With The Beatles: Freeman's prototype cover shot

Happy New Year one and all ... as the man said, let's hope it's a good one!
The story of how Robert Freeman came to take the iconic cover shot for The Beatles' second album, With The Beatles, in the Palace Court Hotel in Bournemouth has been occupying life-long Beatles fan Ken Orth, from Savannah, Georgia, USA, for some time.
Ken's excellent article on the subject graced the pages of Beatlefan magazine late last year in which he offered a some new insights into the session that produced one of the most evocative images of the 1960s.
Chief among them was the background story of Freeman's first attempt at using natural light to produce a half-shadow effect in a group portrait.
According to Ken: 'Freeman decided to reprise a pose he had used a year earlier in photographing the principals of the prominent London-based graphic design firm Fletcher Forbes Gill (later the Pentagram design studio) for Vogue magazine. During that session he arranged his subjects in an overlapping tightly staggered pose and framed them in head shots from about shoulder height upwards. He also positioned a light source on their left, leaving the right sides of their faces inshadow. Freeman later called the resulting black and white photo his "prototype composition for With The Beatles." Looking back at this photo it's easy to see and understand his thinking.'
This is the photo:

There's more on how Robert Freeman came to photograph The Beatles in Bournemouth in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth, which is available to order here.

It was 50 years ago today...

The Beatles came to Bournemouth to play!
That's right, today is the 50th anniversary of the very first Beatles' show in Bournemouth - 19 August 1963.Whoop it up, say yeah yeah yeah!To mark the occasion a new exhibition of Beatles memorabilia related to Bournemouth has opened in town, at the Beacon Hotel on Priory Road.
Among many golden jubilee anniversaries this week, it is 50 years since George wrote his first song for The Beatles. Confined to his bedroom at the Palace Court Hotel with a heavy cold, he finally answered Merseybeat editor Bill Harry's nagging to write a song for the group.
Don't Bother Me made it to their second album With the Beatles, complete with cover photo taken in the Palace Court dining room by Robert Freeman.
And here's the first in a what will become a regular look back into this blog's archives ... the story of Don't Bother Me and the infamous Alf Bicknell recording. Click here.

The Beatles & Bournemouth: a permanent exhibition

To mark the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ first shows in Bournemouth, on 19 August 1963 when they opened a six-day residency at the Gaumont (now the Odeon) cinema on Westover Road, a new exhibition celebrating their many connections to the town is to open.

The Beatles played more shows at the Gaumont than in any other UK theatre outside London, notching up no less than 16 shows between August 1963 and their final visit on 2 October 1964.

The exhibition, at the Beacon Hotel on Priory Road, Bournemouth, includes dozens of photos of The Beatles in Bournemouth, as well as posters, handbills, reviews and programmes from the group’s four visits to the town.

There are various other photos from Robert Freeman’s photo shoot of the boys at the Palace Court Hotel on Westover Road that produced the iconic half-shadow sleeve shot for their second album, With The Beatles.

Also at the Beacon Hotel you can find the main venue sign, a section of stage and some seats from the historic Winter Gardens theatre where The Beatles played on 16 November 1963 and were filmed for US television – the first footage America was to see of the Fab Four.

Much interest is bound to fall on the remarkable photo of John Lennon with his young son Julian and his Aunt Mimi at Sandbanks Ferry, just yards from the harbourside bungalow he bought for Mimi in 1965 and where he visited her many times before he left these shores for good in 1971.

The exhibition tells an incredible story of how a small resort on the south coast of England came to play a significant part in the history of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll group of them all.

In conjunction with the exhibition there is a new restaurant opening at the Beacon Hotel later this month.The Bournemouth Rock Cafe uses Harry Taylor’s iconic ‘Stick of Rock’ photo as part of its logo and will be serving gourmet burgers and a full menu in rooms that are adorned with Bournemouth music memorabilia from all eras and genres.

:: The Beatles In Bournemouth exhibition opens on Thursday, 15 August.

:: The book, Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth can be ordered here for a special price.

