He saw them standing there: Henry Grossman's never-before-seen photos of The Beatles

The photographer was a trusted friend to the band, and got over 6,000 snaps

Henry Grossman was a trusted friend to the band, and got over 6,000 snaps

Is it really possible? The Fab Four as you have never seen them before? It's a limited-edition book with a foreword by Paul McCartney of 1,000 mostly never-before-seen-in-the-UK photos of the Beatles shot at the height of Beatlemania, between 1964-1968. Taken by Henry Grossman, whom McCartney calls an “out of the ordinary” photographer, some of the photos, including one of Ringo Starr with his baby Zak holding a drumstick, have never seen the light of day before.

Grossman's book, Places I Remember: My Time With the Beatles includes informal shots – the band hanging out in Starr's yard (above), John Lennon on a skateboard and Lennon and George Harrison playing guitar with a young Julian Lennon. But why has this photographer, who doubles as a Wagnerian tenor, kept them in storage for so long?

The publishers of this book, Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, visited Grossman's studio after finding a copy of Life magazine with some of his Beatles photos. Although Grossman was known for his photos of Elizabeth Taylor and President John F Kennedy, he was also a trusted friend of The Beatles and had 6,500 photos of them.

“I gave Paul McCartney and Jane Asher a ride back to London from Bangor when The Beatles had been with the Maharishi and heard Brian Epstein had died,” says Grossman. “I was there as a friend, I wasn't taking photos.” With the ones he did take, he says: “I haven't had the time to do anything with them until now.”

'Places I Remember: My Time With the Beatles' is published by Curvebender Publishing (www.curvebender.com)