George Harrison Archive

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An appreciation of George Harrison through verifiable quotes and in-depth research; curated by @akirsten83.bsky.social. | Also on instagram.com/harrisonarchive & harrisonarchive.tumblr.com.

Color closeup of a serious George Harrison photographed by Guido Harari in San Remo, 1988.
George Harrison during the so-called Mad Day Out in London on July 28, 1968. Photo by Don McCullin, scanned from McCullin’s book A Day In The Life Of The Beatles.
A smiling George Harrison and Bob Dylan onstage at Madison Square Garden during the Concert for Bangladesh on August 1, 1971. Photographer unnamed.
Photo by Roger Dimitri Vito/Camera Press London. Q: “I looked at it for the first thirty seconds you’re on the screen, Where did they get this guy? And I thought, that’s George.” George Harrison: “I’m such a ham. I think I’ve had an image, people have had a concept of me being really straight ‚cause I was the serious one or something.” Q: “You were the mysterious one.” GH: “But actually, I mean, I’m the biggest lunatic around; one of them anyway.” - A Personal Music Dialogue with George Harrison at 33 & 1/3 (1976)
George and Olivia photographed by Simon Townsley in London, 1990.
George Harrison and Jackie Stewart share a laugh at a charity race, June 3, 1979. Photo by Express. “His driving was not great! We did the Gunnar Nilsson tribute with Fangio at Donington in 1979 and I’ve got a picture that he drew of us with two speech bubbles. He was driving Stirling’s Rob Walker Lotus 18 and is ahead of me going down the Craner Curves. My bubble is saying, ‘Jesus, I got him to drive and now he won’t let me past!’ He’s saying, ‘well, I’ve got Jackie Stewart behind me — and he can’t pass!’” - Jackie Stewart, Motor Sport Magazine (December 2011)
George Harrison in his Ferrari Dino outside Friar Park in August 1978; photo by fan Denny Suba (image courtesy of Meet the Beatles for Real). A note about this fan photo: “We congratulated him on the arrival of Dhani (pronounced ‘Danny’ I’ll never forget how he said it) and said how excited we all were when we heard the news. He gave a big grin and said, ‘Thanks, we think it’s pretty exciting.’ […] ‘Well, uh, we don’t want to keep you from what you’re doing…’ I started, to which George said, ‘It’s okay, really.’ I stepped away from the car and said, ‘No, we won’t keep you. Say hello for Olivia for me.’ He put the car in gear as he replied, ‘Yeah, I will. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you later.’ He started to drive through the gates, slowed and shouted back, ‘Enjoy your holiday!’ and waved again as he left. As I watched the car disappear, I couldn’t believe that George had thanked US for stopping by when we had imposed on him in the first place!” - Sue Link, Harrison Alliance (January 1979)
George Harrison with his Porsche at an event in aid of the Gunnar Nilsson Cancer Treatment Campaign at Silverstone in January 1979; photo by Alan Giddins. Also at the event was, among others, Steve Parrish; in 2015, Parrish mentioned on Twitter that George sponsored him in 1980, and “saved [his] season” (November 9, 2015). He elaborated on the point in a November 27, 2015 interview with Motorcycle News: “George used to come to a lot of the Grands Prix — quite often with Eric Idle. George was quite annoyed when I got sacked from Texaco Heron Suzuki in 1977 and he said ‘Don’t worry Steve — I’ll make sure you have enough tyres and petrol to go racing,’ and he gave me £55,000!”
George Harrison, May 30, 1964. Photo by Leslie Bryce.
Black and white photo of George Harrison — hair tousled, looking into the camera — during the filming of Help!, Bahamas, 1965. Photo by Henry Grossman.
George Harrison posing with his Aston Martin DB5 at Kinfauns, 1965; photo by Henry Grossman. “George has decided to change his E-type Jaguar [see post from July 11] for a white Aston Martin D.B.5—the same model as James Bond used in the film ‘Goldfinger.’ He’s obviously been won over by Paul who also drives an Aston.” - The Beatles Monthly (March 1965)
George Harrison photographed at Kinfauns by Leslie Bryce on October 7, 1965; scanned from The Beatles Monthly.
