CONTENTS 7
Foreword
234
Afterword
8
68
90
158
200
Michael Ward
Terry O’Neill
Norman Parkinson
Terry O’Neill
Derek Bayes
19th February, 1963
1st July, 1963
12th September, 1963
February-December, 1964
9th May, 1965
CONTENTS 7
Foreword
234
Afterword
8
68
90
158
200
Michael Ward
Terry O’Neill
Norman Parkinson
Terry O’Neill
Derek Bayes
19th February, 1963
1st July, 1963
12th September, 1963
February-December, 1964
9th May, 1965
FOREWORD
Tony Barrell
The main factor that made the Beatles such a phenomenon was the refreshing, joyful and infectious sound of their music. That was no fluke: the songwriting talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney were considerable and complementary, and would only become more sophisticated as they experimented and honed their skills. But their music wasn’t the only factor. It so happened that the Beatles were also exceedingly charismatic and photogenic, and it didn’t take long for photographers to beat a path to their door. Light travels faster than sound, and in some parts of the world the group was seen long before it was heard. As late as September 1963 the fan magazine The Beatles Book Monthly printed a poignant letter from a girl in Helsinki, Gula Lindroos, who wrote: “I’ve heard and read very much about The Beatles and I’ve seen pictures too. But I’ve never heard the boys playing. Oh, I’m sad about that. The records haven’t come to Finland yet but I’ll keep waiting. Do they sing on their records? I’ve seen pictures where they’re —
6
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keeping their mouths open so I expect they do.” From early in their career, the group had the good fortune to work with some gifted photographers, each of whom made their own contribution to the global visual impact of the Fab Four. The images in this volume, taken by four such masters of the camera, tell the story of a quartet thrust into the spotlight and quickly becoming accustomed to unprecedented levels of public attention. Michael Ward portrays them in their home city of Liverpool in the depths of winter, before their fame explodes across the rest of the country. A young Terry O’Neill finds them as recently established stars at EMI’s Abbey Road recording studio, cutting the song that would soon become their first million-selling single – ‘She Loves You’. Norman Parkinson catches them a few months later in that same studio as they record their second UK album, With the Beatles, and his pictures show them gaining in confidence and having fun, revelling in the creative possibilities of the place —
7
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that would be their musical laboratory for the best part of the decade. Derek Bayes encounters them by chance as they tear around the streets of Mayfair for their second feature film, Help!. Studying Bayes’ 1965 photographs – which have remained unseen for 55 years and are published here for the first time – it’s astonishing to consider that within less than two years the Beatles would be working on their psychedelic masterpiece Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The collection of images in Beatlemania serves as an absorbing visual record of four exceptional young men as they begin to transform popular music. We can only be grateful to Michael, Terry, Norman and Derek for perfectly crystallising the nature of life in the age of John, Paul, George and Ringo.
FOREWORD
Tony Barrell
The main factor that made the Beatles such a phenomenon was the refreshing, joyful and infectious sound of their music. That was no fluke: the songwriting talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney were considerable and complementary, and would only become more sophisticated as they experimented and honed their skills. But their music wasn’t the only factor. It so happened that the Beatles were also exceedingly charismatic and photogenic, and it didn’t take long for photographers to beat a path to their door. Light travels faster than sound, and in some parts of the world the group was seen long before it was heard. As late as September 1963 the fan magazine The Beatles Book Monthly printed a poignant letter from a girl in Helsinki, Gula Lindroos, who wrote: “I’ve heard and read very much about The Beatles and I’ve seen pictures too. But I’ve never heard the boys playing. Oh, I’m sad about that. The records haven’t come to Finland yet but I’ll keep waiting. Do they sing on their records? I’ve seen pictures where they’re —
6
—
keeping their mouths open so I expect they do.” From early in their career, the group had the good fortune to work with some gifted photographers, each of whom made their own contribution to the global visual impact of the Fab Four. The images in this volume, taken by four such masters of the camera, tell the story of a quartet thrust into the spotlight and quickly becoming accustomed to unprecedented levels of public attention. Michael Ward portrays them in their home city of Liverpool in the depths of winter, before their fame explodes across the rest of the country. A young Terry O’Neill finds them as recently established stars at EMI’s Abbey Road recording studio, cutting the song that would soon become their first million-selling single – ‘She Loves You’. Norman Parkinson catches them a few months later in that same studio as they record their second UK album, With the Beatles, and his pictures show them gaining in confidence and having fun, revelling in the creative possibilities of the place —
7
—
that would be their musical laboratory for the best part of the decade. Derek Bayes encounters them by chance as they tear around the streets of Mayfair for their second feature film, Help!. Studying Bayes’ 1965 photographs – which have remained unseen for 55 years and are published here for the first time – it’s astonishing to consider that within less than two years the Beatles would be working on their psychedelic masterpiece Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The collection of images in Beatlemania serves as an absorbing visual record of four exceptional young men as they begin to transform popular music. We can only be grateful to Michael, Terry, Norman and Derek for perfectly crystallising the nature of life in the age of John, Paul, George and Ringo.
