Unpublished colour photographs of The Beatles are pretty rare these days. Whatever you find the chances are that someone, somewhere has got their first.
So there is understandable excitement over the discovery of 65 slides taken of the band during their first tour of the US in August 1964.
Taken by award-winning physicist and inventor Dr Bob Beck, the pictures include images of The Beatles both on and off stage. They are to be auctioned in March on the 50th anniversary of the release of the band’s debut Please Please Me album. They are expected to fetch between £10,000 and £15,000.
The collection includes portraits taken during a press conference at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas and even pictures snapped at a private Beverly Hills party given for the band by at the mansion of Capitol Records boss Alan Livingstone
Bob Beck died in 2002 leaving a massive archive of photographs at his Hollywood home. Clearly close to The Beatles in the early days, could he be the famed Doctor Robert from the band’s 1966 album Revolver?
Possibly! For although conventional Beatles folklore suggests that the Doctor Robert of the song was a pill-pushing medic constantly on call to rich and famous clients, all the lyric actually says is that he’s on call day or night “He helps you to understand. He does everything he can…”
Dr Bob Beck worked on a number of medical programmes including inventing the so called brain-tuner which was said to help recovering drug addicts, reduce stress, improve both short and long term memory, increase energy, improve concentration, enhance sleep quality and reduce pain, anxiety and depression.
I would say he was a great pioneer but he also decided that garlic is toxic to the brain and desynchronizes vital neurotransmitters. Sorry, I can’t be having that! I love garlic. I’d rather have my neurotransmitters desynchronised any day than banish it from my diet.
Dancing Ledge 