culture
design by: Lucy Battersby Few names are associated with the 1960s quite as much as The Beatles. Catapulted to a frenzied success in the early years of the decade, John, Paul, George, and Ringo were the nation’s darlings with adoring yet hysterical girls clamouring them everywhere they went. Their youthful, fun music and playful charm made them the ideal popstars, and the first true boyband. When you think of the Beatles, you probably picture their mop-top haircuts and perfect matching suits – an image created and perfected by their manager Brian Epstein. Their photographs were everywhere, whether it was on the walls of teenage bedrooms or in music shops, they could be recognised instantly. The first image was taken by Angus McBean in 1963 in the stairwell of the EMI headquarters and was used as the cover for their debut Please Please Me. You can see four young men, full of optimism and excitement, with beaming smiles and neat haircuts as they teetered on the edge of unprecedented stardom. The second image is of the Beatles in 1969, pictured by the same photographer in the same stairwell. Whilst their cherubic grins remain, practically every other aspect is different. Their long hair and beards are a world away from their matching mop-tops, with John Lennon resembling more of a guru than a boyband darling. Even though The Beatles had changed, they were still the same four men that the nation had grown to adore. This recreation of their iconic early image reflects their continuous relevance throughout the decade and beyond.
words by: Leona Franke
11