1st JULY
1963
By this stage, the Beatles were writing songs on the run. Their next single took shape unexpectedly towards the end of the Helen Shapiro tour on 28 February, when John and Paul were casually exchanging musical ideas on their tour coach as it travelled from York to Shrewsbury, where they were booked to play the Granada Cinema. Suddenly they had a melody line they liked, and before their destination loomed they had finished the lyrics to their satisfaction. The song was ‘From Me to You’, the title of which was inspired by the letters column in the New Musical Express, which called itself From Us to You. Paul was especially proud of a musical departure in the song, where they launched into the middle eight with a haunting G-minor chord. ‘From Me To You’ was recorded at EMI five days later, and soon became their second number-one single. (Paul later claimed, in all seriousness, that after the success of the record he once heard a bird whistling the tune.) A packed schedule of gigs and TV and radio shows took care of the next four months, and another important song came together towards the end of June in a bedroom at the Royal Turk’s Head Hotel in Newcastle upon Tyne. The titles of all the Beatles’ hits thus far had included personal pronouns (‘Love Me Do’, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘From Me to You’), which may have been part of the group’s subconscious appeal, and Paul suggested they write a number called ‘She Loves You’, introducing the third person. There was an early idea to give it a call-and-response arrangement, with the main vocal line of “She loves you” being answered with a series of “yeahs” by the rest of the band, but that was quickly rejected as the qualitycontrol mechanism of the Lennon/McCartney writing team kicked in. Within a few hours John and Paul, sitting on twin beds with their guitars, polished off the composition that would become their first summer hit and their finest single so far. Less than a week later, on the first day of July, the Beatles convened at EMI’s Studio 2 in Abbey Road to record the new song and its B-side. At this time, the 24-year-old photographer Terry O’Neill was working for the Daily Sketch newspaper, and had just discovered a fruitful diversion from standard news photography. This was the dawn of the Swinging Sixties, with a
new youth culture of music and style asserting itself, and the Sketch editor had suggested O’Neill document the scene with his camera. The photographer later explained: “I was all over town looking, and there was this thing happening, a buzz on the street. Things seemed to be changing: music, the fashion, young people everywhere having a good time, upsetting the older generation. It was news, and I was in the right place at the right time, with the right attitude. I was also the only young photographer. All the others were old guys who just scoffed at the idea of photographing —
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the windowless studio, so he took them outside. The Beatles stood together in an area beyond the back doors of Studio 2, a place with the character of a traditional small London walled garden. For their visits to Abbey Road earlier in the year, standing out here wouldn’t have been practical without warm coats, but this was a mild summer’s day, with sunshine and a steady temperature of around 18C. Though O’Neill had played in bands himself, as a drummer, he lacked experience in photographing them. He decided to keep
the kids who were into music and fashion and just making people sit up and take notice by doing their own thing. To them, news was air crashes and bank robberies and earthquakes.” O’Neill’s editor had heard that the Beatles would be at EMI Studios today, and sent him along to take some pictures. Some shots were taken inside Studio 2, where we see the group working with their producer, George Martin, and talking with their music publisher, Dick James. But the photographer wanted a more formal portrait and craved some better light than was available in —
71
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1st JULY
1963
