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(CNN) --
Two previously unseen Beatles photographs showing the band playing at Liverpool's Cavern Club in 1961, shortly before they rose to fame, were recently revealed.
The photos were released to mark the 60th anniversary of the October 1962 release of "Love Me Do," the band's first single on Parlophone, according to a statement from Tracks, a UK-based distributor of music memorabilia. .
Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn said the photos were taken in July 1961. Credit: Tracks Ltd
Tracks CEO Paul Wane told CNN the photos were taken by a fan following the band in the early 1960s who had a camera, which was unusual for the time.
"Not many people had cameras back then," Wane told CNN on Monday.
"That's why there are so few photos of the Beatles in the Cavern. There are very, very, very few."
Wane said the photographer is still alive and lives in suburban Liverpool, but he doesn't want his name in the public domain.
"He followed the Beatles in some of the early concerts," Wane said.
"He was talking to them."
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Although the photographer no longer has the negatives of the photos, Tracks has the original contact sheet from the roll of film, he added.
"It's great that they came out," Wane said.
"I am delighted".
A rare photograph showing (from left to right) George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
Drummer Pete Best is partially visible.
Credit: Tracks Ltd
Tracks works with Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, who said the photos were taken during a lunchtime or late-night show in July 1961, just after the band had returned from a long concert stint in Hamburg. , Germany.
"The marathon left them so slender that their heads and bodies seem strange, an aspect that is accentuated by their unusual clothing: leather pants and cotton T-shirts," Lewisohn said in the statement.
"No other photos show them dressed this way."
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"Three months later, John and Paul went to Paris and came back with what became known as 'the Beatle haircut.' Days later, Brian Epstein saw the Beatles at the Cavern, offered to be their manager, and took them around a path that changed our world".
The legacy of the Beatles, who formed in Liverpool in 1960 and broke up in 1970, has far outstripped their 10-year run as one of the world's most influential rock bands.
The "Fab Four", as they were known, achieved 20 number 1s on Billboard throughout their career.
They took the music world by storm, with genre-defying records, era-defining album covers, and "Beatlemania," a term coined to describe the phenomenon surrounding the band.
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