big fan of the popular recording artist. With an advance on his 10 cents a week allowance, money made from his 77 drop morning paper route, and cash made from helping the local milkman he bought a ticket to the Brenda Lee Show. Sensing that it was a long shot that she might ever be his girlfriend he took along his father’s camera, a single roll of film and 12 very large flash bulbs. It was likely the only way he would ever take her home. Brenda’s guest appearance on the Perry Como show a week earlier and the anticipation of seeing her in person made it easier to force his way through the packed crowd to the lip of the stage.
He was not disappointed as he watched and listened, loaded the bulbs one at a time and flashed his way through her show and the only 12-exposure Kodak 127 film he had. In those days the family camera might take a year to fill a single roll with images but this night was more than special.
When Brenda left the stage and the house lights rose the crowd headed towards the exits. No security team, no small police force to speed you towards the door as soon as physically possible. When the show was over everyone left.
Rowlands followed his peers as they headed through the seating towards the exits until he saw a sign in a hallway that would change his life. It read “Brenda Lee and the Casuals” and it was their dressing room. Without a moments thought he walked down the hall and knocked on the door not knowing what to expect or say if and when it opened. Perhaps Brenda had already left the building.
Brenda’s Mother opened the door and after hearing that he wanted to tell her he had enjoyed the show and ask for her autograph she allowed him in and introduced her daughter. The band was busy packing and loading. The recording star and the fan sat beside each other on a dressing room bench and talked for almost a half an hour, he got her autograph, her address and even copied down the Tennessee license plate number from her station wagon and for carrying one of her suitcases to the car he got a kiss goodnight.
When Rowlands finally walked out of the Metcalfe St. Auditorium he was easily 6 inches off the floor. He had just lived a dream for 2 1/2 hours that now felt like it had rocketed by in about 30 seconds.
Taking the bus home he got off two stops early so he could walk in the clear night air and relive his memories before having to act calm and unaffected in telling the tale to his parents. Rock and roll was still very undefined by the parents of teenagers in 1960 and most thought it would amount to no good. Rowlands had a bit of an edge though, his father Ross was a former radio morning man now high ranked in the military and it was his Dad who enjoyed The Steve Allen Show and let his two oldest sons watch Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show. His Dad bought him a stereo record player and his first long playing album, Chet Atkins Teensville, for his 13th. birthday.
Once the film was handed into the pharmacist at the drugstore and the standard week for processing had passed the resulting photographs became a treasure of memories of that girl, that rock and roll star, that sweetheart. She was still singing and dancing on the stage in front of him. He had locked her up in time on little pieces of paper and it kept those memories sharp and alive.
As promised he would share those memories and sent some of the pictures to her address in Nashville Tennessee, Post Office Box 50 to be exact, no ZIP code because it would be three more years before that was invented.
Some weeks later a surprise arrived in the mail in the form of a letter requesting the negatives and accompanied by a check for $35 dollars, compensation for the work done. This was a small fortune for a 13 year old in 1960 when gold was $32 an ounce. He mailed off the negatives, kept his favorite prints, and bought an electric guitar with the 35 dollars and although he had very real dreams about Brenda Lee he had no idea that rock and roll and show business would soon take over his life.
A developing rock and roll saga continued some two months later when John got a call at home from an adult and his mother reluctantly handed over the phone. The man on the other end of the line was calling long distance and asked him if he could take pictures of the special guest on the local Coca Cola Campus Club radio show on the following Saturday. He never mentioned the entertainer by name.
“Just show up and take a roll of film and give it to his manager. He will pay you $50 for the film.”
It seems somebody in Brenda Lee’s office knew this entertainer’s manager and that it might be good to have some photos taken at this very popular radio show.
Showing up at the corporate boardroom of a coal company where the show was aired with a very small teen audience Rowlands did his job as “photographer”. He knew the singer’s songs but was not following everyones name in those days. It was fun. He was working at something he liked and was going to get paid a lot of money for it. He wanted to enjoy it because it would surely not last.
As the radio show ended and the rounds of thanks and handshakes started the teenager handed over the film and collected his arranged fee. No check this time, it was cash, five ten dollar bills. American. To make things official the manager asked that Rowlands wait a minute and he could meet the entertainer.
“John” said the manager, “this is Sam, ...........Sam Cook”.
Starting that second every Sam Cook song he had ever heard became very important. They might have been background dance records before that but now this new friend sang them.
It was like buying TEEN magazine one day and then meeting everyone in the magazine the very next day. Live and In-Person just like your best friends at school.
You had to be insane not to like this.
It did not stop. The phone calls kept coming and in Ottawa the next performer through his lens was Bobby Vee, then The Ventures, and Duane Eddy and then a rising population of local bands needed photography and this ‘kid’ photographer with his Dad’s camera was right there to take them. Getting paid was a bonus. Rolls of film were being purchased two and three at a time. There was lots to talk about at school dances and parties and it was all backed up with the goods, the photographs, the proof.
