Astrid Kircher (9:07)

Well, it's a long, long time ago, about 10 years that Brian Roylands and Ulf Kruger, who was my agent in Hamburg and a very, very good friend had the idea to get a book together from the days the Beatles came to Hamburg first and they were unknown and just good friends and we were all very excited.

Terry O'Reilly (9:31)

The book is a two volume set. The first book features Astrid's incredible photography from that period. The second volume contains Klaus paintings of recreat that were never captured by photography but fun and interesting moments as remembered by Astrid, Klaus and Paul McCartney.

Astrid Kircher (9:52)

Well, that is why I'm so pleased about the Hamburg days because Klaus and I were sitting together thinking of situations where it would have been great having a camera, you know, like in the club when it was nearly morning and the light was all nearly sunshine and people were sitting round in the dark asleep and they were sitting on stage half asleep, playing and you saw it in the book. These situations were absolutely wonderful but of course I didn't took my camera with me and that was the whole idea that Klaus did pictures of situations. We have been with the boys where we didn't have A camera, like when John went to sleep in his breakfast, you know. So that is what makes me so happy that at least situations which we both remember even now are on paper to see for people.

Terry O'Reilly (11:00)

George Harrison wrote the foreword to the book. I asked Astrid how that came about.

Astrid Kircher (11:05)

Well, as simple as that. We asked him, and he's our friend, he's one of my best friends, and he said, yeah, why not?

Terry O'Reilly (11:15)

George was the Beatle Astrid was closest to when she was first considering doing this book. She reached out to George, Paul and Yoko to ask for their blessing.

Astrid Kircher (11:26)

So I asked George and Paul, what do you think? And Yoko, can I do that? And George just wrote me a letter. Do whatever you want, sweetheart. You know, at least they pay you for it this time. So George always took care of me as far as money is concerned because he knows I'm such a silly idiot, you know.

Terry O'Reilly (11:51)

Astrid loved the Beatles. They were her friends. So she took photos of them just for fun, just for them. They were never really used for publicity purposes back then, with one exception.

Astrid Kircher (12:05)

Well, you know, that's so strange because I did it because I loved their faces and I loved them as friends. So I just did them for fun and gave them to them. And they thought, oh yeah, great, maybe we get in the papers, you know, with pictures like that, that size, they will be all impressed. And of course it happened. If you remember, there was a little paper called Mercy Beat and also a friend of Stewart's and John was the editor, Bill Harry, and he saw the pictures and just did it, you know.

Terry O'Reilly (12:43)

So in the Beatles Anthology series, George Harrison notes that the famous Robert Freeman black and white photo on the COVID of the LP with the Beatles was actually inspired by Astrid's photography.

Astrid Kircher (12:57)

I didn't know that until I saw the Anthology and George was talking about it. I always wondered because Freeman, I always admired his work, you know, I think he did fantastic pictures. And when I saw the COVID I thought, what's that all about? That's not Bob Freeman. That is weird. You know, it looks like I've done them, but I never thought about it again. And then I saw the Anthology and George was talking about how these pictures came together. So now I know. You know, the album with the Beatles contains a first for the Fab Four. What was it?

Terry O'Reilly (13:48)

Answer after this break.

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Terry O'Reilly (14:57)

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Astrid Kircher (15:31)

The album with the Beatles contained three George Harrison vocals, including his very first.

Terry O'Reilly (15:37)

Released solo composition, Don't Bother Me. Astrid's photos of the Beatles are all in stunning black and white, which was always her preference.

Astrid Kircher (15:51)

I think you can experiment much more with a black and white picture, especially when you do develop the negatives yourself. So that's a fact, number one. Number two is you can play with shadow and light much easier and much nicer in a more dramatic way, which in the 60s or when I started to become a photographer, I was influenced by French photographers and French movies, for example, Jean Cocteau's movie, who were really extremely black and white. And I thought it gave a face, for example, a kind of different dramatic atmosphere. And you could play with light and darkness and create a situation within a face. For me, much easier to handle. And in the 60s, color photography wasn't like it is now, you know, and even though if I would take pictures now, I always would prefer black and white.

