SIR Paul McCartney enjoyed a walk down memory lane as his exhibition of over 250 unseen Beatles photographs was displayed for the first time.
George Harrison’s widow Olivia, Ronnie Wood and wife Sally, plus Julian Lennon all attended the launch at the National Portrait Gallery.
The pictures were taken by Paul at the height of Beatlemania as he tried to track what it was like to be one of the most famous men in the world at the time.
Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm runs from 28 June to 1 October.
Writing about the photographs in The Sun earlier this month, Paul said: : “While we were preparing for an exhibition of my late wife Linda’s photographs in 2020, I mentioned having taken my own, which, I then learned, had been preserved in my MPL archives.
“So, when I first saw them after so many decades, I was delighted that these images and contact sheets had been lovingly preserved and finally located.
“Anyone who rediscovers a personal relic or family treasure is instantly flooded with memories and emotions, which then trigger associations buried in the haze of time.
“This was exactly my experience in seeing these photos, all taken over an intense three-month period of travel culminating in February 1964.
“It was a wonderful sensation because they plunged me right back.”
The photographs show the band in six cities, beginning in Liverpool and London, followed by Paris , and then on their first visit as a group to America where they took in New York, Washington and Miami.
Paul added: “It was a period of — what else can you call it? — pandemonium that exploded in British concert halls, on television shows and in the charts, where our music was suddenly what all the kids were listening to.
“We four guys from Liverpool couldn’t possibly realise then the implications of what we were doing.”
