The Fab Four in pictures

(Having fun at the piano: The Fab Four compose "I Feel Fine")

“The Beatles like you, it’s going to be fine because you’re not ugly”, the Scottish photographic journalist Harry Benson was told when he joined the Fab Four for their concerts in Paris in 1964. Benson was reluctant to go, but it was an assignment from The Daily Express he couldn’t refuse. Things went well: he was inducted into their intimate circle and was able to document Beatlemania first hand.

BOOK | The Beatles on the Road 1964-1966 ●●
Harry Benson Taschen, Collector’s Edition, 272 p., €500

Benson has now compiled his years in the wake of Liverpool’s finest in the sizeable coffee table book The Beatles on the Road 1964-1966. Many of Benson’s photos have become iconic images: the pillow fight in the George V Hotel, the wild reception at JFK, John, Paul, George, and Ringo larking about with Cassius Clay. But the book also boasts – would you suspect otherwise? – previously unpublished photos. Newspaper articles help to recreate the atmosphere of the early Sixties, when the world of pop music was still wide open. But nothing expresses it better than the images of the young, black and white Beatles. Smiling faces, larking lads, imperturbable in the eye of the storm. If you don’t agree that there is nothing more to say or see about The Beatles, you can delight over the expensive, signed collector’s edition. The average fan, however, should probably wait for the publication of the ordinary edition. Benson himself is coming to introduce his book and open the parallel exhibition on 30 June.

Book launch: 30/6, 17 > 19.00, Exhibition: 1/7 > 26/8, Taschen Store Brussels