New Lennon and McCartney picture reveals Beatles legends a year before hitting the big time

Friends John Lennon and Paul McCartney pose on the streets of Liverpool before fame and moptop hairstyles take hold, in a previously unpublished photograph. The songwriting duo are seen in the summer of 1961, the year before they landed their record deal and scored their first chart hit with Love Me Do.

Author and Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn is to publish the shot in a special edition of his new book The Beatles - All These Years: Volume One: Tune In later this year. Lewisohn, who has written six previous books about the Fab Four, bought the picture from a fan in the band's home city of Liverpool two decades ago, but it has not previously been in print.

Source: Mirror