By this stage, the Beatles were writing songs on the run. Their next single took shape unexpectedly towards the end of the Helen Shapiro tour on 28 February, when John and Paul were casually exchanging musical ideas on their tour coach as it travelled from York to Shrewsbury, where they were booked to play the Granada Cinema. Suddenly they had a melody line they liked, and before their destination loomed they had finished the lyrics to their satisfaction. The song was ‘From Me to You’, the title of which was inspired by the letters column in the New Musical Express, which called itself From Us to You. Paul was especially proud of a musical departure in the song, where they launched into the middle eight with a haunting G-minor chord. ‘From Me To You’ was recorded at EMI five days later, and soon became their second number-one single. (Paul later claimed, in all seriousness, that after the success of the record he once heard a bird whistling the tune.) A packed schedule of gigs and TV and radio shows took care of the next four months, and another important song came together towards the end of June in a bedroom at the Royal Turk’s Head Hotel in Newcastle upon Tyne. The titles of all the Beatles’ hits thus far had included personal pronouns (‘Love Me Do’, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘From Me to You’), which may have been part of the group’s subconscious appeal, and Paul suggested they write a number called ‘She Loves You’, introducing the third person. There was an early idea to give it a call-and-response arrangement, with the main vocal line of “She loves you” being answered with a series of “yeahs” by the rest of the band, but that was quickly rejected as the qualitycontrol mechanism of the Lennon/McCartney writing team kicked in. Within a few hours John and Paul, sitting on twin beds with their guitars, polished off the composition that would become their first summer hit and their finest single so far. Less than a week later, on the first day of July, the Beatles convened at EMI’s Studio 2 in Abbey Road to record the new song and its B-side. At this time, the 24-year-old photographer Terry O’Neill was working for the Daily Sketch newspaper, and had just discovered a fruitful diversion from standard news photography. This was the dawn of the Swinging Sixties, with a
new youth culture of music and style asserting itself, and the Sketch editor had suggested O’Neill document the scene with his camera. The photographer later explained: “I was all over town looking, and there was this thing happening, a buzz on the street. Things seemed to be changing: music, the fashion, young people everywhere having a good time, upsetting the older generation. It was news, and I was in the right place at the right time, with the right attitude. I was also the only young photographer. All the others were old guys who just scoffed at the idea of photographing —
70
—
the windowless studio, so he took them outside. The Beatles stood together in an area beyond the back doors of Studio 2, a place with the character of a traditional small London walled garden. For their visits to Abbey Road earlier in the year, standing out here wouldn’t have been practical without warm coats, but this was a mild summer’s day, with sunshine and a steady temperature of around 18C. Though O’Neill had played in bands himself, as a drummer, he lacked experience in photographing them. He decided to keep
the kids who were into music and fashion and just making people sit up and take notice by doing their own thing. To them, news was air crashes and bank robberies and earthquakes.” O’Neill’s editor had heard that the Beatles would be at EMI Studios today, and sent him along to take some pictures. Some shots were taken inside Studio 2, where we see the group working with their producer, George Martin, and talking with their music publisher, Dick James. But the photographer wanted a more formal portrait and craved some better light than was available in —
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The album ‘With the Beatles’ had Ringo singing lead vocal on one track, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, the song that Lennon and McCartney had also given to the Rolling Stones
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The album ‘With the Beatles’ had Ringo singing lead vocal on one track, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, the song that Lennon and McCartney had also given to the Rolling Stones
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BEATLEMANIA FOUR PHOTOGRAPHERS ON THE FAB FOUR (1963-1965)
TERRY O’NEILL NORMAN PARKINSON MICHAEL WARD DEREK BAYES