Unseen Milan photos

Posing on the terraces of the Duomo, Milan. From the Farabola archives.

On June 24, 1965, the Fab Four held their two unique concerts in Milan – one in the afternoon and one in the evening at the Vigorelli. They then continued their short Italian tour with the cities Genoa and Rome. At the time they were photographed by the Farabola agency, and so far only a dozen of photographs taken that day had been put into circulation – those which Farabola had selected, printed and distributed to newspapers.

John Lennon on stage in Milan. From the Farabola archives.

“For nearly 50 years it was believed that these were the only existing photographs of the Beatles in Milan” – say the archivists at Farabola. Now there’s an exhibition, “The Beatles Live!”, held at the Feltrinelli book store at the Piazza Duomo in Milan. It was music journalist and author of several Beatles books, Franco Zanetti who was able to unearth new photos. After he had been insisting for a long time, the photo agency were eventually persuaded to let him look through their archives. After looking through roughly 100 unused negatives, Zanetti selected 25 photos for display at the exhibition.

The Beatles on stage in Milan. From the Farabola archives.

The exhibition is open until July 4 and tells the story in unpublished shots from the archives of Farabola. The Beatles are seen posing on the terraces of the Duomo, at a press conference, live on the stage at the Vigorelli velodrome, exiting from the hotel and escaping from the fans smitten with Beatlemania.

Paul McCartney on stage in Milan. From the Farabola archives.

You will find a preview of a selection of these new images in La Repubblica Milano.