Mike Rogers, Author
British writer and musician Mike Rogers was born in Hannover, Germany in 1948 and grew up in Dorset in the UK. He was a boarder at Thornlow School in Weymouth before going on to study Graphic Design at Bournemouth and Norwich art schools. He developed a fascination for music, in particular the guitar, as a young boy, and after an ill-fated stint working for Sainsbury’s as a teenager decided to turn his full attention to building a career in music. A perfectionist, he soon consolidated his own style of playing the guitar, eventually moving from his early excursions in folk music to heavier rock.
At this time, he worked with an eclectic mix of bands and musicians, including Transatlantic band Storyteller, the Hank Wangford Band, and Reds, Whites and Blues. Then, quite by chance, in his thirties his life took an unexpected turn when he fell into the sphere of work that would occupy him for the rest of his career. He left his playing behind, and working as a guitar tech and tour manager went on to travel the world with a wide range of high profile bands and artists, including Gallagher and Lyle, Rick Wakeman, Pink Floyd, Judie Tzuke, Toyah Wilcox, Caravan and most significantly, Def Leppard.
Years later, his rock ‘n’ roll days over, Mike retired to the Irish countryside with his wife Lynn, where he currently spends his time writing and researching English and Irish history, and collecting quixotisms. His future plans include a memoir of a drive he took across the USA in the 1970s, and a historical study based on the life of the 18th-century Irishman George Ryan. Mike has a son, a daughter and two grandchildren.
Una Williams, Photographer
The many candid and never-before-seen images of Def Leppard featured in Fabulist Icons were taken by photographer Una Williams.
Una is Ireland’s foremost female photographer, and over the years has received many awards from the industry.
If you would like to buy hi-res blow-ups or prints of Una Williams’s Def Leppard images from the book, or from the Dark Room Rock Collection, you can email her direct here.