George Harrison with his father Harry and brother Peter during the Dark Horse Tour, 1974 (photo by Henry Grossman)
George Harrison, 1962; photo by Harry Whatmough.
Pictured are George Harrison and Freda at the Beatles Fan Club screening of Magical Mystery Tour on December 17, 1967 (bottom right of the first slide), plus screenshots from the documentary Good Ol’ Freda (of personalized autographs from each Beatle to Freda). “Before they moved to London, I wanted to get their autographs. So George was in [the office] this day, and I had like autograph book upon autograph book for him to sign, and mine — I slipped mine in the middle. So he’s signing them, and I’m saying, you know, ‘That’s to Rita, that’s to Barbara’ […] and it gets to mine, and, ‘Who’s this to?’ And I said, ‘Well, just — just sign that,’ because I just wanted it out of the way. And he went, ‘Well, no, who’s it to?’ And I think it was because I was going, ‘It doesn’t matter, just sign this.’ I remember saying to him, ‘Just sign the book, just sign the book!’ And he flipped it to the front, and he went, ‘It’s yours!’ And I went, ‘Yeah, I haven’t got your autograph, I just want your autograph before you go to London.’ So he signed it, and he pocketed it. He took it. And I went, ‘What are you doing with my book?’ And he went, ‘I’ll get the others for you.’ And then next time he came in, he just threw it on the table and he went, ‘There you go.’ And they’d all put little comments.” - Freda Kelly, Good Ol’ Freda’
George Harrison and Bob Marley backstage at the Roxy on July 14, 1975; photo by Kim Gottlieb-Walker.
The Dark Horse tour musicians, photographed by Ed Caraeff. The musicians on the tour were: Chuck Findley, Tom Scott, Willie Weeks, Andy Newmark, Billy Preston, Alla Rakha, Ravi Shankar, Satyadev Pawar, Harihar Rao, Robben Ford, L. Subramaniam, Kamalesh Maitra, T.V. Gopalakrishnan, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Viji Shankar, Shivkumar Sharma, Lakshmi Shankar, Gopal Krishan, Kartick Kumar, Emil Richards, Sultan Khan, Rijram Desad, and, of course, George.
George Harrison with his E-type Jaguar, photographed by Leslie Bryce outside Whaddon House, Williams Mews, in London on July 11, 1964; scanned from The Beatles Monthly. “Apart from girls, and listening to records with girls, I put driving as my big hobby. I thoroughly enjoy a long drive, but though I rate myself good behind the wheel, I’m not so sure the police agree.” - George Harrison, The Beatles Monthly (August 1963) “Girls at the British Motor Corporation’s M.G. works at Abington, Berkshire, heard that George Harrison of the Beatles was having a two-seater built. So they planted lipstick kisses on the bodywork and hid love letters in door pockets, glove compartments, in the boot and under the bonnet, says the ’Sunday Mirror.’ But George will never get the secret notes. He changed his mind about the car, a black 110 m.p.h. M.G.B., in favor of an E-type Jaguar. A B.M.C. spokesman said the car had since been disposed of through an agent.” - The Sydney Morning Herald (March 9, 1964)
George’s first car was a blue 1959 Ford Anglia; here he is with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and that car in Liverpool, sometime in 1962, as photographed by Mike McCartney. Photo © Mike McCartney. “George with the first car owned by any of the Beatles. A Ford Anglia, not very classy but it was all he could afford.” - Mike McCartney, Remember (1992)
George Harrison at the Long Beach Grand Prix (March 25 and 26, 1983); photo by Peter C. Borsari.
George visiting Ringo in the hospital, 1964, photo © Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; the two of them onstage at the Prince’s Trust Concert, 1987, photo by Richard Young.
Arthur Kelly and George Harrison, 1959; scanned from The Beatles: The Authorized Biography.
Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr., Otis Wilbury and Nelson Wilbury (a.k.a. Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and George Harrison) at the WEA post-Grammy Awards party held at Chasen’s on February 22, 1989; photo by Tony Fornaro.
