Two Days in the Life: The Beatles
29th May - 5th July 2008
From a cold winter’s day in Liverpool ‘63 to the streets of London in the summer of ‘68 – only five years separated the two remarkable photo-shoots, but in that time The Beatles had changed the world. Photographers Tom Murray and Michael Ward spent two very different days with the Fab Four, but with equally incredible results – and for the first time, they come together to present Two Days In The Life at Idea Generation Gallery in June 2008.
Ward’s 24 shots, taken one day in February1963 unwittingly captured a urning point for the band, as not only was it he day they played their last ever gig at the Cavern Club, but it was also the ay their first UK number one was nnounced.
Track forward five years, to Murray’s 23 images from 28th July, 1968. The and were at the peak of their popularity – he day before the Hey Jude recording session – and the shoot raced across ondon to escape from hysterical fans. he exhibition marks the fortieth anniversary of Murray’s photoshoot, and was he last official shoot for the band.
Exhibited side by side, the images provide a portrait of four men who were laying a pivotal role in two of the most ulturally important years of 20th century – in ’63, the watershed moment when a regionalised fanbase mutated into Beatlemania; and then, in ‘68, as the poster-boys at the vanguard of counter culture and sixties idealism.
However, more than that. When viewed together, the pictures also tell the story of the journey the Beatles took – and the extraordinary impact they had. At one end of the spectrum, Ward’s images show the fresh faced, mop-top faces look out from still black & white austerity of post-war Liverpool; whilst a mere five years later, Murray’s images show the multi-coloured, long-maned, worldly Beatles in the midst of the revolutionary year of free love and protest that they themselves had helped to create.
Bookending the extraordinarily short six year career, the completely different images are as much a study of the broader historical significance of the age; and the interceding period between the two shoots, as it is a snapshot of The Beatles themselves at two very distinct moments in their history.
