From David Magnus:
In the early 1960’s David joined a small general purpose photographic studio in Jermyn Street London W1. It was here that David learnt to print photographs and how to process film, whilst also helping as an assistant in the studio, David would occasionally go on photographic shoots with the main photographers.
One day on the 4th April 1963 as a very young photographer of 19 years of age, David was sent out on his own to photograph a pop group who were playing an end of term concert at Stowe School, in Buckinghamshire UK. This was Davids first photographic session with The Beatles. This session was well received and more sessions followed
A short time after this David was encouraged to go freelance by Tony Barrow a publicist and a good friend. As a freelance photographer David travelled with and photographed not only The Beatles, but also The Rolling Stones, Cilla Black, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Freddie and The Dreamers and nearly all of the UK’s famous and soon to be famous pop groups. David also worked extensively with American bands including The Beach Boys, The Birds and many others.
David’s early work with The Beatles and their acceptance of him allowed David unprecedented access to them. This culminated when The Beatles took part in the first ever live world-wide TV satellite broadcast called “Our World”. Each of the 19 countries taking part would to have it’s own segment featuring something special from that country. The UK segment was a live performance of The Beatles recording their song “All you need is love”.
The rehearsal and transmission took place at the famous EMI Studio 1 at Abbey Road London. David had exclusive coverage on both the 24th and 25th June and later on that evening of the 25th June for the actual transmission. The Beatles wanted the studio to have a party atmosphere, so a great deal of time was spent decorating the studio to reflect this. The Beatles themselves were all dressed in colourful clothes and were surrounded by flowers, balloons and placards. To further add to the party atmosphere The Beatles invited a number of their friends to attend.
These friends included Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Keith Moon, Marianne Faithful, Eric Clapton, Jane Asher, Patti Boyd and Graham Nash and The Beatles manager Brian Epstein. One aspect of the photographs that David took that day saddened him greatly, the photographs of Brian Epstein and The Beatles, are the last ever photographs of Brian Epstein with The Beatles as Brian died shortly afterwards
The program was to be relayed to 24 countries worldwide and it has been estimated that more than 400 million people worldwide saw it.
David worked with all the famous pop groups of the day in the 60’s and 70’s. David also worked in the film business for many years, working both in the UK and overseas on many English, Continental and American Films as well as in the Television Industry.
Recording sessions David Magnus participated in
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Our World TV Broadcast: The Beatles' performance of "All You Need Is Love"
Jun 25, 1967 • Songs recorded during this session appear on All You Need Is Love / Baby You're A Rich Man (UK)
