Exhibition explores Fab Four's India visit

The 50th anniversary of the world-famous Beatles traveling to Rishikesh in India is to be marked with a new exhibition in their home city of Liverpool.

The exhibition, Beatles in India, at the award-winning The Beatles Story museum will open on Feb 16 and run for two years. It will look at what was a key and relatively secretive part of the lives of the four-strong band comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

The exhibition at the historic British city will feature never-seen-before memorabilia, imagery and personal accounts from the people who visited India with the band in 1968.

A sitar used by Ravi Shankar will go on display at the immersive exhibition, loaned to The Beatles Story by the Ravi Shankar Foundation. As George Harrison's mentor, Shankar's influence on him ultimately helped to popularize the use of Indian instruments in 1960s' pop music.

Other exhibits will also include photography from Paul Saltzman, a sound engineer for the National Film Board of Canada at the time, who photographed The Beatles during their stay. He is responsible for some of the most iconic and intimate images of the Fab Four in India.

A spokesman for The Beatles Story museum says: "The exhibit will look at the groups' inspiration for the trip, their introduction to transcendental meditation, and the songs they worked on in advance of the famous Beatle's White Album."

Pattie Boyd, former wife of George Harrison, and her sister Jenny Boyd, who were among the star-studded list of attendees in India, will also be providing their personal insight into the trip.

"It really was a special, magical time; forming many memories and, of course, an abundance of great Beatles music. I look forward to sharing thoughts and memories of India as part of the exhibition," Boyd says.

The Beatles Story museums' Diane Glover visited Rishikesh in April to meet with government officials and went to the Maharishi's Ashram, which recently opened as a tourist attraction.

She says: "It's a magical place and as we walked through the remains of the Maharishi's Ashram, it is clearly a place of peace and seclusion."

The 1968 visit was an important time of reflection for The Beatles as their manager, Brian Epstein, had died unexpectedly in the summer of 1967, prompting them to escape from their fans and the media in search of spirituality.