Macca mourns the ‘funky pixie’ who helped create Beatles’ look
SIR Paul McCartney has hailed the photographer whose images and fashion sense helped turn the Beatles into icons.
Astrid Kirchherr befriended the band during their formative time in Hamburg, and her stylish black and white pictures captured that early 1960s era.
The German was crucial in persuading them to ditch their 1950s greaser look and switch to their trademark mop tops.
She died last week, aged 81, after a short illness, and Sir Paul, 77, has told of his heartache.
He posted two photos on his Twitter account showing him sitting with Kirchherr.
Sir Paul told his four million followers: “Very sad news this week about Astrid Kirchherr. Astrid was a dear friend from my Hamburg days with The Beatles.
“Another friend, Klaus Voormann, told me she had passed away and this brought back memories of our days in the clubs in Hamburg.
“Astrid looked unique. She had a short blonde haircut and wore a slim black, leather outfit which made her look like a funky pixie.
“She would come to the club with Klaus and another friend, Jorgen Vollmer, and the three of them made quite an impression on us four lads from Liverpool.
“Their wit and conversation were really stimulating and we fell in love with Astrid’s style.
“Astrid took beautiful photographs of us. She used black and white film and achieved a stunning mood in her pictures that we all loved.
“She had a great sense of humour and went on to marry Stuart our bass player. God bless you Astrid, see ya love!”
Kirchherr told band biographer Bob Spitz of her first encounter with the Beatles in a nightclub in her native Hamburg.
She said: “They looked absolutely astonishing. My whole life changed in a couple of minutes. All I wanted was to be with them and to know them.”
She began dating Stuart Sutcliffe, the original bassist in the band, and cut his hair into their famous shaggy mop top style. The pair were soon engaged but Stuart died of a brain haemorrhage in 1962, at 21.
Kirchherr, who married twice but had no children, stayed friends with the band and photographed them throughout the 1960s. In 2010, a selection of her images went on display in Liverpool. They were also released in a book entitled Astrid Kirchherr, A Retrospective.
They included shots of The Beatles on holiday in Tenerife and from the making of their film A Hard Day’s Night in 1964.