get a shot of me on that night all those years ago.

For those of you who have never seen the magnificent Royal Albert Hall. Here is a photo of it, so you can understand how circular it is, which helped me lose the big Vegas boys.

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When Frank Sinatra died CBS TV did this little tribute that is well worth a watch. Itw quite short.

This next video is also a short one showing Bruce flying Iron Maidens rather large aircraft around the world. Like the video of Frank, this is also well worth watching too.

Okay, that is all for now, and until my story, it’s goodbye from me.

Best wishes,

Danny