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24 Beatles, Rolling Stones photos you’ve never seen go on sale

John Lennon tunes his 1966 Epiphone Casino guitar while George Harrison assists with a harmonica in this candid backstage photograph taken before the Beatles’ show at JFK Stadium (formerly Philadelphia Municipal Stadium) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 16, 1966. The show was far from a sell-out, like many of the shows on this tour, thanks in part to John Lennon’s incendiary out-of-context comment: “We’re more popular than Jesus.” John’s six-string guitar, similar to one that George also had, was a staple on their 1966 world tour, as well as on the Revolver album and the song Paperback Writer/Rain. Indeed, it was in John’s hands for their final official live show in San Francisco, and most famously at their final live show ever - an impromptu rooftop performance at Apple Records’ Saville Row offices in London. Sometime before the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band sessions, John spray-painted the back of his guitar, but would later sand it down to its bare wood (which George claimed really allowed instruments to “breathe”). The Casino was John’s guitar of choice until the end, seeing him through the White Album, Let It Be, as well as onscreen in various promos for Hello Goodbye, Hey Jude and Revolution. This guitar held a special place in John’s heart, and in his estate as “The Revolution Guitar.”
John Lennon tunes his 1966 Epiphone Casino guitar while George Harrison assists with a harmonica in this candid backstage photograph taken before the Beatles’ show at JFK Stadium (formerly Philadelphia Municipal Stadium) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 16, 1966. The show was far from a sell-out, like many of the shows on this tour, thanks in part to John Lennon’s incendiary out-of-context comment: “We’re more popular than Jesus.” John’s six-string guitar, similar to one that George also had, was a staple on their 1966 world tour, as well as on the Revolver album and the song Paperback Writer/Rain. Indeed, it was in John’s hands for their final official live show in San Francisco, and most famously at their final live show ever – an impromptu rooftop performance at Apple Records’ Saville Row offices in London. Sometime before the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band sessions, John spray-painted the back of his guitar, but would later sand it down to its bare wood (which George claimed really allowed instruments to “breathe”). The Casino was John’s guitar of choice until the end, seeing him through the White Album, Let It Be, as well as onscreen in various promos for Hello Goodbye, Hey Jude and Revolution. This guitar held a special place in John’s heart, and in his estate as “The Revolution Guitar.” (Bob Bonis/Ebay)
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John Lennon tunes his 1966 Epiphone Casino guitar while George Harrison assists with a harmonica in this candid backstage photograph taken before the Beatles’ show at JFK Stadium (formerly Philadelphia Municipal Stadium) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 16, 1966. The show was far from a sell-out, like many of the shows on this tour, thanks in part to John Lennon’s incendiary out-of-context comment: “We’re more popular than Jesus.” John’s six-string guitar, similar to one that George also had, was a staple on their 1966 world tour, as well as on the Revolver album and the song Paperback Writer/Rain. Indeed, it was in John’s hands for their final official live show in San Francisco, and most famously at their final live show ever - an impromptu rooftop performance at Apple Records’ Saville Row offices in London. Sometime before the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band sessions, John spray-painted the back of his guitar, but would later sand it down to its bare wood (which George claimed really allowed instruments to “breathe”). The Casino was John’s guitar of choice until the end, seeing him through the White Album, Let It Be, as well as onscreen in various promos for Hello Goodbye, Hey Jude and Revolution. This guitar held a special place in John’s heart, and in his estate as “The Revolution Guitar.”
Perched on a craft service table, George Harrison tunes his guitar for the Beatles’ performance that night at JFK Stadium (formerly Philadelphia Municipal Stadium) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 16, 1966. George’s guitar - an Epiphone Casino, with an aftermarket Bigsby Vibrato, that he acquired in the spring of 1966 - was in the studio for their album Revolver and the single Paperback Writer/Rain, as well as on tour with them all over the world in 1966. John Lennon had one too, although his had the standard Epiphone tailpiece, the back of which he spray-painted, and which would become his guitar of choice until the end of the Beatles. Not many people know that George played a myriad of instruments - 26 in all - and was the very first to introduce the sitar to the pop world in Norwegian Wood, beating The Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black by a full year.
