Mike McCartney’s lifelong love of photography was sparked when he photographed ‘giant seagulls’ in the back garden of his childhood home with the family’s Kodak Box Brownie. Despite his chart success with his pop group Scaffold (who he performed with under the name Mike McGear so as not to ride on his brother’s coattails), and other ventures, his love of photography remains at the age of 82.
In the early 1960s Mike McCartney was nicknamed “Flash Harry” by The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein and had unique access to his brother Paul’s group. This has resulted in iconic early Beatles photographs, such as a colour image of a baby-faced 15-year-old George Harrison alongside John Lennon and Paul McCartney with their guitars shot at a family wedding in March 1958, when they were known as The Quarrymen. To find out more AP spoke to Mike McCartney via Zoom from his home in the Wirral on Merseyside…
After receiving his prints of the aforementioned seagulls Mike McCartney recalls, ‘I was walking back home, going through the pictures, thinking, “the stupid, bloody chemist has given me the wrong prints.” Suddenly, I saw these tiny little dots on two prints, there they were – giant seagulls as two little dots in the middle of these prints, but it got my interest. I became determined to try photography, so I got on the 86 bus, went up to Allerton Library, got all the books on how to take photographs, brought them home and read them. I worked out you needed a developer, fixer, little trays etcetera and I bought them all and worked out what to do.’
Thus, his photographic skills were totally self-taught. He reveals, ‘It was like our kid [Paul McCartney] in the other room… he was totally self-taught on his guitar and later piano. He had the same problem – none of us were going anywhere. We had this same, initial interest of what we liked and then you had to persevere to manifest it and to make it work.’
First camera
Mike McCartney’s first camera cost £3 and was procured on an exchange trip to Cologne, Germany, but it was his brother Paul McCartney who ensured he got the best possible camera, on the advice of Beatles’ photographer and friend Astrid Kirchherr. It was Kirchherr who shot the first official photo session with The Beatles, with a Rolleicord camera, at the Hamburger Dom fairground and later the same day in her mother’s house in the Altona borough of Hamburg.
Mike McCartney explains, ‘Our kid [Paul] was in Hamburg playing with his group and there was this photographer called Astrid Kirchherr and I’d seen all her stuff. Of that era of my brother’s group, I only like hers and my photographs because it was before all the [Beatle] mania, so you saw the real life of what it was like living then.’
He continues, ‘Astrid had studied photography at college and worked in a photographic studio. My brother would see her pictures on the wall and asked, “how do you get those?” She said, “on a Rolleiflex.” He said to me, “Astrid said there’s a brand new one coming out, which is even better, and it’s called a Rollei Magic. I’m waiting for that.” He waited and brought that one home. It was bloody weird – you looked in at the top and it was the wrong way around. But then, you try to focus on somebody and the background went out [of focus] and it was fab. I looked it up and it was called depth-of-field… that was the thing that I loved.’
As he alludes to, it was both Astrid Kirchherr and Mike McCartney who had unprecedented access to The Beatles, from their gigging days in Hamburg, through to their iconic performances in The Cavern Club in Liverpool, and eventual conquering of the US and music charts all around the world.
Unique access
Despite his own fame Mike McCartney is very down-to-earth and when asked about his access to The Beatles, he replies, ‘It’s just a pure accident of happening to be related to the best group on Merseyside. At first, they were like all the other groups on Merseyside, till they went to Hamburg. Our kid [Paul] came back to our house and he sat down and, physically, he looked so thin, with legs like pipe cleaners. He and his group had been playing forever – day and night, taking uppers and downers, whatever to exist – but their music, when they came back to Liverpool, would make you sit up and think, “bloody hell”. All the other groups thought, “Wow! That was powerful!”.
The new-found performance power of The Beatles meant they often topped the bill at The Cavern or played as a support act to major US rock ‘n’ roll stars, such as Gene Vincent. Mike McCartney recalls how he got an iconic behind-the-scenes shot of Vincent with John Lennon and Paul McCartney; a picture he only rediscovered as a negative in 2016.
