PAUL MCCARTNEY

'Millions of eyes were suddenly upon us, creating a picture I will never forget for the rest of my life'.

Between 150 and 200 previously unseen and unpublished photographs by Paul McCartney from December 1963 - when Beatlemania was in full swing in the UK - to their legendary visit to America in 1964 when The Beatles became the most famous people on the planet. In the eye of the storm is Paul McCartney himself, taking these photographs of his fellow bandmates and what they saw - a unique record of a unique moment. The Lyrics was a self-portrait, this book is a snapshot from history. The book includes an essay 'Beatleland' by Jill Lepore, which sets the phenomenon in its time, an introduction by McCartney and six essays by him to begin each of the chapters on the tour - Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington and Miami. McCartney introduces each city with his impressions and memories, reflections on the importance of photography in his life, and stories about the band's escapades. 'The more I look back on my life, I feel like a sort of mariner, whose been to all these ports and seen all these amazing things.' Coincides with a landmark exhibition at a national London venue and on major international tour. In 2020, an extraordinary trove of nearly a thousand photographs taken by Paul McCartney on a 35mm camera was re-discovered in his archive. They intimately record the months towards the end of 1963 and beginning of 1964 when Beatlemania erupted in the UK and, after the band's first visit to the USA, they became the most famous people on the planet. The photographs are McCartney's personal record of this explosive time, when he was, as he puts it, in the 'Eyes of the Storm'. 1964: Eyes of the Storm presents 275 of McCartney's photographs from the six cities of these intense, legendary months - Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami - and many never-before-seen portraits of John, George and Ringo. In his Foreword and Introductions to these city portfolios, McCartney remembers 'what else can you call it - pandemonium' and conveys his impressions of Britain and America in 1964 - the moment when the culture changed and the Sixties really began.