Exclusive The Beatles are sprinting down a street in Mayfair being snapped by Derek Bayes on a quiet Sunday after he heard a commotion from his office.

The Beatles were caught on camera by Derek Bayes in Mayfair.

In 1965, John, Paul, George and Ringo are sprinting down a London street while filming their hit movie Help!

The pics were taken after snapper Derek Bayes heard a commotion from his office and spotted the Fab Four’s antics on New Bond Street, Mayfair.

It was May 9, a quiet Sunday, and Derek had to be quick to capture pop’s biggest ever band.
Derek Bayes heard a commotion from his office.

The pictures, unpublished until now, reveal a hilarious day’s filming.

Ringo Starr, who has just turned 80, has blurry memories of making the film, directed by Dick Lester, said: “It was great, a lot of fun. Dick knew very little would get done after lunch. We seldom got past the first line of the script. “We had hysterics… no one could do anything. Dick would say, ‘No, boys, could we do it again?’ It was just that we had a lot of fun – a lot of fun in those days.”

Paul McCartney, has said: “We smiled a lot and hoped we’d get through. Every time we’d turn round to the camera tears were streaming down our faces.”

The precious pictures have lain in a filing cabinet for 55 years. Derek, 75, died of pancreatic cancer in 2009 and his widow Angela only recently began sifting through his mountain of prints.

Angela, 70, says: “Derek always had his Leica camera around his neck and as soon as he heard a fuss in the street he went out to investigate.

“He had to run really fast to keep up. When a car whisked The Beatles off to another location, Derek jumped in a taxi and followed. Bystanders look immaculate not because they were models or extras, but because they are in a very fashionable street at the height of the Swinging Sixties.”

Comedian Alfie Bass appears in a turban as a doorman in one scene.

Help! came out two months later. The spy spoof told of Ringo receiving a valuable ring from a fan, then being pursued by an Indian death cult.

Derek, who worked for Life & Time magazines before going freelance, shot The Beatles again two years later at Abbey Road Studios.

His pictures feature in a new book, Beatlemania 1963-1965: Four Photographers on the Fab Four, released in autumn.
The photos were taken when The Beatles were in their pomp.

Angela says: “Every time Beatles memorabilia sold for a fortune, Derek and I would remind ourselves to look out his pictures. But we never did. We were not money oriented. Although I kick myself every time I think of all the signed Beatles’ albums we lost.”

Derek, who founded the Aspect Picture Library, had a talent for connecting with subjects, including actors Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole and jazz legend Louis Armstrong.

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