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Roy
Cameron's Unpublished Beatles photographs.
Checking
over the DVD of the Magical Mystery Tour, Roy Cameron realised
that had he been on the Hoe at Plymouth where the Fab Four
stopped he would've been unable to take photos of the four in
front of the bus. Luckily, Roy called them out of the hotel
after they had lunch and was able to take the only pictures of
the Beatles in front of the Magical Mystery Tour Bus. It was a
chance moment in life to be at the right place at the right
time to take these historic pictures of the world's number one
band of all time.
Roy Cameron is a Professional Photographer now selling his
unpublished rare Beatles photographs taken in September 1967
in Black & White during a lunch break while filming
Magical Mystery Tour.
Roy Cameron trained in
photography and joined the Royal Air Force as a photographer
serving in UK and Germany. Worked as a Newspaper Photographer
Freelance & staff from Aberdeen to Plymouth and won three first prizes in
press work - Dennis & Margaret Thatcher,
Prince Charles playing polo and child being brought back to
life after house fire. He photographed numerous personalities
including Sean Connery, John Cleese, Peter Cook, Rowan
Atkinson, Tony Hancock, Susan Hampshire, Vanessa
Redgrave, Lorraine Kelly, Ulrika Johnson, Margaret Lockwood,
Johnny Cash and family, Rod Stewart, Tom Jones, Cliff Richard, Ronald & Nancy Regan, Clint Eastwood, Bing
Crosby, Jack Lemon, Billy Connolly, Terry Waite, Archbishop
Desmond TuTu, Neil Armstrong etc.... All British
Prime Ministers from Harold Wilson to Tony Blair, Princess
Diana and most of the Royals.
Here, Digger
talks to Roy about that day and his photos:
Images
© copyright Roy Cameron
Digger: That's a very impressive list of people that you've
photographed.
Roy:
Yes.
Digger: How did that all come about?
Roy:
I suppose over the years I've been freelancing and a staff
photographer and I've done most things. So that's probably
why. I had my first picture published of penguins at the zoo
in Edinburgh in the Amateur Photographer when I was eleven
years old. (Laughs) And that wasn't yesterday! Then I did an
apprenticeship in photography, which you don't get nowadays.
And then I joined the Air Force as a photographer.
After that I joined a publishing company in Dundee and then
I went freelance...
Digger:
What sort of photography were you doing in the RAF? Was it aerial
stuff?
Roy:
Both, we did shots on the ground of any dignitaries that
came to the base and we did everything. In Germany we had a
mobile processing unit, which meant when the Canberras went
over anything worth photographing they flew back with the
film and we printed them. It was quite interesting, because
there were plenty of things to be printed in a 24-hour
operation.
Digger:
What would you have though then of the technology we have
now with desktop publishing and digital?
Roy:
I remember starting with a plate camera and you didn't have
any rangefinder or auto focus - you had to set the distance
and know how far away the object was you were taking. There
was only one chance to get the right picture at the right
time. (Laughs)
Digger: Now you can shoot away and have got lots of chances
and can then edit and correct mistakes on the computer.
Roy:
I think nowadays it's probably too easy because you can
also check as you go. In the old days, you had to process
the picture to know what you had. Now you see instantly
whether you've got it or not. But you still have to
know when the moment is and I think this is the crux of
the whole thing. I won three awards - the first one was a
picture of a child being rescued. Now I phoned the fire
brigade on the Saturday night to see if anything was
happening and they said "There's a fire". I was
lucky. Again, you've got to know what you're doing and
also you need a bit of luck. Because I got there before
the ambulance, so the firemen took the child out on a
stretcher on the ground in front of me, put the
resuscitator on - the child was black with smoke and soot
and as he pulled the dirt off I got this picture of the
child covered in smoke and round the mouth white. The
mother in tears with her hand to her eyes and the firemen
looking on. That was the UK winner.
Digger:
That appeared on all the front pages, I suppose?
Roy:
Yes, yes. I won my first award with that and again it's
timing, which brings me back to The Beatles. I went round
there to the hotel on Plymouth Hoe. I didn't know that
just around the corner from the hotel just an hour earlier
The Beatles had come off the bus and had posed for an official
photograph on Plymouth Hoe sat on the grass and looking
out to sea. I've seen the TV film of that and it's absolutely
wall-to-wall people and I could never have got the picture
of the four in front of the bus at that time. That's the
timing and luck because when I saw them the bus was
outside The Grand Hotel and I went in and they were
sitting having lunch. And I said to Paul "I'd like to
take a picture of the four of you with the bus." And
he said "Once we've finished our meal we'll come out
and do it." Which they did.
Digger: Incredible that they were so cooperative.
Roy:
Yes. I think there would have been about twenty people there
whereas at the Hoe there were 500.
Digger: You can see a couple of people leaning against the
wall in one of the shots.
Roy:
Yes, and that's about it. Very few people knew what was
going on and there weren't a lot around.
Digger: Even the people on The Magical Mystery Tour bus
itself?
Roy:
There were one or two on there so maybe with the people on
the bus there were about sixty people there in all. I
managed to get the four of them in front of the bus,
whereas had I been on the official thing round the corner
an hour earlier I wouldn't have got anything.
Digger: Were there any shots that didn't come out or that
you weren't happy with?
Images
© copyright Roy Cameron
Roy:
I've got two or three extra pictures which are a
wee bit damaged or have been in the light but I'm hoping
to do something with them and restore them.
Digger:
If people are interested in buying these what do they do?
Roy:
They just look up my website and you can pay by Paypal.
Digger:
Oh that's so easy. It's amazing what they can do these
days! I wonder what you in the sixties would have
made of the Google images where they have photographed the
world and you can look at any location? Have you seen your
village on Google?
Roy:
Yes, I have. It's fantastic.
Digger:
The world is so small and everyone can communicate with
everyone else these days. As for The Beatles, when Sid
Bernstein took them to America for the first time he
simply rang up Brian Epstein, who he'd never met, and
agreed with a gentleman's agreement over the 'phone for
them to work in the USA. Bernstein hadn't even seen them -
he'd only read about them. The whole thing done over the
'phone.
Roy:
Nowadays you'd have a team of lawyers.
Digger:
That's right. I can't imagine how they managed to make
those big decisions then, because now whatever we do these
days we check it out on The Internet first. Holidays,
purchases, events, whatever it is.
Roy:
Perhaps life was simpler then?
Digger:
I think when you say perhaps, we can substitute
definitely. We had less choices then Roy. But the more
choices we have these days, the less we really have.
Roy:
That's true.
Digger:
You've got a real rarity there with your photos.
Roy:
Yes, I've done a lot of research and there doesn't appear
to be any other photograph of the four Beatles in front of
the bus on that day. There are various websites where
there might be one, two or even three Beatles but none's
got the shot that I got.
Digger:
With Paul just larking about.
Roy:
Yes, they were all just larking about.
Digger:
Well, Roy, thanks for letting us know all about it.
Roy:
Thanks David.
Images
© copyright Roy Cameron
Photographs
printed 20x16 ins (50x40cm) hand-signed on front and
supplied with certificate of authenticity also signed and
with details of how the photographs were taken. Note -
pictures below are low resolution copies and the prints
Roy will send you will be the originals, hand printed from
the negative. Cost of prints £195 including post and
packing. Please state which photo required. All 3 prints
signed only £495 including post and packaging.
Please
see the website below:
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