Queen - the Unseen Archive

The Art Gallery of Ballarat presents an exceptional world premiere exhibition showcasing a fascinating blend of photographs and memorabilia of legendary English rock band Queen.

The Rock Your Way to London Competition, in association with the exhibition Queen - the Unseen Archive at the Art Gallery of Ballarat was drawn on Friday 16 April 2010. Congratulations to the winner, Glenda Frazer from Toorak in Victoria.

Peter Hince Photo Exhibition

After being invited to have an exhibition of my 'unseen archive' photos of rock band Queen at the Proud Gallery in central London, the show travels to the Art Gallery of Ballarat for a two month exhibition starting next February.

I met Queen as a teenager in 1973 when I was working for rock band Mott The Hoople. Queen were the support act on Mott's UK tour and it was their first big break.

Around 18 months later I began working full time for Queen as they began recording the Night at The Opera album.

I was principally Freddie and John's roadie, then after a couple of years became head of the crew and worked with them full time until the end of their final tour in 1986, when I left the music business to start my career as a professional advertising photographer.

I specialise in shooting people and have continued travelling the world for high end advertising clients and won may awards for my professional work and my personal black and white underwater imagery.

I was the longest serving of any of the Queen crew and was very close to Freddie and John and enjoyed good relationships with them. I spent all those years with the band; day in and day out, touring the world and also living in The USA, Germany and Switzerland on recording projects.

Photography was simply a hobby, and during that time I took thousands of photographs of Queen; in the studio, on video shoots, rehearsals, relaxing and on only a couple of occasions, on stage.

Many of my images were used by the band for publicity, albums, single sleeves, tour programmes, fan club mags, posters etc , but most of these in the exhibition are unique and unseen.

I have also written a book of my memoirs documenting the remarkable time I spent with Queen. It is a unique series of observations and largely amusing anecdotes covering everything from Russian defectors to crystallised embalming fluid.

It was only Rock and Roll. But I liked it.

www.peterhince.co.uk

Podcast

Download the special edition Podcast for Queen - the Unseen Archive. Click here.