In 1963, the Beatles were making audiences scream. The musicians had to be whisked from their concerts straight to hotels to evade the hordes of overwrought fans. Yet behind the scenes, the gentle quartet carried on a humorous, quieter existence as their fame increased.
A new photo exhibition is coming to the de Young next year that illuminates the private lives of the fab four, all taken by Paul McCartney. If you were around nearly 60 years ago to see the band’s last concert at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966—not just their last concert there, but their last ticketed concert ever… and believe it or not, the last event held at Candlestick before it was demolished—or if you just love the timeless music of this groundbreaking band, you’ll want to mark your calendar for March 1, 2025 when the exhibition “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–1964: Eyes of the Storm” opens.
The show is organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London, in collaboration with McCartney and presented exclusively in California at the de Young Museum. (It also ran in Brooklyn this summer, and we’ve included some shots below from our friends at Time Out New York.) You’ll see more than 250 personal photos taken by McCartney, as well as video clips and archival materials that give insight into the band’s stunning rise to celebrity.
The exhibition showcases photos, starting with images taken in small Liverpool clubs and encompassing the band’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and their meteoric fame. For 60 years, these images lay dormant as unprinted negatives and contact sheets until their rediscovery in McCartney’s personal archives in 2020. Sally Martin Katz, the de Young’s coordinating curator, says his photos nod to New Wave, documentary filmmaking and photojournalism.
Fun fact about that Candlestick concert: The audience numbered 25,000, and there were 7,000 tickets left unsold. A lot of people stayed away because of the band’s opposition to the Vietnam War, and because of John Lennon’s famous statement that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus now.” How much would you love to travel back in time and snag one of those tickets?
Opening March 1, 2025 at the de Young museum, “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm” will run through July 6.