McCartney Times

EXCLUSIVE: Famed photographer who snapped The Beatles, The Who and the Stones shares unseen photos and tells how he got his big break after finding Mick Jagger in bed with two naked women Alec Byrne, 68, recalls to DailyMailTV how he snuck into film sets and snapped photos of rock stars when he was a young photographer in London in the late 60s and early 70s Some of his never-before-seen photos, which survived a flood, a building fire, and an earthquake, are showcased in his new book, London Rock: The Unseen Archive At 19, Byrne watched Mick Jagger make his acting debut after the photographer finagled his way on the set of the film Performance, and snapped a photo of him in bed with actresses Michele Breton and Anita Pallenberg ‘There was nowhere else to go so I had to sit on the edge of the bed, Mick glared at me with the two women beside him, I’ll never forget it,’ he told DailyMailTV Byrne smoked marijuana with Bob Marley, hung out at Elton John’s house, and befriended Paul and Ringo He remembers vividly the time he was at the Marquee Club in SoHo when Keith Richards collapsed on stage, his eyes rolling back in his head and his body crashing into an amp As a young photographer, Byrne was present at Brian Jones’s funeral and walked over to his open grave and captured an iconic photoBy Ryan Parry West Coast Correspondent For Dailymail.comPublished: 13:43 EST, 5 December 2017 | Updated: 16:48 EST, 5 December 2017 e-mail 1.8kshares328View commentsPhotographer Alec Byrne, now 68, recalls being on the front lines of London’s rock n’ roll music scene in the late 1960s+23Photographer Alec Byrne, now 68, recalls being on the front lines of London’s rock n’ roll music scene in the late 1960sIt was the summer of 1968 and Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger was filming his first movie.The film, Performance, was being shot in a house in Knightsbridge, west London on a closed set, but word quickly got out.Young music photographer Alec Byrne had somehow managed to sneak in – but the 19-year-old wasn’t prepared for what would happen next.’To this day I don’t know how I pulled it off, when I got there the house was nothing fancy and, with a full complement of cast and crew, a bit cramped,’ Byrne told DailyMailTV. ‘I followed the flow of people to where the focus of the activity was and I suddenly found myself in a small bedroom – there was Mick Jagger lay in bed with two naked women, it was some sight.’Jagger was in the middle of filming a steamy scene with actresses Anita Pallenberg and Michele Breton when Byrne stumbled in – he couldn’t believe his luck.’It was pretty special, the girls were free and easy about being naked,’ he recalls. ‘Mick was very quiet, intensely focused on what he had to do. But shooting bands on stage and behind the scenes did nothing to prepare me for this situation.’Byrne squeezed passed the production crew tried to position himself in the corner of the room out of the way.But as he did so did a grip guy carrying a lightning stand and blocked him off.’There was nowhere else to go so I had to sit on the edge of the bed, Mick glared at me with the two women beside him, I’ll never forget it.

Source: Alec Byrne showcases unseen photo archive including Jagger | Daily Mail Online