DRINKING champagne with Stevie Nicks and playing table tennis with Mark Knopfler is just a snapshot of the life of John Anderson who spent 15 years behind the lens of the biggest music concerts in the 80s and 90s.

Now living on the Tweed, in a previous life Mr Anderson was the in-house photographer for the Sydney Entertainment Centre from 1987 and got a front row seat to some of the biggest musical acts in the world.

"I got the job by just taking a good shot of Elton John in colour years ago,” Mr Anderson said.

"It was just a boring one of him playing the piano but it was a good shot. I took it, showed it to the management and they liked it. They wanted stuff for their green rooms. That was the biggest venue in New South Wales back then.”

Shooting in film, John was given full access to back stage and the artists in all of their glory.

"I had access in front of the crush barrier which was the best because you were leaning on the stage,” he said.

"I got backstage and photographed Elton John's dressing room and got to look down on top of him from the cross over when he was performing Benny and the Jets on the stage. No other photographer could.”

But Mr Anderson admits there were some challenges to the job, including strict rules by the artists on when and where he could photograph.

"Normally you would get restricted to shoot during certain songs or angles,” he said, remembering George Michael could only be photographed from the left-hand side.

"I held (Whitney Houston's) concert up for 20 minutes because I got some good shots of her face but they were too close and showed a lot of her imperfections and pimples. She wanted the photos, so they were looking for me before the concert and held up the whole concert. She wanted the negatives, she didn't want them out there.”

Flipping through the mountains of photo albums, it's clear Mr Anderson has photographed almost everyone on the planet from Pavarotti to Madonna to ZZ Top to Michael Jackson, with many of the artists signing his photographs for keepsake.

"I've shot some pretty famous people in my time,” he said.

"I saw the best music in the 80s and 90s. The Rolling Stones were great, Billy Joel, Elton John, Madonna, all those famous and great acts. I came home sweating after (a Queen concert) from all the lights. I went home from an Alice Cooper concert covered in blood from the 'executions' he does with the guillotines.”

While he hasn't missed many bands, Mr Anderson said he wished he'd seen David Bowie, Guns 'N' Roses and The Who in their heyday.

His photos have captured the lives of music royalty and they're memories he'll always treasure.

"Those were the days where we used to photograph them under those conditions when they were wild and drunk,” he said.

"I sat down to have a glass of champagne with Stevie Nicks as she signed all my photos and played table tennis with Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits and got to sit down with Sting.

"I went to a Billy Idol party and there were 17 strippers there after the show.

"Rod Stewart and all those guys were wild, womanising, boozy and debauched which was part of the rock image.”