In late 1962 the Rowlands family moved to Toronto the entertainment capitol of Canada. The Canadian Mecca for performers and the corporate head offices for a whole industry devoted to making and selling records made by popular rock and roll performers and, they were all within 30 miles from home.
Rowlands and his best friend at high school, Phill MacDonald kept the showbiz connections alive and created their own company, 'Row-Mac Productions' in the 10th grade. With a rehearsed telephone speel and the number for Capitol Records they convinced the company that they should be photographing Gerry & The Pacemakers when they preceded the Beatles in touring Canada in 1963. They got the job, took the photographs, met the band and became high school heroes. They were not about to let this kind of social recreation with financial compensation pass them by. The door was open and neither would ever dream of not going through it.
With Gerry and the Pacemakers behind them as a working credit for a happy client, they name-dropped their way onto the 1965 Rolling Stones tour for a week. Luckily it was Easter and the schools were closed for a week. A short tour with Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts and Ian Stuart was not only possible it was also legal as they did not have to skip school to hit the road. The two high school pals were the only personnel on the tour that had to hitchhike to the first gig.
Rowlands and MacDonald hung out with the Rolling Stones, traveled in their rental cars, roomed down the hall, stole past their fans, ate Pizza with them and Rowlands even got a few guitar lessons from Brian Jones when he made mention of the fact that he was learning to play.
The skipping school situation got serious when on many occasions they would be one the road for up to a week and having to tell their Mothers they were staying at the others home. The path to the Vice Principal's office became a regular event but the detentions (2 hours for every 1 hour of school skipped) turned out to be a gift. With homework done before leaving for home the evenings were free for social life and weekday gigs. In the 11th. grade Rowlands and MacDonald very quietly made $11,000 and never had to hitchhike to a tour gig again. It was no longer a problem to travel, take 10 rolls of film at the custom car show, eat at steak houses, rent limousines for the Prom, stay at first class hotels and of course meet young ladies.
As President of his high school’s Camera Club Rowlands had traded his Dad’s camera in for borrowing the collegiate Roleiflex and Metz flash unit and stepping up a notch in the optical quality of what he pointed the lens at. When a gig came along the camera was booked and the adventure began. A very brief period of disbelief came from their cafeteria peers, it was brief because they could process the film. A day after returning from rock and roll escapades not only were their classmates clammouring to shake their hands they had cash in them to buy prints as well.
Since those days there are thousands of new stories. From the last two Beatle tours to the first two Led Zeppelin tours John Rowlands has worked with literally hundreds of popular music celebrities, many movie stars and even some well-known politicians. There are memories and stories of 4 ½ years of shooting Elvis, six Rolling Stones tours, three David Bowie tours, meeting the Beatles, working with and getting to know George Harrison, defending Canadians pacifists in arguments with Gracie Slick, The Atlantic City Pop Festival (the weekend before Woodstock), and spending an afternoon with Janis Joplin before finding out who she was. The icons of pop throughout the 60s, 70s 80s and 90s were the body of his life's work. He captured them and the times in his camera.
John has taken well over a million photographs during his career and his work has appeared in and on the covers of a roster of world-wide magazines, newspapers and books, as well as on 105 record album covers, including the likes of Elvis, Conway Twitty, Kenny Rogers and Little Richard.
In 1981 McGraw-Hill published a collection of Rowlands’ works entitled ‘Spotlight Heroes’ and he is currently working on his autobiography and a coffee table edition of his favorite works and their stories.
His work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Der Stern Magazine, Twen, New Music Express, Cashbox, Billboard, Radio & Records, RPM Magazine, TEEN Magazine, 16 Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The Toronto Sun, Palm Springs Life, Global Village, Now Magazine, Los Angeles Free Press, Modern Maturity, and countless other specialty publications. Authors have sought out is images to enhance their published works in such books as: - 'The British Invasion' by Nicholas Shaffner, 'Supertramp' by Martin Melhuish, 'Heart of Gold' by Martin Melhuish, 'Travels With My Amp' by Greg Godovitz, '25 Years of Being There' by the Toronto Sun, 'The Story of EMI Music' by Nicholas Jennings and 'Oh What a Feeling' by Martin Melhuish.
Life’s been good for John, now 60 and living near Sedona, Arizona he's 500 miles to L.A. on the freeway but closer to the rest of the world on the information highway. His pop culture creativity is visible everywhere from local galleries to a company created by his wife Mary Lou that sells and ships his Limited Edition Prints around the world thanks to the reach of the internet. He builds websites, partners a small creative agency and still takes pictures the old fashioned way (although even that is changing as a larger part of his work shifts to digital). And more… he still loves almost every minute of it. He has been creatively free his whole life. The valleys have been deep but the mountains have been very high. The journey has been worth it.
Brenda Lee hasn’t been forgotten either. Their paths crossed on many occasions throughout the 60s and 70s and they were actually working at the same place in 1985 where he was writing and photographing a book on the club (LuLu's) and she was the weekend headliner. Dinner and an hour of life's 'catch-up' stories followed but, to this day the only time she ever went home with him was on the film.
Story by: - Constance Bay 1995 - Current dates and places have been updated
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