PAUL,GEORGE AND RINGO IN TENERIFE -PHOTOS

Fantastic snaps of the mop-tops relaxing by the pool in 1963 taken on friend's camera

 

Pictures by Astrid Kircherr

It was 50 years ago today... and three of the Fab Four were ­chilling by the pool in Tenerife.

Only weeks later Beatlemania was in full swing and Paul McCartney, George ­Harrison and Ringo Starr were well on their way to becoming famous worldwide.
But in May 1963 no one on the Spanish island gave the Beatles a second glance...and when they offered to play a  few tunes there they were turned down.

George and Paul in pal's Austin Healey Sprite

Ringo asked the manager of San Telmo Lido, “Can we play some of our music in your bar?” but the manager said “No” and they ended up lazing by the pool and ­getting sunburnt instead.
“It was funny when they were refused to play in the bar,” said Klaus Voormann, a German pal the band stayed with after becoming friends in Hamburg. “All they played on holiday was a record player.”
The three Beatles spent 12 days on the island while John ­Lennon and ­manager Brian Epstein went to Torremolinos.
These photos, taken on Klaus’s friend Astrid Kirchherr’s camera, are on display at the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles exhibition in Puerto de la Cruz.

Astrid, George and Ringo

Paul, then 20, George, 20, and Ringo, 22, stayed with Klaus at La Montaneta in Puerto de la Cruz. Returning to the island for the 50th anniversary, he spoke about the trip and the Beatles gigs he went to at the Kaiserkeller Club in Hamburg.
Klaus, 75, said: “I will never forget walking into the club and hearing their sound. I had not heard anything like it before. I went back every night and eventually plucked up courage to talk to them. We have been friends ever since.
“They were scruffy boys from Liverpool when I met them. My father had built a villa in the mountain and I was with him for seven months. Paul wrote me a letter and asked if they could visit. It was as simple as that.”
The lads weren’t used to the sun so Ringo wore a matador hat to shade his face and put a plaster on his burnt nose. Paul protected his with card.

The lads on the beach

As well as lounging in the sun and swimming in the lido they walked to the black volcanic sand beach, sat by the seawall and smoked cigarettes and drove around the island in Klaus’s ­father’s Austin Healey Sprite.
The band had already had a number one hit in the UK with their single From Me To You but their fame hadn’t spread abroad and locals looked ­baffled when the lads asked if they’d heard of the Beatles.
Soon after the holiday their first album Please Please Me went to number one in the UK charts – and stayed there for the rest of the year.
It was the start of Beatlemania and for the lads from Liverpool life was never the same.
Klaus later moved to London and lived with George and Ringo in their flat while working as a commercial artist. He designed the Beatles’ Revolver ­album cover and played bass in the band Manfred Mann.
Astrid, 75, whose pictures captured three lads on the brink of stardom, is retired and living in Hamburg. As for George, Ringo and Paul... well, we all know what happened to them.
See more Beatles pictures in our gallery... 

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