New light on a rock ’n’ roll treasure trove
Rare photos of 60s stars including The Beatles and the Stones adorn giant hoardings on development site
HE WAS a boy with a camera who snapped a rock history treasure trove.
Aged just 16 and a copy boy for the Yorkshire Evening Post, Paul Berriff would take out his camera out on the streets and photograph subjects that took his fancy.
He decided to use the emerging pop scene as a subject for his photography exercises – little realising until decades later he had struck gold.
Because it wasn’t just The Beatles that he’d managed to capture with his Rolleiflex six months into their first UK tour, at the Odeon in The Headrow in Leeds. A remarkable line-up of pop stars followed, including the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, Gerry and The Pacemakers, The Searchers and The Hollies.
“These groups like myself were just beginning,” said Mr Berriff. “We were getting two or three a week appearing and I just went round clicking away.
“I did that for part of 1963 and again in 1964.”
A year after he first met The Beatles Mr Berriff became an official press photographer and the negatives were put away in a cardboard box.
In 1967 Mr Berriff joined the BBC and started to make documentaries. It was not until 2010 he decided to return to stills photography.
In the attic of his cottage in North Yorkshire he came across a dusty box containing hundreds of negatives.
“I’d forgotten about them for 40-odd years. I was absolutely amazed by how good a condition they were in and I started to scan them and I thought ‘Wow, these are in good nick’.
“Jerry Goldman (CEO of The Beatles Story) came over from Liverpool to look at them. He too was amazed by their quality and asked me to produce a complete set for a permanent display at their Pier Head site.”
It was a box that continued to keep giving because when he returned six months later for another look, he came across the images of the Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd.
Another limited-edition collection resulted which has travelled to London, New York, Memphis and Harvey Nichols in Dubai.
The black-and-white images can now be seen in all their glory on hoardings around Treadmills, the former Northallerton prison which is being redeveloped.
Joint venture developers Hull-based Wykeland had been impressed by the images when they were on show at the Joe Cornish Galleries last year and it was decided to use them on the hoardings to liven up the site while work is taking place.
Gallery manager Adam Richardson said: “Lidl has plans for a supermarket and as far as we know they are talking about having it finished by the end of 2019. There will be plenty of opportunity to enjoy them.”
Julia Chance of Northallerton BID said: “Northallerton BID’s mission is to provide a quality appearance and environment in the county town and this joint project is the first of many public art installations we hope to put in throughout the town.”