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Dezos "Twist & Shout" Mistake!                                                                                                                             

In his 1982 book, With The Beatles, The historic photographs of Dezo Hoffmann, Dezo recounts the time in April 1963 when he was sent up to Liverpool on assignment from The Record Mirror to photograph The Beatles.
After doing some shots at Pauls house in Forthlin Road, he says that Paul took them all to Sefton Park in his Cortina Mark 1.  It was here that the famous "jump" shot was taken, "which later became the 'Twist & Shout' cover" ¹.  Also at this time, The Beatles made their first film using Dezos' cine camera.  I remember this film being shown during a special feature of "The Tube" on Channel 4.

When I first saw the book, I was confused.  I know Sefton Park very well. I grew up there, and considered myself a bit of an expert on the layout of the park. The trouble was, I didn't recognise the location of this photograph, nor the one of The Beatles with the Cortina.  The block of flats was definitely NOT round Sefton Park.  There was only one place in South Liverpool this could have been taken.  It had to be Allerton Golf Course.  The giveaway was the water tower on Reservoir Road, just visible between John and Ringo.
I took off for the Golf Course to satisfy myself that I was right, and sure enough the trees in the jump picture were still there (a bit bigger perhaps, but it's definitely them). The trees in the Cortina picture are also still there, just yards from where Dezo must have been lying on the ground to capture the jump.

The block of flats in the jump picture has long been demolished and was replaced with another block slightly to the right of the original.  There is a lot more growth in the last 42 years and unfortunately my comparison pictures are taken in August so the water tower is obscured.  In the gap between the two trees in the Cortina picture, there now stands a huge pylon, again this is partially obscured by the vegetation in my picture.

You won't find this spot on any guided tour of Beatle sites, because as far as I know, nobody knows about it.  And why should they?  You read a caption in book and take it that the author has an accurate memory of the day.  
I suppose it's not really all that interesting as a Beatle landmark, but for people who are really into the Beatle/Liverpool thing, here is one place they are probably are not aware of.  What IS kinda interesting, is that John and Paul would have passed this spot every time they walked to and from each others houses.

¹ Call me pedantic, but none of the "jump" shots photographed here were actually used on the Twist & Shout EP cover as Dezo intimates.  If you look at the EP cover you can see quite clearly that the band are wearing different clothes. Perhaps Dezo meant that it was these shots that inspired the cover

And so......I claim my brand new anorak for my little piece of Beatle detective work!

Rick Alan