Memories of the Beatles and Helen Shapiro at Carlisle theaters …
Photographer and journalist Paul Berriff found the 37 images of the Fab Four during a 1963 tour with Helen Shapiro at his north London house.
When he was a youthful photographer, the band granted him unrestricted access to tour, and he captured the photographs a few months before Beatlemania swept the globe, sparking security alerts and new regulations that restricted the number of photographers the band could collaborate with.
Berriff has hundreds of other photographs of musicians from the 1960s saved at his house, along with the negatives.
On Wednesday, April 28, at London’s Menier Gallery, The Beatles photographs—which show the band members practicing live, smoking in their dressing room, and unwinding with refreshments and snacks behind the scenes—will be on exhibit.
Berriff says, “I started to root around in my attic and I found this box of about 800 negs (negatives), and in it were shots of these old pop groups in ’63. I was absolutely knocked out when I saw the quality and realised I should do something with them.” And Berriff has fond memories of the time he spent around the Fab Four – he even made friends with Paul McCartney.
He says, “Paul got to know me very well, and every time they came up to Yorkshire or Manchester they would say ‘Hi Paul, how’s things going?'”
