Tim Pope's Memoir Recounts His Wild Career Directing Music Videos

Tim Pope, the music video director behind iconic clips for the Cure, David Bowie, Queen, Soft Cell and more, reflects on his wild career in his new memoir, I Shoot Rock Stars. Pope, now 70, made his name in the golden age of MTV by putting stars in uncomfortable and dangerous situations: he dressed Freddie Mercury as a giant Mediterranean prawn, locked the Cure in a flooded wardrobe and threw it off a cliff, and nearly electrocuted two Psychedelic Furs. "The core of my work seems to be sadism, he says.

"I have wondered if it was all some sort of revenge for the brutality I suffered away at primary school, but maybe I'm just cruel. His clients included Bowie and Paul McCartney, who were willing to be tortured for their art. For the Cure's Lullaby video, Pope ran a camera inside Robert Smith's mouth "at risk of knocking out his sweet little teeth.

He strapped a camera to Bowie and had him fall forward, which could have impaled him. Pope started the memoir after finding an old answerphone message from Bowie, who died in 2016. "It was like David was speaking to me from beyond the grave, because I never said goodbye to him, he says.