A Bury St Edmunds photographer’s ‘Mad Day Out’ with The Beatles in 1968 has been documented in a new book which will hit the shelves in June. Tom Murray, 75, spent a day with the iconic band in 1968 while working at The Sunday Times and photographed them in various locations around London. “I had no idea who I was photographing so I only took one camera which I still have today,” said Tom, who is a Bury town councillor. “It was just the four of them and me. They were fantastic, we had a ball.” Tom discarded many photos from the day but kept the rest under wraps for 20 years, until, while working in LA, he was asked by Jack Nicholson and Angelica Houston to donate a print to a charity auction. The print fetched $12,000 and since then Tom’s work has raised over £1.4 million for charities worldwide. The book, titled The Beatles: Tom Murray’s Mad Day Out, includes 23 colour images as well as Tom’s own account of the day. “It took quite a while to put together but it’s really very pleasing to have my work go in a book. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and it looks fabulous,” he said.
The Mad Day Out series is being featured in an exhibition in New York next month, while his 1969 photograph of Princess Margaret, Lord Snowdon and their children will also feature in a London exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary of the Association of Photographers. It will be on display in the lobby of One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, and will be open daily until June 1. “I never thought I’d be in exhibitions or museums. It’s all in the past now but I was lucky. I just seemed to be in the right place at the right time and now I have all the memories. It’s amazing,” he said.