Beatle Photo Blog

Picked up a few nice magazines this week on ebay, lots of nice rare photos in them so i’ve scanned and fixed them up as much as i can, i’ll upload more as i scan through them.

How did Paul manage to do up his tie with those cuffs on?

Still enjoying my new dvd’s, here are a few more screen grabs, except for one shot of Linda these are all taken from the ‘James Paul McCartney’ 1973 tv special, take note of the stellar photo of Paul in pink tux from the ‘Gotta sing, gotta dance’ segment, a more embarrasing moment in Pauls career i cant imagine, not even sharing a mic with Michael Jackson comes close to this, watching Paul try to dance surrounded by giant dangling legs will have you rocking in the foetel position before you know it.

It’s hard to imagine Jimmy Nicol aging like this if he had stayed in the Beatles, for all the stress and maddness around them the former Beatles have all aged pretty well, Jimmy could make a very good living doing the Beatlefest circuit but he’s never gone down that road.

A few screen captures from the new ‘Picture Perfect’ dvd set ‘Lightspeed’ the first couple are from ‘One hand clapping’ then we have some screen caps of Wings previously unseen (since first broadcast) appearance on ‘This is your life’ in 1974. More screen captures to follow.

Most people think the last photograph taken of John alive was when he was signing the autograph with his head bowed forward, but Paul Goresh took one more frame after that just as John was turning to get in the limosine, i’ve had the photo in bad quality for years, but it’s only in the past week i’ve been able to turn up a better quality version of it, after spending a while correcting and fixing the photo it looks better now.

How much fame can you have under one roof?

Hunter Davies recently spoke at a writers event and during the presentation he played a home movie of a holiday he took in late 1968 with Paul and Linda, after many bleems he found it in the bottom of a cupboard. Below is a photo taken on that same holiday, hopefully this will tide us over until this home movie surfaces.

Also from ‘Picture Perfect’ is this fab new two dvd set of Paul and Wings, i’m most excited about the inclusion of ‘One hand clapping’ in the best quality we have seen so far, i love this unseen documentary from 1974, it’s all studio footage of Wings rehearsing in Abbey Road, i’ve attached a couple of screen captures from this new improved version.

I’m really excited to be getting the latest dvd release from ‘Picture Perfect’ http://www.giginjapan.com/beatles-eye.htm ‘Eye of the hurricane + Palais and Plazas’ this is a two dvd set choc full of rarities and previously silent footage now with sound.

There is one tiny clip that made the whole set worthwhile and reminded me of the indefinable magic of the Beatles, there is a clip of the Fabs in concert somewhere in the States, there is a quick shot of a young guy, an ice cream and sweet seller at the show, but he couldnt care less about selling his jellybabies and choc tops, the Beatles are on stage and he’s mezmerized.

The following screen captures dont really capture the emotion but in the short clip this young lad before our very eyes is falling in love, as we all have with the Fabs, in a few seconds we get to see glee, defiance and a stifled sob from this guy, all very familiar to all who have fallen to the charms of the Beatles.

Over on www.bootlegzone.com forums there is a great thread running where folks are posting live photos of the Fabs, i’ve taken a selection and have spent a little time fixing them up and correcting the colour and contrast, the first batch here is taken from the 1966 tour, photo’s from this tour really arent that common. I’ll be posting more a little later.

I think this photo was taken at Jimmy Carters inaugaration in 1977, i think John looked exceptionally cool around this time and his was pretty social considering these were supposed to be the retirement years, we know he attended a Merce Cunningham performance, the inaugeral gala, New Years eve with James Taylor and Carly Simon, a Rod Stewart party and a press confrence in japan (Now WHERE is THAT footage!?) for the train spotters, i now own a piece of the white scarf you can see John wearing in this photo.

A couple of nice photo’s from Ringo and Barb’s wedding, i always thought it was funny that all the guests including the bride and groom all arrived and left in black London cabs.

If anyone ever finds this album in a junk shop, PLEASE pass it along to me, i’ve heard two of the songs from it ‘Day tripper’ and ‘Twist and shout’ and they are classic, not to mention the Fab cover photo.

Paul obviously feeling the urge to flash BEFORE the Superbowl last year.

This is probably my fave photo of the Fabs.

Just got hold of a clip from Pauls last tour, it showed part of the opening montage and as usual with Paul there were hidden treats in it, i found when you moved through frame by frame there were quite a few photos included that we’ve never really seen before.

In this day and age where people’s faces are cut, nipped, tucked, stretched and chemical peeled beyond recoginition, i tip my hat to the Beatle wives who have shunned this horror look and were and are all aging gracefully.