Color photo of George Harris. with Friar Park gardeners and other staff, in a photo from a 2012 TRACKS and Julien’s auction; likely photographed by Olivia.
George Harrison and his mother, Louise, dancing at the premiere party for A Hard Day’s Night, July 6, 1964; photo by Express/Mirrorpix.
Olivia and George Harrison at the BAFTA’s on March 22, 1987; photo by Alan Davidson/Shutterstock.
George Harrison’s sketched rendition of The Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd. headquarters (1968), courtesy of Artnet’s 2014 auction listing.
A page from fan Sue Houghton’s scrapbook, featuring a photo of George and , as she wrote on the page: “cotton + pieces of lining etc. from George’s blue 3/4 mac.”
Color closeup of George Harrison wearing sunglasses and his maroon velvet jacket and a light grey sweater, June 1966. Photo by Robert Whitaker.
(Top photo) The Beatles with Chris Montez and Tommy Roe in 1963 (photo by Harry Hammond, © Victoria and Albert Museum / V&A Prints); (bottom photo) Chris Montez and Ron Arias, Olivia’s brother, at Hawthorne High School (photo courtesy of Hawthorne High).
George, Olivia (along with Mary Hopkin and Tony Lane), Dhani and (in image 4) Joe Brown and Jenny Hanley protesting to save the Regal cinema in Henley-on-Thames. Photos courtesy of the Henley Standard, the Reading Evening Post, and Boom Radio. “Hundreds of chanting children took to the streets of Henley on Saturday to protest the closure of the Regal cinema. Among the colorful crowd were George Harrison’s son Dhani and wife Olivia, who live in Henley, and singer Mary Hopkin.” - Reading Evening Standard (June 16, 1986) “[George] Harrison and his wife Olivia have been involved with local conservation issues for several years and regularly attend pressure group meetings. […] ‘I’m not doing this for an ulterior motive. I genuinely want to preserve this town. These faceless people who make the planning applications and those who give permission should come out of the shadows. Let us see the faces of these assassins.’” - Evening Standard (July 29, 1986) Although the activism of the Harrisons and other members of the community was unable to save the old cinema, the strength of public feeling meant a new venue was included in the redevelopment plans.“ - Henley Standard (February 27, 2017)
The Beatles onstage at Ernst-Merck-Halle in Hamburg on June 26, 1966. Photo by Bent Rej.
Page canned from Bravo, featuring a larger photo of George yawning, smaller photos of John combing his hair, and Ringo sitting — all of this at Munich’s hotel Bayerischer Hof — and the following caption (purportedly supplied by George, according to the magazine): “Here’s the proof of which one of us is the most vain: John. He even combs his hair before he gets into bed. But the fairest in the whole land is still Paul.”
George Harrison in Munich, June 1966; photo by Robert Whitaker.
George and his father, Harry, in the gardens of Friar Park (from the gatefold sleeve of Thirty-Three & 1/3, photographed by Bob Cato).
Photo courtesy of ITV.
George’s Rocky, photographed by George; he commented: “John and I both bought identical early-‘60s Strats that were pale blue, and they were used first on ‘Nowhere Man.’ Then later, when we all took certain substances, I decided to paint mine in day-glo colors. And that was then on ‘I Am The Walrus’ and ‘All You Need Is Love.’ Now I’ve got it set up for slide.” Scanned from Guitar Player (November 1987).
A smiling George Harrison, late ‘70s; photo by Olivia Harrison.
Joe Brown and George Harrison share a laugh; photo by Alan Davidson.
Sheet music for “World of Stone” (featuring a cover photo by Barry Feinstein from 1971).
George Harrison and garden gnomes at Friar Park in 1970, photo © Barry Feinstein. About those garden gnomes: “Originally, when we took the photo I had these old Bavarian gnomes which I thought I would put there like kinda… John, Paul, George and Ringo[.] gnomes are very popular in Europe and these gnomes were made in about 1860” - George Harrison, Yahoo web chat (February 15, 2001)