Mike Peters Photography Archive

As well as documenting the trad jazz music scene alongside the emergence of rythm and blues in the UK, Mike worked as a commercial photographer from the 1960s to the early 2000s. This is a work in progress, bear with me. I'll be uploading some of his work below and adding details of the photographs as I go along. If you are interested in purchasing any of these images please get in touch using the contact form on this website. You can also follow the Mike Peters Archive on Instagram @mikepetersarchive

Amanda McCormack 2025

Me and my Mum on Brighton Pier, taken by my Dad in 1964

About Mike Peters

"Mike Peters was so impressed on seeing the New York photography exhibition "The Family of Man" organised by Edward Steichen in the early sixties that he quit his career as a jazz musician and became, as he says, "a photographer overnight". His first photograph, of a jazz musician, was published a week later in his local newspaper. His work has since appeared in hundreds of publications including the Sunday Times, Observer and Telegraph magazines. Mike's first major photographic essay, '"Rus in Urbe, a study of London's countryside" first appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1966 and subsequently toured the world in a Kodak travelling exhibition. As a photojournalist Mike Peters claims to have photographed just about everything that moves and most things that don't. Although he has taken awards for his sports and industrial work, he returns again and again to the countryside for inspiration. Photographing trees has now become an obsession and he has done little else for the past few years."

Mike Peters - from exhibition catalogue - early 1990s

Mike Peters Obituary 2023 by Amanda McCormack

My Dad, trad jazz trumpeter Mike Peters, who has died in Somerset aged 89 was renowned for telling gags on stage. One of his well-worn favourites, when roll calling the band, was to refer to a band member as “The late (insert name here)” along with a story of their tardiness. Now he is, himself, “The late Mike Peters” we will smile through our sadness at the memory of his funny one liners, tall stories and entertaining musicianship.

Born to Francis Arthur, an iron monger and Natalie Lilian (nee Lazarus) Peters, in Harrow, London in 1933, Mike first fell in love with jazz and the trumpet at the age of ten. The object of his affection was the playing of trumpeter Avery “Kid” Howard on the Climax Recordings with George Lewis and his New Orleans Stompers. Some years later, while serving in the Royal Army Pay Corps in Kure, Japan Mike compared the city to New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, but with one thing missing – the music. So he and his trumpet playing buddy Barry Campbell formed the Kure City New Orleans Jazz Band.

On his return to England Mike became a familiar face on the trad jazz scene. He first joined Brian Wright’s Magna Jazz Band then spent time with Graham Stewart’s New Orleans Band, mostly playing tours and residencies in Germany, and back home with Terry Lightfoot and his Jazzmen. His own bands followed in several incarnations including Mike Peters Florida Jazz band, Mike Peters Jazzmen and more recently the self-deprecatingly named Mike Peters World Famous Jazz Band.

Local to where Mike lived in Twickenham, a regular venue for him to play was the now infamous Eel Pie Island hotel. As a professional photographer, alongside his music work, Mike was in the perfect time and place to document the goings on at the notorious beatnik and hippy haunt where he photographed the biggest names in British Trad Jazz and captured images of all the cool cats witnessing the birth of R&B including early gigs of the Rolling Stones.

One of my Dad’s favourite sayings was “True story!” As a keen fisherman, he developed a talent for embellishing the facts. His tales were long and winding, always hilarious, somewhat fantastical and highly imaginative and I wish I could sit with him over a pint in the pub and hear just one more. Mike Peters, trumpet player, photographer and fisherman has died. True story. Sadly, this time, it is.

Amanda McCormack February 2023

Eel Pie Island in Twickenham - early 1960s

The Rolling Stones at Eel Pie Island, club goers at the Eel Pie Island Hotel, also known as Eelpisland