Unseen photos of The Beatles go on show

Previously unseen photographs charting The Beatles’ formative years will go on display at Liverpool’s Victoria Gallery & Museum next week.

The retrospective of more than 70 photographs by Astrid Kirchherr includes portraits of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, original drummer Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe - the band’s original bass player, known as “the fifth Beatle”-, at the start of their career.

German-born Kircherr met The Beatles in Hamburg in the early 1960s. She dated Sutcliffe, who left the band to pursue a career as an artist in 1961, and the pair became engaged just before his tragic death from a brain haemorrhage the following year.

Click here or on the image to preview photos from Astrid Kirchherr: A Retrospective

“I am delighted to come back to Liverpool to show my photographs at the Victoria Gallery & Museum, having enjoyed seeing Stuart’s work in the same venue in 2009,” Kirrchher said.

The show includes rare pictures of The Beatles on holiday in Tenerife and images from of children playing on the Liverpool streets dating from when Kirrchher was in England with the band in 1964 during filming for ‘A Hard Day’s Night.’

Also included in the exhibition are portraits of key figures from the 1960s, including Rory Storm, Gibson Kemp and Klaus Voorman.

`Astrid Kirchherr: A Retrospective’ opens to the public on 25 August 2010 and runs until 30 January 2011. Admission to all galleries and exhibitions at the VG&M is free and open Tuesday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm.