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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Stephen Mackerras has a more colourful past than your average Redlands schoolteacher.<\/p>\n In the 1980s, he hosted a Saturday night request show on radio station 4ZZZ and would interview visiting musicians and other celebrities, often taking photographs when he did so.<\/p>\n The photos, taken on his Minolta SLR, were never published. Apart from recent outings on Mackerras\u2019 social media accounts, they sat in a box for the past few decades.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI showed them to some friends recently, particularly ones of Michael Hutchence, because he\u2019s a legend, and they were very impressed, so I decided to have an exhibition.\u201d<\/p>\n Stephen Skyflowers: Photography and Cosmic Art brings together Mackerras\u2019 celebrity portraits, performance snaps, and boldly colourful paintings.<\/p>\n Mackerras interviewed Bono in 1984 on U2\u2019s first tour of Australia when they played Festival Hall.<\/p>\n \u201cAt that time, they were an underground band and only ZZZ was interested in them, so it was very easy to meet him and to interview him,\u201d Mackerras said.<\/p>\n Johnny Rotten\u2019s post-Sex Pistols band PiL also visited Brisbane for the first time in the \u201980s, and Mackerras got an evocative performance portrait.<\/p>\n His attempt at an impromptu interview ended badly, however.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cI walked into the dressing room after they\u2019d finished playing, and they all got really upset and threw me out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess it was just the confidence of youth.\u201d<\/p>\n In May 1985, prime minister Bob Hawke gave the T.J. Ryan Memorial Lecture at Mayne Hall at the University of Queensland while protesters gathered outside.<\/p>\n Mackerras got on stage behind the PM and took a photo of him addressing the crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one stopped me. I actually followed him backstage. I just thought this is what you do with public figures, and he was friendly, but his minders asked me to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n Mackerras grew up in Capalaba and was 14 when he started his first band, Tangled Shoelaces, with his siblings and some schoolmates.<\/p>\n They signed to indie record label Hot Records and were set to support Kate Ceberano\u2019s band, I\u2019m Talking, in Sydney until the promoters discovered they were all underage.<\/p>\n Tangled Shoelaces would later become Wondrous Fair, and Mackerras now plays in a combo called Skyflowers.<\/p>\n Pivoting to the film industry, he worked in the art department of the 1986 Melbourne junkie film Dogs in Space and befriended its star, INXS singer Michael Hutchence.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cI got to know him quite well, to the point where when he came to Brisbane, he gave me free tickets to the INXS concert,\u201d Mackerras said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a very flawed character.\u201d<\/p>\n The exhibition includes Mackerras\u2019 portraits of Billy Bragg, Steve Kilbey, Tom Kenneally, David Attenborough and the Dalai Lama.<\/p>\n And as for Bono? He signed Mackerras\u2019 copy of the band\u2019s Pride (In the Name of Love) single at the Parkroyal and excused himself to go for a walk.<\/p>\n \u201cHe turned to me and said, \u2018for at least 20 minutes a day, I don\u2019t wanna be reminded that I\u2019m famous\u2019. That was his way of telling me to go away.\u201d<\/p>\n Stephen Skyflowers: Photography and Cosmic Art runs daily from June 1-14 at Kaye West Studios, Camp Hill, with an opening event on Saturday, June 6, from 4-6pm.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Stephen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/93a51ab1f4ac099e5355f4cf3a8d7634b972772f48b4e87e40bc4d4a266e472a.jpeg\")
Stephen Mackerras photographed some of the \u201980s most prominent figures, from musicians to a prime minister.<\/p>\n![\"Composite](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/985cc21ed3737ad90a8434cce628ccb22ca25fd0283bdc2785596b0ae8384519.jpeg\")
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Nick Dent<\/a> is a Culture Reporter at Brisbane Times, covering arts and things to do in the city.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-710321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}