'I photographed Bob Dylan as fan shouted Judas'

Music fan Alan Corbett had no idea he would be snapping a piece of pop history when he took a camera to a Bob Dylan gig at Manchester Free Trade Hall, which became famous when a heckler called the singer "Judas" for playing an electric guitar.

Corbett, then aged 19, had seen Dylan perform an acoustic set at the venue a year earlier on 7 May where he had seen his hero from the first two rows supported by the legendary Joan Baez.

The following year though, it was a different story in more ways than one.

For starters, Corbett was up on the balcony, but more memorably, in the second half of his set, Dylan had strapped a 1965 black Fender Telecaster electric guitar to himself.

"He was so popular, the only places we could get were in the balcony," said Corbett.

The fledgling photographer was still smarting from music newspaper Melody Maker rejecting his shots of jazz luminary Ornette Coleman when he took his camera into the gig.

Corbett had been captivated by Dylan's music and lyrics since he was loaned a copy of the performer's second studio album The Freewheelin Bob Dylan by a friend two years earlier.

"I let him have it back and then I bought the first Dylan album, which just featured him on his own on the front cover and I really liked it because I was into both rhythm and blues and I was also into folk music," said Corbett.

He added: "I was never into poetry, but I can imagine it almost being a poem but to music, if you know what I mean - quite honestly, a lot of this stuff was kind of relatable to my generation."

Corbett loved Dylan's blues covers like Fixin' to Die but also the acerbic protest songs such as Masters Of War.

"I remember thinking I feel like that yeah, I think like that," he said.

However Dylan was outraging folk purists by leaving his acoustic roots by the time he got to Manchester on 17 May 60 years ago.

Unlike modern gigs there was no issue that night as Corbett openly took one camera and two lenses to shoot his hero from the balcony.

"I used two lenses. Basically, I took a basic Russian single lens reflex camera, which was a copy of a Pentax and I borrowed a second-hand lens, and I used the ordinary lens that was with it.

"Now, from when I took the photographs of the group, you could see a band, the dark black band through it, which is where the rail at the front of the balcony was.

"I was both listening to the music and everything else and then it sort of finished one track and before he drew his breath, I could hear this voice saying 'Judas' downstairs and further in the back of the auditorium," he recalled.

He added: "I didn't hear it crystal clear and then he [Dylan] sort of looked a bit astounded.

"And then he said, 'no, you're a liar', something like that and then I started taking pictures again.

"I think I've almost got the shot of when Dylan turns around and looks towards Robbie Robertson and that's when he said, 'play it louder'."

Corbett added: "When he went to the first electric song, you could hear shuffling or you're aware that people were moving downstairs and I think about maybe 30, 40, 50, even more people walked out."

At the time it was no big deal to Corbett.

"It wasn't a shock actually because, first of all, I was aware of it.

"I had read Melody Maker and how he had been at, I think it was a Newport Folk Festival, and he'd actually gone electric on the sets there."

He added: "There wasn't much actually made of this at the time about going to electric, something that people look back on in hindsight sort of thing."

Corbett explained: "You didn't have the social media then.

"You didn't have YouTube. You didn't have anywhere, no emails, so you couldn't e-mail anybody.

"And you couldn't telephone anybody and say, 'hey, what do you think about this?'"

Corbett was more concerned about his trip to the south of France he took soon after.

As for the photos he said: "I sat on them, I've still got them. I tried selling them ages and ages ago, but nobody seemed interested."

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