
The Beatles were snapped by Sandra Blaken during their week in Weston
Unpublished photos of The Beatles taken in 1963 when
they spent a week at the seaside in Somerset have surfaced during the
making of a BBC film.
Just before Beatlemania broke out, the band played twice-nightly for six days at Weston-super-Mare's Odeon Cinema. As a 16-year-old fan, Sandra Blaken took photographs of John, Paul, George and Ringo outside their hotel.
She also sneaked into one of their bedrooms and took an underwear label which she later got them to sign.
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The Beatles were on the brink of world fame when they were in Weston
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She spent two days waiting outside the Royal Pier hotel watching The Beatles coming and going and managed to take some pictures.
"I had my camera with me and took photographs of them in vehicles driving themselves - John in his big white van, George in his dark green Jag.
"They went down for an official photo-shoot on the rocks at Birnbeck and I took pictures of them sitting there and then coming up the steps."
Sanda also confessed she was the ringleader of a group of girls who rushed into the hotel when they noticed all The Beatles had gone out and the doorman was not at the entrance.
"We had found out which bedroom number to look for and went in and looked around for a memento.
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Joyce Stott still has the handkerchief she took from Paul McCartney's pocket
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Sandra was chased out by the manager but she later asked The Beatles to autograph the underwear label.
"Paul said to me: 'Now we know who was in our room' but it was all very friendly.
"I think the only time I saw Paul a little bit upset was when my friend [Joyce Stott] pinched his handkerchief out of his pocket - there was a corner poking out and she whipped it away.
"I think sometimes they were a bit exasperated at what these fans, mainly girls, were doing - trying to get a little bit of The Beatles to take away with them."
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