Mike McCartney; Bobby Brown

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Mike McCartney; Bobby Brown

by Mike McCartney
bromide print, early 1962
10 in. x 10 in. (255 mm x 255 mm)
Purchased, 2001
Photographs Collection
NPG x88784

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His self-portrait shows him at the McCartney family home, with Bobby Brown, a Cavern Club regular who launched the first official Beatles fan club in May 1962. With his Franke and Heidecke Rollei Magic, Mike McCartney recalled, 'experimenting with light in the back bedroom of our Liverpool home, which became my dark room...only when it went dark.'

Caption originates from Remember: The Recollections and Photographs of Mike McCartney, 1992

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  • Rideal, Liz, Insights: Self-portraits, 2005, p. 29 Read entry

    This photograph was taken by Paul McCartney’s brother Mike and includes Bobby Brown, who launched the Beatles’ first official fan club. The form of the mirror is stronger than both figures: its shaped wings are dominant, enclosing the couple in an angelic embrace. The linear window pattern reflections contrast with the domestic regularity of the wallpaper, enhancing the feeling of enclosure.

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Current affairs

After a series of by-election defeats, the prime minister, Harold MacMillan organises a drastic cabinet reshuffle, dismissing one third of his cabinet. Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe's wry comment summed up the desperate action: 'greater love hath no man than this, than to lay down his friends for his life.'
Britain suffers the 'Big Freeze' with no frost-free nights between 22nd December 1962 and 5th March 1963.

Art and science

The Beatles have their first hit with Love Me Do and release their first album Please Please Me.
The new Coventry Cathedral is consecrated and creates a showcase for British artistic talent with the first performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, a wall hanging by Graham Sutherland, stained glass by John Piper, and sculptures by Jacob Epstein and Elizabeth Frink.

International

The world comes to the brink of nuclear war with the Cuban Missile Crisis. In response to the USA's nuclear advantage, the USSR sent missiles to Cuba. The crisis lasted for 12 days before a deal was finally stuck between Khrushchev and Kennedy in which the Cuban missile bases were dismantled in return for the secret removal of US missiles from Turkey.

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