ALLAN BROWN talks to 1960s
snapper Bob Whitaker, who
spent three years as the
Fab Four's court photographer
THERE is one pop axiom worth its weight in ink, and it's this: the
Beatles woulda bin contenders without John Lennon, but never without
Paul McCartney.
Unfashionable, but consider the facts. McCartney: cherubically
winsome, voice of a canary, and an exquisitely lachrymose way with a
middle eight. Lennon: face of a Northern club comic, voice of a buzzsaw,
unpleasant on principle to people in wheelchairs.
But still there persists the tendency to shunt Macca into the shade
and lionise Lennon, not least in Bob Whitaker's otherwise excellent
collection of Fab Four snapshots The Unseen Beatles. Hired to take Brian
Epstein's photograph in Melbourne on the Beatles' Australian tour of
1964, Whitaker was to spend three years as the band's court
photographer.
Following the Fabs on tour through America, Germany, and Japan,
Whitaker caught the band at their most sexily dissolute as they sloughed
the skin of Beatlemania and really allowed their unrivalled fame,
unlimited wealth, and unimpeachable godliness to kick in. The pictures
in The Unseen Beatles chronicle the band's doings with an ironic eye.
''I don't think I was ever very interested in the Beatles as musical
performers'', says Whitaker today. ''It certainly wasn't a dream come
true when Epstein gave me the job; to my younger, more arrogant self it
just seemed like a natural progression. It was their power that was
fascinating; no young person had ever experienced what they were
experiencing. Their power was awesome.''
When the Beatles quit touring in 1966, Whitaker established his own
studio in London before taking his tripod to Vietnam for Time magazine.
In 1972, he abandoned photography and bought a farm in England, where he
toiled until 1987 and a serious car smash that left him plenty of time
to catalogue the ''thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands'' of prints
and negatives that had lain untouched in his barn for 20 years.
What he found was a pictorial diary of The Longest Cocktail Party:
shots of Cream, The Who, Oz magazine, the love-ins, the be-ins, Salvador
Dali, the Six-Day War, Biafra; you name it, Whitaker was there. But it's
the Beatles he inevitably finds himself coming back to.
''I'm still going through boxes, finding pictures I don't remember
even having taken. It's exhilarating, but also horribly sad; it's
painful to think of the way we disappeared from each other's lives. When
I first opened those boxes I thought I'd probably have to spend the next
five years dealing with my Beatle memories. Now I think I'll be dealing
with them forever.''
* The Unseen Beatles, by Bob Whitaker, is published by Conran Octopus,
at #18.99 (pp 162).
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article