An account of the photo session is written below by Arthur Johnson (JG's nephew & Liverpool Echo journalist at the time).

Below, an extract from Derek Taylor’s autobiography, Thirty Years Adrift, about the day the famous Beatles, Paddy, John Gregson picture was taken. Derek was then on the Daily Express and the Beatles had just become huge national news as they were to play the Royal Variety Performance. I was a young reporter on a freelance agency in Southport and we wanted to be one step ahead of the national staff men. John Gregson was in Liverpool at the time and regularly took his Uncle Paddy out drinking. When possible I’d join them. I knew the Beatles were Gregson fans so we came up with the line that they had copied their hair styles on Paddy’s. I contacted the theatre manager in advance and he gladly agreed to let us in to meet them – he considered John Gregson to be a much bigger star then than the four Liverpool lads. The photographer and I had been in with Beatles for about 20 minutes and managed to get our picture, used the next day in the nationals, before the other reporters managed to come crashing into the dressing room.

Derek had been on the Liverpool Echo before joining the Express and was a sort of “adopted” relative as we called his Mum “Aunty Vera”. He went on to be the Beatles press officer and was with Apple until he died about ten years ago. He was a great help to me when I was marketing editor of the Liverpool Echo and gave us exclusive access to the Apple picture archives and arranged for me to interview Paul on a one to one basis a couple of times. He left a list of people he wanted inviting to his funeral, which was attended by George Harrison, and I was lucky enough to be included.

The press pack had just gate-crashed the dressing room and Derek writes: “Inside the small room were the Fab Three, no John to be seen, but who’s this? John Gregson, movie star no less, full of cheer and a drink or two, with his Uncle Paddy and nephew, Arthur Johnson, a newspaper man indeed. A local freelance with access to The Beatles!

Gregson’s greeting broke the spell: “Derek! It’s Derek Taylor”, Vera’s boy. George, do you know Derek Taylor?” well thank God for that. I put out my hand to George who accepted it and said Hello....

“Then the door opened and into the sweatbox squeezed John, unsmiling but
not unfriendly. All of us milling around the other three and Gregson, Uncle Paddy and Arthur still in the room...”

Earlier in the book Derek writes: “I went to Newcastle to review a new William Fairchild play, Breaking Point, which starred John Gregson, Robert Beatty and Paul Massie. After a long liquid lunch with Gregson (the brother of “Auntie” Chris, a bridesmaid at my parents’ wedding), I saw about 20 minutes of the play in dress rehearsal and then fell asleep, to wake five minutes before the end. Unable to offer a word of genuine criticism, I took the synopsis and burst into a flurry of adverbial and adjectival enthusiasms whereby John Gregson became the greatest actor since Henry Irving. Years later Gregson told me it had been the best and most embarrassing notice he’d ever had. “You must have been drunk” he said laughing. “I was” I said ordering another round of drinks...

Arthur Johnson