Ben Perea
Audio By Carbonatix
Ben Perea has been going through his stack of concert photography again.
Last November, the Denver native staged his first exhibit of concert photos at D’art Gallery, hanging never-before-seen images of Queen, the Who, the Rolling Stones, Judas Priest, Van Halen and so many more. He had rediscovered the photos in a box in his closet back in 2022. “The hair on the back of my neck stood up,” he recalled ahead of the exhibit, which he dubbed Rock Legends: Denver’s Untold Moments in Rock History.
“I could do an exhibit just of Queen if I wanted to, or the Rolling Stones or the Who, even just Jimmy Page,” he told us.
Indeed, Perea landed on curating his photos for a Queen exhibition in May, focusing on the band’s final show in Denver, which took place at McNichols Arena in 1982 for the Hot Space tour.
Perea says the Rolling Stones show was in his top-three favorite concerts of all time.
Ben Perea
But Perea isn’t stopping there; he has hundreds of photos, after all. Even better, they’re all high-quality – a rarity, considering capturing these dynamic rockers on film was tricky enough. As a hobbyist photographer, Perea wasn’t snapping pics for fame or to sell (although these images are a collector’s dream), but for memories. And those come alive through the exhibitions, where rock music plays around the gallery to accompany the wild musicians wielding their instruments in photos lining the walls.
This time, Perea has homed in on the Rolling Stones. He says during the Queen exhibit, he asked visitors what bands they’d like to see, and the Stones kept coming up. “All the photos are from this one show,” Perea says. “This was the first and only time I had seen and photographed the Stones; it was the Tattoo You tour, 1981.”
Perea says Mick Jagger was his favorite member of the Stones.
Ben Perea
Perea was more into heavier rock by way of AC/DC or Judas Priest, but he always gelled with the Stones. “Mick is an incredible showman,” he says of frontman Jagger. “When I first saw them on Saturday Night Live in 1978 [for] the release of the Some Girls album, I was hooked. During that performance, Mick kissed Keith [Richards] on the lips on national TV. It surprised me, and the news outlets flipped out, writing articles saying they were gay; lots of gossip was going around, it was crazy! My friend’s mom freaked out and wouldn’t let him listen to the Stones anymore. I thought it was pretty damn funny.”
He recalls that “everyone in high school” was into Some Girls. “We would cut class and go to the park, roll a big fat doobie and listen to the entire tape on my buddy’s car stereo system,” he recalls. “It was so much fun. Unfortunately, I was unable to see them in Denver that year. The next time they came was in 1981. They played in Denver in 1974, 1978, 1981; they didn’t return again until 1994.”
The photos capture the Golden Age of rock music.
Ben Perea
Perea’s show at D’art, which opens on Thursday, September 11, and runs through October 5, will display images from the Stones’ stop at Folsom Field in 1981. The music afficianado says it was “definitely one of the top three concerts in my life.”
Perea always liked to get as close as possible for a show, and sometimes would even camp out for days to be first in line to buy tickets at the box office. But at the Stones concert, it was difficult to get close to the stage. “I was on the field with a general-admission ticket,” he says. “Nobody would let you in front of them, lots of pushing and shoving around.”
Perea would have to sneak his camera into shows.
Ben Perea
Even so, Perea managed to get within fifteen feet of the stage. “Mick came out and everyone started pushing forward. I had to wait for the proper moment he was in front of me to take the good shots,” he says. “I remember at one point he looked right down my lens, and I have that picture in this exhibit. Then I would focus on Ronnie Wood, follow him around for one or two songs to try and capture some good action, and the same with Keith – all the while I’m being shoved around with hands up in my face to where I couldn’t take any photos at certain times.
“Not to mention I’m very lucky to have these photographs, since they caught me trying to bring my camera in,” he adds. “The gate attendant searched all of my belongings, made me empty out my bag with blankets and such where my camera was hidden.”
The show was part of the tour for the band’s album Tattoo You.
Ben Perea
The security saw the camera, and he was told he wouldn’t be allowed in. “I was thinking, ‘Holy shit, I have to photograph the Stones,'” Perea says. “I was sweating bullets! So I walked around to a different gate and found an attendant who wasn’t checking people. Back in these days, we were able to bring coolers into the venue with food and alcohol.” (So it wasn’t just the music that made this the Golden Age of Rock.)
The photographs depict the spirited, high-octane energy of the Rolling Stones. One particularly captivating image shows Jagger in the center looking like an off-duty Ronald McDonald in a bright red tank, matching knee-high socks and yellow baseball pants, singing into the mic as Richards and Wood make eye contact behind him, bowing over their instruments. It’s almost as if you can hear the blare of an amp from the photo. Other images give the impression that Jagger was intentionally modeling for them; in one, the singer has his right arm angled high, with the mic pointing directly down towards his head. His eyes are closed, lost in a dance, and his left arm is mid-way through a sweeping motion, his fingers artfully splayed.
The show took place at Folsom Field in 1981.
Ben Perea
“Mick is my favorite, he is so flamboyant and exciting to watch, he performs with such passion. There is no frontman that even comes close to capturing the attention of a crowd,” Perea says.
“Choosing the photos for this exhibit was difficult,” he adds. “Going through every negative and slide, I found one picture that I never remembered taking; it’s now my favorite of Mick. Looking for the clearest shots with action was how I chose the pieces for this exhibit. Fourteen of them will be on display.”
Ronnie Wood, cool as always.
Ben Perea
Last summer, we saw that Jagger is still as inexhaustible as ever ahead of his 81st birthday, when the band played Empower Field. And these photos evoke the same virility, with Jagger belting it out while in a sumo squat that makes your thighs burn just looking at it. And Wood and Richards appear as the epitome of cool: One shot shows the two, in their leather pants, playing their instruments with cigs dangling from their mouths.
It’s hard not to feel as though you’re there, soaking up some of the greatest music of that generation of rock. And that’s the point.
“My main goal for this show is for everyone to relive the last time they saw the Stones, and to share the stories of seeing them in concert,” Perea says. “Not to mention, I would love to sell out this exhibit. Some of these photos, I’m only doing ten copies, this is an incredibly rare opportunity to see and own fine art concert photography of this quality.”
Denver’s Rock History: The Rolling Stones! opens Thursday, September 11, and runs through Sunday, October 5, D’art Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive.
