As a photography student in 1994 I did a portrait of Paul Crockford, who was managing Level 42 at the time. At this meeting I managed to persuade him to give me a photo-pass to shoot pictures of the band at the Dome in Brighton. Being a huge fan for many years, this was a fantastic opportunity. It was the first time that I was able to do pictures of a known act, having only done pub bands previously. I shot far too much film and only produced a couple of decent pictures, but it made me want to shoot more bands.

The following year I graduated, then got a job in the dark-room of a picture agency. Within a year I was employed as a photographer with the agency and am still with them today. I did the stills photos for many tv shows including: Big Breakfast, TFI Friday, The Priory, CDUK and Pop Idol. As well as this I covered a broad spectrum of press events such as film premieres and a lot of work with the royal family. Through work I have been lucky enough to see most of the best music artists in the world. I now have a close working relationship with 19 Management, which has seen me do exclusive work with S Club7, Will Young, Annie Lennox and The Spice Girls (I even got to do the first pictures of Emma Bunton with her son).

When Mark King started to tour as a solo act, I decided to approach him to do some pictures. This became a regular occurrence and I would always pass copies of my work on for Mark to use. I also sent him some scans of my 1994 live pictures and they were used later in a tour programme.

Jeff Spicer