In a candid moment of true backstage access, Paul McCartney and John Lennon warm up on their guitars in anticipation of their show at Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, on August 13, 1966. The two-show stop in Detroit drew a combined audience of 30,800 rabid Beatles fans and had an impressive set list: Rock and Roll Music, She’s a Woman, If I Needed Someone, Baby’s In Black, Day Tripper, I Feel Fine, Yesterday, I Wanna Be Your Man, Nowhere Man, Paperback Writer and Long Tall Sally. In this photograph, the creative energy between Lennon and McCartney is palpable. The legendary duo collaborated on some of the biggest records the world has ever seen, and did it all with a healthy amount of friendly competition. A writer for The Atlantic summed up their partnership best: “John was the badass older brother Paul never had. Paul was a charming sidekick who could do something rare: keep up with John.” The pair are notorious for their own version of call-and-answer: John’s Strawberry Fields Forever was answered by Paul’s Penny Lane; John’s Revolution 1 by Paul’s Blackbird. And so, one of the greatest songwriting duos of all time was created - in competition and in brotherhood - and captured beautifully here.
In a captivating moment of total playfulness, all four Beatles - Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr - are photographed on vacation in Bel Air, California on August 23-24, 1964. With such an intense schedule, downtime was a luxury, yet this mini-vacation almost didn’t happen. In town for their August 23 historic show at the famous Hollywood Bowl, the boys soon found out that L.A. wasn’t exactly willing to roll out the red carpet. Lockheed Airport in Burbank refused to let their plane land, and The Ambassador Hotel cancelled their reservations out of fear of being inundated with crazed fans. Luckily, British actor Reginald Owen offered up his Bel Air manse for the bargain price of $1,000. While in town, the Beatles hit up the iconic Whisky A Go Go club with Jane Mansfield, where George Harrison infamously threw a drink at the paparazzi, but hit Mamie Van Doren instead. They also met Burt Lancaster, with Ringo Starr dressed like a cowboy wielding toy guns that were reportedly gifts from Elvis Presley. Upon seeing Ringo, Burt quipped, “What have you got there? Kids’ stuff!” He later sent Ringo two real guns and a holster, which Ringo loved: “I just wanted to be a cowboy.” This photo captures four boys who just wanted to play - and the fact that both the late George Harrison and the late John Lennon have their arms outstretched, reaching skyward, is a really beautiful button.
With many of the Beatles’ second US tour dates being grueling double-headers, the boys often found strange ways to entertain themselves between shows, as this photo of John Lennon dressed as Lawrence of Arabia showcases. The Beatles’ back-to-back shows at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon, on August 22, 1965, drew 19,936 combined fans. And “Lennon of Arabia” wasn’t the only esteemed visitor. Mike Love and Carl Wilson of rival group The Beach Boys popped up from California for the show, and they all met backstage for the first time, talking shop about girls and cars. Post-tour, the Beatles recorded Rubber Soul, an album Brian Wilson would applaud as the only one where every song “went together like no album ever made before.” It even inspired Wilson to “do my own thing [Pet Sounds], and so the next morning I went to the piano and wrote God Only Knows.” Apparently the feeling was mutual - Paul McCartney would later gush that the Beach Boys’ album Pet Sounds “blew me out of the water” and is still an all-time favorite.
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are wonderfully unaware in this candid photograph of them reading a magazine on a plane, en route to their show at Cow Palace outside of San Francisco, California, on August 30, 1965. Also on the plane from Hollywood with the Beatles was Joan Baez, who visited them backstage in San Francisco. In the weeks before, the Beatles had played 16 shows in nine cities to more than 300,000 screaming teenage fans. The San Francisco shows would be their last before a much-needed six-week break before getting back in the studio to record Rubber Soul. Their double-header at Cow Palace drew 11,700 fans in the afternoon and 17,000 more that night—and even had to be stopped for ten minutes after fans pushed through the barricades and rushed the stage. With the Cow Palace show the band had really come full circle, as they were closing out their second US tour exactly where they had opened their first in August 1964.

WASHINGTON — Bob Bonis had an unparalleled intimate view of rock and roll history.

Bonis, who died in 1992 at the age of 60, was tour manager for both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones during their first U.S. tours in 1964, and continued with both bands through 1966.

As an amateur, yet talented, photographer, he captured two of the world’s biggest bands with limitless access.

Few of Bonis’ photographs were published in the 1960s.

Forty-eight years later, negatives of nearly 5,000 photos were uncovered in a basement by Bonis’ son, and now comprise the Bob Bonis Archive.

Many of the photos are now available on Ebay.

Each photo costs $175 and comes with a certificate of authenticity from the Grammy Museum.

Here are photos available on Ebay, with descriptions provided by the Bob Bonis Archive.

 

Neal Augenstein

Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.

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