John d Green photographed Cilla Black for Birds of Britain on 24 August 1966 on a beach near Blackpool. Cilla was 23 at the time of the shoot and had already achieved significant chart success.
Cilla was in Blackpool performing during the summer season, and John remembers collecting her from her hotel in his convertible Jaguar. “I had an open top car, and Cilla said “You had better put the hood up or we’ll be mobbed.” After 15 minutes she had a change of heart. “Can you put the hood down? None seems to be recognising me.”
Cilla Black went on to become a prominent and much loved TV presenter in the 1980s and 90s, and sadly passed away in 2015 as a result an accident at her home in Spain.
