Yesterday: The Beatles Once Upon a Time
By Astrid Kirchherr & Max Scheler
Published by The Vendome Press, 2007
List Price: $27.50 (you can find it used for under $3)
In 1964, German photojournalist Max Scheler was given the assignment of going to Liverpool to take some pics of the environment that had spawned the biggest band of the century. Having no connections whatsoever to the Beatles themselves, he enlisted friend of a friend Astrid Kirchherr to help him. Astrid had a very personal and long relationship with the band. Years before, Astrid and her boyfriend, Klaus Voorman, were two of the Beatles first fans when the Fabs first made it to Hamburg. Astrid became fast friends with the band, and fell in love with John's best friend, Stu Sutcliffe, the talented artist but not quite so talented bassist of the group at the time. She even let the Beatles come to her mum's house to wash their clothes and eat some home cooked meals. At the time, they were living in really shabby conditions, a windowless area behind a porno theater's movie screen! As far as I know, Astrid has stayed good friends with the surviving Beatles up to the present day.
Most of the book consists of black and white photographs taken by Astrid and Max, with 2 brief forwards at the beginning. A lot of the shots are behind the scenes snaps of the filming of the movie A Hard Day's Night with some scattered shots of George, Ringo, and John at their flats and some even in their parent's homes. The thing that really comes across in the photos is the Beatles love for Astrid and her love in turn for them. You can tell that they are at total ease with her presence, or at least as much ease as a camera can be conducive to.
Astrid also caught some nice pics with George and his future wife Pattie Boyd, who had a bit part in Hard Day's Night. You can tell even during the filming of the movie that they fancied each other.
Something I could have done without are the photos of some other Liverpool bands and even some German wanna be Beatles groups that tried to reverse import to England to cash in on the Fab Four's popularity and ended up with a one way ticket to Nowhereville.
So is this book worth buying? At a bargain price? Sure. I am a big Beatles fan, but have very little use for coffee table picture books. I looked thru this book a couple of times but once I put it on my shelf, I'll probably never look at it again. But if photo books are your thing and you're a big Beatles fan, then you should enjoy this.
My Grade: B
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