George Harrison, Hamburg 1962

I bought this Genesis limited edition book of photographs by Astrid Kirchherr, When We Was Fab about fifteen years ago.  The draw was that she befriended and photographed the pre-fame Beatles in Hamburg. She even became engaged to one of them, Stuart Sutcliffe, the reluctant Beatle whose talent was not in music, but in painting.
When I ordered the book, I was asked how I’d like it inscribed, and I said: From One Who Was There, which you can just make out. That seemed right to me. Some would have like to have seen the group in The Cavern, I’d go for Hamburg any day. Much more interesting.
This loose photographic print of George Harrison is in a pocket inside the box that contains the book. It wasn’t that long since he had died, and there is a foreword by his widow, Olivia Harrison.
I’ve put in three extra shots. Because they are pages from a large bound  volume, there is some curvature involved, but I’ve done the best I can.
 1.  The Beatles at a Hamburg fairground, 1960. L to r, Pete Best, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Stuart Sutcliffe.
2.  Stuart Sutcliffe, Hamburg, 1961. The first Beatle to wear a Beatle haircut, thanks to Astrid. It took a while to catch on with the others.
3.  John and George in Astrid Kirrcherr’s attic, Hamburg, 1962. This is quite poignant, the first time they had been there since their friend Stuart died of a brain hemorrhage, aged 21. In the film, Backbeat, the John Lennon character says to Astrid: ‘He was here, wasn’t he?’