Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm review – Macca’s remarkable snaps capture the buzz of Beatlemania

For the National Portrait Gallery’s first major exhibition since reopening, it’s hard to imagine a more bang-on-target choice than this. Here we have 250 unseen photographs from Paul McCartney’s personal archive, chronicling the height of Beatlemania – and the vast majority taken by the ex-Beatle himself. McCartney’s newly acquired Pentax camera – lightweight and easy to use – captures the various band members relaxing backstage, their support bands, such as Peter Jay & the Jaywalkers – anyone remember them? Quite a few of the early images are slightly out of focus as McCartney gets used to the camera, and the large number of appearances from McCartney himself attest to the fact that many of these photographs were taken by members of the band’s entourage – and they’re pretty good too. A soulful shot of Harrison deep in thought, “George Harrison on a Paris street”, is one of the best pictures ever taken of a Beatle – and there’s plenty of competition.