Terry O'Reilly (17:07)

There are other photos in the book taken a little while later with the Beatles wearing suits, a very different look from the leather they wore in Astrid's earlier shots. Beatles manager Brian Epstein contracted Astrid to take those pictures.

Astrid Kircher (17:23)

Well, he was a very good friend of mine and he just said we need some decent pictures, you know, because then they changed their image into suits and looking smart. And he said, well, they're going to come to Hamburg. Would you do me a favor and do some decent ones, you know. So I did, and I never really liked them, you know, the studio ones, to me, there's nothing behind it. If you compare these pictures with a portrait of John and George I did in my attic at home or on the fairground, there's power and strength and sadness in their faces and the whole rock and roll, what it meant to me, you know. But these pictures, just to me, they are flat. There is a face of Paul McCartney, but there is not a face of my friend Paul on it. So it's okay as being put in the book to maybe let people see the difference, but they were never, ever my favorite pictures.

Terry O'Reilly (18:40)

The photos Astrid took of the early Beatles were missing one important later ingredient, namely Ringo Starr. Pete Best was the drummer then. Astrid knew Ringo, but he was with another band at the time.

Astrid Kircher (18:55)

I knew Ringo when he was playing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. And because it went like Rory was on for three quarters of an hour and then the Beatles were on. So it kept going on and on and on. So when Ringo was not playing, he used to sit with us, and Rory, of course, because I liked him very much. And so we just became friendly. But I was never close to Ringo as I was to.

Terry O'Reilly (19:30)

It's a funny thing, Beatle fans want to know every single detail about the band. Every small critical and pedestrian thing. It seems that everywhere the Beatles lived or played or streets they walked across are considered holy ground. Yet in Hamburg, where the Beatles had their most important formative time, it barely registers on the radar.

Astrid Kircher (19:55)

Well, there is a museum in Germany, in Bremen. They bought some of my work. But, you know, it's strange, the need of people to know about the Beatles. It's much more over here than in Germany and my own town, Hamburg, where the Beatles, you know, started. It doesn't interest them at all. No, they didn't even have an exhibition of the Beatles in Hamburg, which would be great, you know, but there's just a little sign outside the former Kaiserkeller where it says the Beatles used to play here. And when George was in Hamburg, he of course drove through the Riverbahn and said, there it is, the sign that we played here. But that's about all.

Terry O'Reilly (20:52)

Paul McCartney had a small hand in the book as well. Klaus asked Paul to help him reminisce about those early days and even sketch a few memories that Klaus would later paint.

Astrid Kircher (21:03)

Well, Klaus asked him to do that. If you've seen it in the back of this book. And Paul wrote about how he admired Klaus work, you Saw the drawing in there when Klaus went to see him a couple of months ago or before they got the book together maybe six months ago. And they were both reminiscing. How was that? And Paul helped him and said, well, give me a pencil. And I think I remember it was like that, you know.

Terry O'Reilly (21:34)

Remarkably, Astrid never thought to sell her work back then. Many of her photos were used without her knowledge or permission on bootleg albums. She did it all for love, not money.

Astrid Kircher (21:47)

I never sold anything of that. That was a lot of my negatives being stolen. I was such a silly girl, you know, if you would have came up about 30 years and said, I need the negative to print, I would say, yeah, here it is. And all my drawings I had of John, you know, I just gave it to people because I was so innocent and thought, no, they wouldn't do anything with it, you know. So that is why there's a lot of my stuff being stolen.

Terry O'Reilly (22:21)

Astrid was fond of the photos she took of the band and especially of the time they spent together. But she never thought much of the photos and didn't think anyone would be particularly interested in them. As a matter of fact, how Astrid stored them says it all.

