Photo shoot of the “Please Please Me” cover

As I went into the door [of EMI House] I was in the staircase well. Someone looked over the banister – I asked if the boys were in the building, and the answer was yes. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘get them to look over, and I will take them from here.’

I only had my ordinary portrait lens, so to get the picture, I had to lie flat on my back in the entrance. I took some shots and I said, ‘That’ll do.’

Angus McBean

We rang up the legendary theatre photographer Angus McBean, and bingo, he came round and did it there and then. It was done in an almighty rush, like the music. Thereafter, though, the Beatles’ own creativity came bursting to the fore.

George Martin – From Martin, George; Pearson, William (1994). With a Little Help from My Friends: The Making of Sgt. Pepper.

I asked John Lennon how long they would stay as a group, and he said, ‘Oh, about six years, I suppose—who ever heard of a bald Beatle?’

Angus McBean – From “Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles” by Kenneth Womack, 2019

Going further

The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years

"With greatly expanded text, this is the most revealing and frank personal 30-year chronicle of the group ever written. Insider Barry Miles covers the Beatles story from childhood to the break-up of the group."

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