As the Beatles’ gravy train began to derail, one man captured the madness. Robert Whitaker’s photographs, many unseen, show the beginning of the end of their stage career. By Tony Barrell

 

The speed of the Beatles’ evolution would have stunned Charles Darwin himself. In 1964 they were singing I Want to Hold Your Hand, and waving from the revolving stage of that cosy telly institution, Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Just two years later they were messing with LSD and tape loops and writing songs about death, taxes and meditation.

 

When the photographer Robert Whitaker joined them on their 1966 world tour, the band effectively had a split personality. Back in London they had been recording the tracks for Revolver, their most experimental LP so far – everything from the string-laden lament of Eleanor Rigby to the psychedelic whirlwind of Tomorrow Never Knows, with John Lennon tempting listeners to “Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream”.

 

But the record wouldn’t be released until later that summer, and on stage in Germany and the Far East they gave the screaming fans what they wanted, reverting to tidy suited moptops and playing old chestnuts like I Feel Fine, I Wanna Be Your Man, and even Rock and Roll Music – a 1957 hit for their hero Chuck Berry.

 

Whole article here, plus photos : http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle4572634.ece

 

A very interesting read.