‘They were the top group on Merseyside, so they got to work with all the big acts. I just happened to love photography, would get out to all these gigs and had superb access. At the back of The Cavern there is that one back-stage picture that I only found about 10 years ago. This is Gene Vincent, one of our first big heroes. I was there in the dressing room, and I now had a flash camera, but there is Gene Vincent with John and Paul posing with their God. It’s a beautiful shot and thank God I found this thing. The neg is unbelievably bad, but because of the latest digital editing availability I was able to get magic out of this old, very thin neg.’
He reveals, ‘This photograph is John saying to me, with our kid on the left-hand side with a tambourine, “Mike, get your camera quick!” I thought, “what’s he gonna do?” There he is next to his God and he gooses his [Gene Vincent’s] bum… thank God I got something and you can just make it out. I was able to go to all these worlds that nobody else was getting to, so that was fortuitous.’
Early Liverpool book
The rare Beatles photos feature in the book Mike McCartney’s Early Liverpool, alongside a variety of other images from his youth, from Genesis Publications. He was first asked to do the book over 20 years ago, but was initially hesitant to produce it as he felt he had ‘my own career to do’.
He adds, ‘Years later Brian Roylance, boss of Genesis Publications, had passed away and I was at a Genesis book launch talking to the new owners, his son and daughter, and it came up again. I said, “OK, now it’s a different ballgame. I’d done my career. Yeah, OK, I have those beautiful classic ones [pictures], the best Beatles ones etcetera and now is the time to honour them”.’
Mike McCartney continues, ‘I remembered what Andy Warhol said to me about a book I did, called Thank U Very Much, which had lots of little postcards, letters and things in it. I gave him the book to read and he said, “I’m gonna read that tonight.” He went back to his place, The Factory, and the next day I said, “OK, what happened then?” and he’d read it in the night… absolute magic! He said, “But what I like about your stuff is all these other little bits.” I thought I can do it as an arty, photographic book, but I remembered Andy saying that.’
He additionally recalls, ‘The Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC had an exhibition of mine, called ‘Mike McCartney’s Liverpool Life’, with no Beatles in it at all and it ran there for six months. They said, “can we have it for another six months?” It was not only because of the working-class Liverpool photies, but it was because of my captions. All the Early Liverpool book has these little pictures and captions because they’re informative, but it’s always got a Liverpool sense of humour in it and the American public loved it.’
The storytelling aspect
As the interview draws to a close Mike McCartney asks me what I think of his Early Liverpool book and I point out that it’s more about storytelling than just the images on the pages. He smiles and replies, ‘Good, because I chose it to be like that and I’m glad you like that aspect of it. I had the choice of doing a very arty book, as I should as a “photographer”, but the reality is I can’t call myself a photographer. A photographer is a man or a woman who does their career, which is dependent on taking photographs and I wouldn’t equate or elevate myself to such a position.’
He adds, ‘I loved photography, learnt about it and then I was very good. I could buy and sell everyone in terms of my knowledge of photography and cameras. In the end I didn’t need light meters because [I could read the light]. I read something recently about light meters where all the young kids of today were saying, “what’s a light meter?” But, of course, it’s all done for you these days.’
Mike McCartney
Mike McCartney was born in Liverpool, England, in 1944 and became a musician and photographer. His most successful band was The Scaffold, who had a UK Christmas number one hit in 1968 with Lily the Pink, although he used the stage name Mike McGear so as not to ride on the coattails of his brother Paul. Mike McCartney has been a photographer throughout his career and his books have included Liverpool Life, Mike McCartney’s North Highlands and Mike McCartney’s Early Liverpool. He also shot the cover photograph for Paul McCartney’s 2005 solo album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. In 2019 he was awarded the British Empire Medal for “services to the community in Merseyside”.
Mike McCartney’s Early Liverpool (ISBN: 9781905662661), the limited-edition book by Mike McCartney, is published by Genesis Publications and has an RRP of £325. It’s available to buy now.
Mike McCartney explains, ‘This is one of the earliest colour photographs of George [Harrison], John [Lennon] and Paul [McCartney] together as the Quarrymen. Cousin Ian’s wedding reception at Auntie Gin’s house, 8 March 1958. The lad with a half Guinness is Dennis Little, one of cousin Ian’s friends.’
Related reading:
- The Beatles: the fascinating story behind the iconic Rubber Soul cover
- Photo Insight with Harry Borden: Sir Paul McCartney
- Rare Beatles Abbey Road photos revealed
- Photographer’s ‘unseen’ Beatles pics published
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