What a difference a day makes. Forty-five years ago this week four lads in a Liverpool band stood on the edge of greatness.
They had woken that morning as local heroes. They would go to bed as national, and future international icons.
On the morning of February 19, 1963, George, Paul, John and Ringo were aspiring pop stars with one Top 20 hit (Love Me Do) under their belt. Their debut album, Please Please Me, had been recorded in just 13 hours at Abbey Road Studios the week before.
Freelance documentary photographer Michael Ward was sent to Liverpool to photograph them by Honey magazine and in the process created a unique collection of work which froze a moment musical history.
His archive, which lay as undisturbed negatives for four decades, shows Liverpool’s most famous sons on the brink of world-domination, along with the fans who supported them from the beginning.
Michael wasn’t to know it at the time, but in the course of the day he would be witness history being made in front of his eyes.
He calls this collection A Day In The Life.
“It’s an obvious title for this portfolio but this collection represents precisely that – a day in the life – February 19th 1963 to be exact – of The Beatles,� explains Michael, who went on to spend 30 years as a Sunday Times photographer.
“But not just any other day. That February day, a Tuesday, can be pinpointed as the end of their time as ‘a Liverpool band’, a group that had topped local popularity polls but had yet to earn £100 for a performance.
“Because it was on this day that The Beatles learned that their second single, Please Please Me, released a month before, had reached number one in the UK charts.�
Having arranged to meet in a pub, Ward and The Beatles spent the morning looking for locations at which to take photos.
They chose the Victoria Monument as their setting before strolling to the Pier Head for tea. Along the way, the group chatted happily with fans and passers by, often – particularly on the part of John Lennon – sabotaging the more formal, staged shots.
It’s clear that the photographer wasn’t in awe of his subjects. Before the assignment he knew nothing of the four Northern lads and their music.
“I’d never heard of them, and they weren’t remotely interested in me,� says Michael.
“They behaved in a very innocent sort of way – not being aware of what was about to happen to them and their lives.
“I don't think I liked one any more than the others – they were all fooling around a bit but trying to be helpful.�
Did you have any feeling then that big things would happen for those four lads?
“No,� he admits. “Not really.
“They were reasonably easy to photograph – although they were already a bit blasé about it.�
Liverpool at the time was in the grip of the coldest Winter in 200 years, and photographer and subjects shivered in sub-zero temperatures.
“It was cold and occasionally wet,� recalls Michael. “Liverpool was a completely new experience for me.�
Sheltering from the elements, the band took Michael into NEMS music store in Whitechapel where he took photos as they shopped for records and signed the odd autograph.
As the sun began to fade, they walked over to the Cavern to set up for the evening’s performance, a last-minute warm-up for their support slot on Helen Shapiro’s tour.
The crowds were already queuing to get inside. Some had been there for two days, desperate to gain entry.
Ward photographed the rehearsal, and before they went on stage that night, compère Bob Wooler revealed that their second single, Please Please Me, was number one in the coming Friday’s NME chart.
Interestingly, the information met with a mixed reaction from fans.
“It confirmed what they had known for a while,� explains Michael. “The Beatles had outgrown Liverpool and especially the dark, sweaty cellar that had become synonymous with their
name. They would play there just twice more after February 19th.�
Suddenly the world wanted a piece of The Beatles, and Liverpool would have to share its most famous sons.
The rest of 1963 would see The Beatles become a nationwide phenomenon and in less than a year, the four lads from Liverpool would also taken America by storm, playing The Ed Sullivan Show twice in the space of a week and smashing TV audience figures in the process.
But that February night, the lads still belonged to Liverpool alone and Michael’s photographs, shot without flash, capture the close, dark atmosphere of the club with entranced audience within touching distance of their heroes.
“It was dark and stuffy and not easy to photograph in because the light was very low and of course it was noisy,� says Michael. “The audience – mostly young girls – were paralysed by them.
“They seemed slightly surprised by their success. I think they were amazed at their own talent: they enjoyed doing this, putting it together. It was as if they’d suddenly realised they produced songs that people liked, and weren’t sure how to handle it.�
A Day in the Life: The Beatles by Michael Ward is available as a signed, handmade, limited-edition box set through Genesis Publications (www.genesis-publications.com ; 01483 540970) at £450 plus p&p.
A selection of the photographs is currently on show at hard days Night Hotel on North John Street.