New Jeff Beck Group singer, Rod Stewart gasped in amazement and said that the photos Thom took the night before at his band’s Fillmore East U.S. debut were the best Jeff Beck Group pictures that he had ever seen.

Jeff Beck Group US debut at the Fillmore East 6/68

High school student Thom photographed Led Zeppelin when they were the opening act for Iron Butterfly. Later that same year, just two weeks before the Woodstock Festival, Thom was invited onstage to shoot Led Zeppelin as full fledged headliners. His good fortune was the result of having a cover photo of Jeff Beck on the current issue of Jazz & Pop Magazine.

Janis at theFillmore East

Janis Joplin sang a Big Brother song from the Fillmore East stage while staring directly into the camera lens of sixteen year old Thom who was ticketless and kneeling down in a front aisle. The ushers, who acted as security, ignored him. Who knows why. Lucky Thom.

Lukas was at the Fillmore East in June, 1968 to photograph the U S debut of The Jeff Beck Group featuring a very nervous Rod Stewart. Thom witnessed and photographed the infamous Singer Bowl Jeff Beck Group and Led Zeppelin onstage jam session. An iconic shot of Beck pointing his Les Paul at Robert Plant’s crotch appeared in the Beckology box set and in the Genesis book Beck01.

Beck & Plant Singer Bowl jam

It was March, 1968. Thom Lukas was caught trying to sneak into a Jimi Hendrix Experience concert, by the New York City Police, and rescued from them by Jimi Hendrix himself. This was the first time that Thom photographed a rock star. A photo of Jimi talking to Thom, and the other kids caught by the cops that night at Hunter College, appears on the bottom left inside cover of the Electric Ladyland LP. It was taken by Jimi’s friend, photographer David Sygall.

Talking with Jimi at Hunter

Shooting Jimi: Fillmore East

Seventeen year old Thom was once mistaken for their new guitarist, twenty year old Mick Taylor, and Thom joined the Rolling Stones for a 65 floor elevator ride up to their NYC Rainbow Room press conference. He had cut his high school classes that November 26, 1969 day, never expecting this amazing outcome. Keith Richards was the only friendly one on the ride up.

Mistaken for Mick Taylor

Seventeen year old Thom spent an hour photographing Cambridge intellectuals, Roger Waters and David Gilmour in a Times Square hotel room, while Pink Floyd were being interviewed during their Ummagumma tour. He was a stringer, on an assignment from Rock Magazine. Thom could luckily be a fly on the wall because the group simply ignored him and focused on the interviewer, who seemed to be more of their peer.

The sixteen year old freelance photographer also felt the dark energy of Doors' Jim Morrison up close in their backstage dressing room at the Singer Bowl while there was a documentary film being shot.

David Gilmour at the Howard Johnston Motor Lodge 4/70

Pink Floyd at the Fillmore East 4/70

Who singer, Roger Daltrey invited Thom, who happened to have a press pass from Hullabaloo Magazine, to take some backstage pictures when the Who opened for the Doors at the Singer Bowl in Flushing Queens, near Shea Stadium. It was the summer of 1968 and the pre Tommy Who were just a cult band.

The Who open for the Doors at Singer Bowl