mostly david ephgrave

Pray silence for the most awkwardly posed photo of all time. It was taken the day after we’d performed the Buddy Holly show in Armagh, Northern Ireland. We’re standing outside our hotel the next morning, with the Mayor, the hotel’s proprietor and a couple of representatives from MacMillan Cancer Support. By we, I mean the band’s rhythm guitarist Ben Tinniswood and me; the rest of the Cricketers were supposed to be there too, but they didn’t deign to get up.   No-one looks comfortable with the situation. This was because we’d been ushered into a very specific formation by the photographer. No mayor should have to crouch like that. The balloons blowing into the woman’s face personify our self-consciousness; it only needs the major’s chain of office to come unclasped for the image to be complete. One thing you can’t see is Ben’s and my physical discomfort. Our tuxedos were still damp with sweat from the night before. We showered first thing and got straight bac...

Friday 8th August 1969. Just before noonish. Four world-famous faces convene outside EMI Studios in St. John’s Wood. Their bodies convene at the same location; it would have looked weird if they hadn't.  A stepladder is quickly set up in the centre of the main road, just a few yards from a zebra crossing. The four musicians wander down to it, the clean-shaven one kicks off his sandals and they then proceed to walk over the crossing a handful of times - the musicians, not the sandals - whilst a photographer up the ladder captures the moment. I’m referring to the cover shoot for The Beatles’ Abbey Road. Get it? Good. At that point the Fab Four were already at the tail-end of their collective career, only a few brief months from calling it a day.  They’d conquered the world (musically speaking), and in just seven years had transmuted from loveable moptops to less-loveable, even-moppier moptops – and, get this: none of them had yet r...