Astrid Kircher (22:39)

Well, I had them under my bed, or I had them on a shelf and my cat had a little go at it, you know. But then Ulf met me and said, well, where are your negatives? Which bank? And all that? And I said, what do you mean, which bank safe? And I just went under my bed and grabbed a little paper bag and I said, here you are, or plastic bag. And he got the shock of his life.

Terry O'Reilly (23:08)

I asked Astrid which one of all her amazing photos is her personal favorite. She didn't hesitate for a second.

Astrid Kircher (23:16)

There's one shot of Stuart, which it's shown on the book, Stuart. It's the front page where he's got all the hair done, his face and all freckles. That is one of my favorite shots. And from George and John standing in the attic where Stuart used to work. And John is sitting down and George is standing behind him because that means so much to me because George was always the little one, you know, the. We've got to protect George. He was only 70. And then when I took that picture, you can see the strength in his eyes and the way John just looked sad and lonely. And George is standing behind him, you know, like, I'm the grown up now. I look after you whenever I see that picture, because I do love George dearly. It gives me the shivers in such a short time. This boy has grown like, unbelievable.

Terry O'Reilly (24:21)

As I mentioned earlier, Astrid fell in love with Stuart Sutcliffe. They became engaged and Stuart left the Beatles to be with her. He was a painter and enrolled in the Hamburg College of Art. In February of 1962, he collapsed in the middle of an art class, complaining of a severe headache. After collapsing again in April, he was rushed to hospital but died in the ambulance. The cause of death was a brain hemorrhage. Astrid was devastated. John Lennon, Stewart's best friend, was shattered.

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Terry O'Reilly (26:03)

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Astrid Kircher (26:42)

Stewart was amazed and very interested in the black and white things I did and when I explained it, why. And so because he was always searching for new things. You know, he was a real fanatic when we met first and he started painting in my house. He did the real colors, you know, the red and the blue and the yellow. And then the last pictures he did before he died, they were black and silver. So in a way, we did influence one another.

Terry O'Reilly (27:19)

Earlier we mentioned that Astrid's photos were never used on any Beatle albums, which seems so odd in hindsight, but there were two exceptions. Besides the photo that appeared in the Mercy Beat newspaper she did the inner sleeve for George Harrison's solo Wonderwall Music LP in 1968. And years later, in 1995 and 96, when Klaus Voormann designed the covers of the Beatles Anthology albums, he used some of Astrid's photography. Surprisingly, it would be the first and only time her photos were ever used on an official Beatle album. When Astrid Kersher looked back on that time so many years later, she didn't talk about the famous Beatles. She talked about them as her friends, people she loved, and what she was grateful for.

Astrid Kircher (28:21)

Well, most of all, I'd be thankful for their friendship, for the things they taught me. What it's like to be disciplined, what it's like to play or work for 12 hours every day. And being that young, without mom and dad in a different country, and things we share together, you know, sharing to grow up, that is the most important thing to me. And the love we shared between us and the giving and taking, the inspiring one another, that is what counts for me. And of course, that beautiful music, the way they grew up, even though I wasn't with them all the time, but from a distance, I saw the change they made when I listened to the music of George, for example, or John. And that's what I'm thankful for.

Terry O'Reilly (29:28)

Astrid Kircher passed away in 2020 at the age of 81. She played such an important role in the lives of the early Beatles. Her unique photography of the band is historic, her influence on their image indelible. Yet she lived a quiet, humble life. Operating a small photography shop in Hamburg. George Harrison kept in touch with her until his passing in 1999. When we met, Astrid was in her 60s, still beautiful, still stylish. Her love of John, Paul, George, Ringo, Pete and Stewart was still so palpable from all those years ago. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This special bonus episode was recorded in the Terrastream mobile recording studio. Director Callie O'Reilly Producer Debbie O'Reilly Chief Sound Engineer Jeff Devine Tunes provided by APM Music Follow me on social @Terry Oinfluence. This podcast is powered by Acast.

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