With The Beatles
Eventually they got talking. By this time Voormann's relationship with Kirchherr had become mostly platonic, and she quickly began dating Sutcliffe. Kirchherr offered to take photographs of The Beatles. The first shoot took place in a local park called Der Dom.
The Beatles were dressed like teddy boys, with these very, very pointed shoes which we in Hamburg had never seen before, We were fascinated with those, just like they were with our things. And their very tight trousers and little tiny grey jackets. They didn't have many clothes, of course. And their hair was combed back with sideboards.
Astrid was the first serious photographer to take pictures of the group. The Beatles were apparently "incredibly excited" to be photographed, and her images of them in Hamburg still retain an iconic, stylistically distinctive quality.
Following the first shoot she took the group, minus Pete Best, to her mother's house in Altona. Kirchherr's mother was also able to get hold of Preludin, the stimulant used by The Beatles to help them perform onstage during the long Hamburg nights. At the time it was only possible to legally obtain the pills through a doctor's prescription, but her mother got them for the group from a local chemist.
Kirchherr is perhaps best known for helping develop The Beatles' image in the early 1960s. The group, apart from Pete Best, all adopted the hairstyle which would soon become their trademark.
All my friends in art school used to run around with this sort of... what you call Beatles haircut. And my boyfriend then, Klaus Voormann, had this hairstyle, and Stuart liked it very, very much. He was the first one who really got the nerve to get the Brylcreem out of his hair, and asking me to cut his hair for him.
John Lennon is said to have "collapsed laughing" when Stuart arrived for the first gig after his haircut. Soon after, however, George Harrison also let Astrid cut his hair in a similar style.
Lennon and Paul McCartney succumbed when visiting Jürgen Vollmer at his home in Paris. The Beatles had their new identity: the 'moptop' which would shortly become world-famous.
During the 1960s Kirchherr's photographs of The Beatles were printed all over the world. However, she missed out on large amounts of revenue owed to her after failing to assert her rights as owner of the photographs.
I'm not a businesswoman, I'm not organized... I never looked after my negatives, and you need that to prove you took the photographs.
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- Stuart Sutcliffe dies
- Casting announced for Backbeat stage show
- John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Pete Best fly to Hamburg
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