My book , I Shoot Rock Stars: The Wild Adventures of a Music Video Director, will be published by Wildfire Books on 13 August 2026. Pre-order now from Amazon and Waterstones. It features a generous selection of photographs from my most well-known work, drawn from my own private collection. Here's the official blurb...
The 1980s saw the birth of a new medium that took the world by storm: the music video. And Tim Pope, a music fanboy-turned-video director, was right at the heart of this wild ride.
After smuggling a camera into a concert down his trousers to shoot his first performance footage, Tim caught his big break directing the video for Soft Cell’s follow-up to 'Tainted Love'. From there, things snowballed. Soon he was shuttling back and forth across the Atlantic to feed the newly launched MTV machine, making videos for The Cure, Queen, Talk Talk, Wham!, Hall & Oates, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Bangles and many more.
From dressing Freddie Mercury as a giant Mediterranean prawn to being described as a 'funny little arsehole' by David Bowie; from hanging out with Neil Young on his family ranch to locking The Cure in a wardrobe and launching it off a cliff, Tim had a front-row seat to the excess, egos and larger-than-life characters of the era. Capturing the improvisational spirit of a time when directors worked guerrilla-style, money flowed freely and no idea was too wacky to attempt, I Shoot Rock Stars offers a fly-on-the-wall glimpse into an extraordinary creative moment. More than anything, it’s a hilarious - and frequently moving - story of a music-mad kid who ended up working with his heroes, chronicling both his own and the industry’s creative triumphs and follies in riotous style.
