Beatlemania Hits Tribeca: Paul McCartney Unearths His 1960s Photographs With Conan O’Brien, Reminisces on John Lennon’s ‘Vulnerability’
Ethan Shanfeld Before Paul McCartney even took his seat, he was greeted with rapturous applause and an instant standing ovation at Tribeca Festival. And, in case anyone still doubted whether he still got it, he asked the crowd politely, “I’d like to hear all the girls do a Beatles scream, please,” resulting in a shriek so loud it sent shockwaves back to 1964. McCartney joined Conan O’Brien at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center Thursday evening to promote his new book, a collection of unearthed photographs titled “1964: Eyes of the Storm.” Between 1963 and 1964, McCartney took 275 photos on a 35mm camera, documenting the Beatles’ incredible rise in Europe and first visit to America, including their historic performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” McCartney thought he lost the photos, he told the audience, until a photo archivist in London recovered them in 2020. Of course, the “storm” referenced in the title of the book is Beatlemania, with a young McCartney pointing his lens out from the center of it.