Born in 1948, in South London, Colin Prime attended St. Michael’s and All Angels Comprehensive and then the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts. On leaving school he followed his older brother (Tony Prime) into photography. He joined a commercial photographic printing house to learn darkroom skills. In the late sixties although he enjoyed the darkroom side, he also wanted to get behind the camera and joined Fleetwood Publications as a trainee photographer working on Honey and Petticoat magazines.
As his career moved on he worked alongside people like Len Fulford, Morgan Rank, and Vic Savage.
He still enjoyed working in the darkroom, and working with Gerry Dickens he printed for photographers such as David Bailey, Helmut Newton, David Hamilton, Clive Arrowsmith and Richard Avedon when he was in London.
Colin’s other love was music and not playing or singing a note decided to try his hand as a Disc Jockey. It was while he was hanging around the clubs he came across a group just starting out called Pink Floyd which led to setting up the bands first professional photo shoot. Syd Barrett used one of his photos as the design for the back cover of their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
Colin decided to stay in music as a full time career, in the early days working alongside the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Otis Redding, Rolling Stones, Santana and Bob Marley but unfortunately did not carry a camera with him!
After over twenty years in the music industry, Colin made another career change and went into the IT industry, which he stayed in until he passed away on 7th October 2013.
The original Pink Floyd line-up on their first ever photo shoot in Kennington Park, London
For their first photo shoot, Colin Prime took the band down to Ruskin park. All the guys were in high spirits at the time
This was Pink Floyd’s first official photo shoot. Although a photographer by trade, Colin Prime’s other love was music
The Clash on stage at the the first large scale Rock Against Racism/Anti Nazi League carnival at Victoria Park, April 1978.
U2 on top of a hotel roof in Cork, Ireland on a cold February morning in 1980
Adam Ant photographed by Jill Furmanovsky during a cover shoot for The Face magazine in February 1981
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band who were in the vanguard of the British music Invasion that became popular in the US in 1964–65.
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968 & considered one of the most innovative & influential rock bands in history.
A unique collection of images of Pink Floyd, one of the worlds most successful and influential rock bands.
Oasis was an English rock music band formed in Manchester in 1991, to date the band has sold over 70 million records worldwide.
Here are the very latest prints we have added to our collection. We hope you love them as much as we do.
Album covers can define a band almost as much as the music itself. Now you can put this great art on your wall as well as your turntable
Our contact sheet print collection is a rare opportunity to look back at the hidden moments surrounding some of rocks most iconic images.
Artist Morgan Howell's paintings of record sleeves have become cult classics. We are delighted to introduce a range of his affordable prints
