Beatles fans meet fab four snapper

1:00pm Friday 11th July 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

• Play Video

A FAMOUS photographer who snapped The Beatles in the year before they split unveiled his pictures to fab four fans in Bucks.

Former Sunday Times photographer Tom Murray captured the group in July 1968.

The shots, known to fans as the mad day out' session, were displayed at the Chalfont Art and Framing Gallery, Little Chalfont where Mr Murray met fans.

One has been donated to Chesham-based children's charity Shed@ThePark, part of the Chicken Shed theatre company.

Forty years on from the famous shoot Mr Murray chatted to fans about his extraordinary day with the famous pop group on the planet.

He told Bucks Free Press he did not know who he was to photograph - only it was a "rock group".

He said: "I spent the day with the four most famous boys in the world and I couldn't believe I was photographing them. They are wonderful pictures.

"They were great fun and we got on well because we were about the same age."

The group had not toured for two years by the time the picture was taken and no longer had the mop top image which made them famous.

Yet he said the group was still noticed by fans - including a mob of girls outside Paul McCartney's house, where one of his 23 pictures were taken.

Mr Murray - the youngest ever photographer to be commissioned to photo the Royals - said: "To sum up what the photos are about, I think really it's that corny old thing that it captured the moment, London in the swinging 60s."

Among his other portraits are stars such as Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Dustin Hoffman and designers Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani.

Ian Morris, who owns the gallery in White Lion Road, said: "It's unusual and a great honour to have the artist himself present and certainly to have something as celebrated as the Beatles is very rare."

Shed@ThePark will auction the picture, thought to be worth at least £5,000.

Lyndsey Gonzalez-Romero artistic director said: "It's such a great opportunity for us because the Beatles are such iconic figures and as a charity, this funding and support is obviously so valuable to us."