In April we had the great fortune to get in contact with one of Rory’s dear friends, Shu Tomioka, and discuss details about Rory’s work on the album Rattlesnake Guitar: The Music of Peter Green for Part 2 of our sessions post. We have made it no secret (both to our friends and Shu) that his photographs of Rory are some of our favourites. In our opinion, Shu perfectly captures Rory’s beauty and vulnerability, which is particularly moving given the low mindset Rory was at during this late stage in his life. While most of our questions to Shu focused on the 1994 tribute session, there was additional information and memories originally omitted from the April article for which we would love to share with you all here instead.

What inspired you to go into photography? 

Photography is my communication tool to people – communication with musicians and then with the readers. 

Were you a fan of Rory and his music prior to photographing him?

My elder brother was a great fan of Rory’s since the album Live in Europe, and when Rory came to Japan [for the] first time in 1974, my brother followed the gigs and told me what a wonderful guitar player he was and his positive attitude towards the fans. When Rory made his second Japan tour in 1975, I saw him play and became a great fan of his too. I came to live in the UK [in 1990] but at that time some of Rory’s gigs were cancelled. I wasn’t able to see him play.

We love the photos of Rory that you captured in his room at the Conrad Hotel. Tell us what it was like to photograph and spend time with Rory during this point in his life?  

When I visited Rory at The Conrad Hotel suite room in Chelsea Harbour [the] first time, I was told to say to the receptionist, ‘I’ve come to visit Mr. Alain Delon’, which was Rory’s pseudonym. Whenever I visited him, Rory would always be listening to a Bob Dylan record. As part of the site there was one room full of guitar amps and guitars. When I interview Rory for my series of articles, Rory brought out the Dobro from that room and showed me how to play DADGAD tuning and played “Western Plain” for me. On other occasions when I visited him, Rory was jamming with two young musicians, a violin player Roberto [Manes] and Ingrid who played the saxophone. I took pictures of them standing together. Whenever I went there, Rory would have called me and asked me to come along, sometimes my wife picked up the phone and he enjoyed chatting with her or he would leave a voice message.

What is your favourite memory of Rory?

Rory liked anything Japan and to be able to meet Japanese fans. He was interested in Japanese culture, especially the old Japanese films directed by Kurosawa, Ozu, and Oshima, [as well as] the actor Ken Takakura. We talked about these things over a pint of Guinness and that was a really memorable time. And also he was really interested in cameras. He liked James Dean so we would talk about the James Dean photo book, which was taken by Dennis Stock. He wanted to buy [the] same camera as Dennis used to shoot the photos, which was a Leica. I thought using a Leica was a bit of a challenge, so I brought my Minolta CLE that was a similar range finder camera. He found it tricky to operate so eventually decided to stick with his old Canon Autoboy2. 

What is your lasting impressive of Rory, both as a musician and friend to you?

Rory was a musician and a great, great guitarist who had his own unique tone and own unique technique. Also he was an emotional vocalist and a great harmonica player. He used every possible approach to his music. Mandolin, acoustic guitars, [and] of course electric guitars. He created a complete picture of his music that had elements of Irish folk, jazz, and blues. That attracted me a lot and made talking to him so interesting.