Confessions of an Adelaide Flasher: With Lisa McAskill in the Adelaide City region of South Australia

The Beatles visit to Adelaide in the early 60s was a moment in the State's history. Time seemed to stand still as the Fab Four hit town and there, all those years ago was Adelaide photographer, Vic Grimmett.

The images he captured now take pride of place on the walls of his Underdale lounge room. The Beatles' two-day visit saw a reception that you might expect from a city the size of Sydney, New York or London.

"The are great memories," said Vic. "You'd walk out the hotel and people would ask, 'did you meet the Beatles?' yes? Can I shake your hand!"

It's said that more than 300-thousand people crammed the streets of Adelaide to welcome the Liverpool moptops from the Airport to the heart of town. That was about a third of the State's population at the time - such was the power of Beatlemania.

Throughout his career as a celebrity photographer Vic had learned a few tricks of the trade. To gain increased access to the rich and famous… you might need to hand over something as inexpensive as a few rolls of film. That's what he did when a fresh-faced George Harrison put the bite on him, having run out while snapping away at the crowds lined up outside the South Australia Hotel.

Forty-three years on and George Harrison and John Lennon are no longer with us. But the day they came to town has been captured in all its wild frenetic glory in Vic's book, The Confessions of an Adelaide Flasher. Its cheeky title refers to a life behind the lens during which Vic has snapped the likes of Nureyev and Deitrich, Dunstan, Helpmann and Travolta.

Much of his bread and butter work involved snapping Hollywood stars and television celebrities as they did the rounds, promoting their movies and TV shows to an ever-appreciative audience.

Flick through Vic's book, and you turn the pages on a photographic history of who we are, and the amazing times we've lived through. For Vic, the son of legendary Australian spin bowler Clarrie Grimmett, life as a photographer meant he got to rub shoulders with the famous and the powerful. Not that they seemed so from behind the viewfinder.

"That's the beauty of being a photographer," said Vic. "There's only one person who can really order them around and that's a photographer. Think about it. It doesn't matter who it is but if you tell them you're taking a portrait and they should do this - they do it for you."

Confessions of an Adelaide Flasher by Vic Grimmett is available from Dymocks, Angus and Robertson and Borders bookshops for $29.95.

'Confessions of an Adelaide Flasher' By Vic Grimmett
Available from Dymocks, Angus and Robertson and Borders bookshops
RRP $29.95.

Published 22nd July 2007