The Beatles get back to Bournemouth

August 1963: The Beatles on the roof of the Palace Court Hotel in Bournemouth photographed for a brochure promoting the television show Thank Your Lucky Stars

An exhibition of rare and previously unpublished photographs of The Beatles in Bournemouth goes on show in the Bourne Lounge at Bournemouth International Centre from July 9 until September 5.

The exhibition features photographs, posters and stories from author Nick Churchill’s recent publication Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth, the definitive account of the connections between the greatest rock ’n’ roll group that ever was and a small town on the south coast of England. Did you know that the band played more shows at Bournemouth Gaumont than any other UK theatre outside London?

With stunning images of The Beatles taken in and around Bournemouth, photos licensed from Beatles Monthly and never-before-seen images of John Lennon’s aunt Mimi at home in Sandbanks, the story is told using first-hand accounts from the people who were there – the fans, reporters, photographers, venue staff and musicians.

The exhibition features more than 40 photographs taken of the Fab Four when they appeared in Bournemouth in the 1960s, including Robert Freeman’s iconic half-shadow photo that adorned the With The Beatles album sleeve which was taken in the restaurant at the Palace Court Hotel in Westover Road (now a Premier Inn) during the Beatles’ week-long summer residency at the Gaumont in August 1963.

Other exhibition highlights include posters from Beatles shows at the Bournemouth Gaumont and Winter Gardens, plus a remarkable colour photograph of John Lennon by the Sandbanks Ferry with his Aunt Mimi and four-year-old son Julian.

“Interest in The Beatles is as strong as ever and this part of the world played a significant part in their incredible story,” says Nick. “The reaction to the book and these remarkable images has been astonishing and I’m really excited to see these images on show again – suddenly The Beatles are back in Bournemouth!”

Nick would love to hear new stories from anyone who saw The Beatles in Bournemouth and especially from people who met them.

“The links between this area and The Beatles are made even stronger by people’s memories of seeing the Fab Four or meeting them,” he says. “I’m sure there are lots more stories to be told by hotel and venue staff, fans or even passers by who may have encountered John Lennon on a trip to Sandbanks to visit his Aunt Mimi.”

- Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth is published by Natula Publications, and is available at www.beatlesandbournemouth.com

Yeah Yeah Yeah: (Bootleg) Beatles & Bournemouth!

The Bootleg Beatles, the world’s leading Beatles band, is taking the book on tour!

In a wonderfully generous show of support, the Pre Fab Four will be offering copies of Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth for sale from the band’s merchandise stand on their 20-date tour of the UK which opens on Thursday at the Cliffs Pavilion in Southend and continues until 31 March at The Hexagon in Reading.

Nick Churchill will be on hand to sign copies of the book on Saturday, 10 March at the Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth – opposite the Odeon cinema, formerly known as the Gaumont where The Beatles 16 shows between August 1963 and October 1964 – more than in any other UK theatre outside of London.

Also opposite is Bournemouth’s Premier Inn, once know as the Palace Court Hotel where Robert Freeman photographed The Beatles for the With The Beatles LP sleeve.

If you can't get to a Bootleg Beatles show you can order copies of Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth from the book's official website.

Beatles For Vale

This week's Blackmore Vale Magazine published a first person feature linked to Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth in which experienced Dorset journalist Roger Guttridge interwove his experiences of seeing The Beatles at the Bournemouth Gaumont in 1963 with a review of the book.
"I was 13 and my mother had asked if I would like to see The Beatles in Bournemouth," he writes. "I jumped at the chance, although she admitted later she had confused the Fab Four with another foursome, The Shadows, whose guitar instrumentals and clean-cut image were more to her taste than the loud, long-haired lads from Liverpool."
Roger goes on describe the show - on 20 August 1963 - saying he just about heard the group above the screams "and - agonisingly for me - had to leave before the final number to catch the last bus back to Sturminster Newton."
After dipping into stories, notably Robert Freeman taking the With The Beatles LP sleeve shot on the afternoon of 20 August, Roger says Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth is "a delightfully written and attractive book charting the Fab Four's various local connections..."