Edinburgh 50 years ago

After a few days off, the Beatles traveled by plane to Scotland for three performances there, the first one in Edinburgh.   When they got to the ABC cinema, where the two performances where to be held, the Beatles and Brian Epstein got pushed into the crowd of screaming fans and things got a bit scary for the five of them as they were pushed up against the glass windows of the cinema.    One of the security guards saw John Lennon's face smushed up against the window and rushed out to help the Beatles, leaving poor Brian out in the mob.    Eventually someone got Brian safely inside.  It was a close call and it amazes me that the Beatles never got seriously hurt at any of these concerts.

Once they were safely inside it was the usual questions and photos for the press including some goofy photos of Ringo doing an impression of a mother entertaining a small boy (??????)

One fan who saw the concert was then 16 year old Chris Warbrick, who attended the 8:30pm show.  Here are some of his memories from Martin Creasy's book:

"Mary Wells was so good.  'My Guy' was a terrific song and it sounded so good, but I didn't recognize the other songs she sang.  Tamla Motown was only just starting here and Mary-- apart from 'My Guy' was not that well known to a lot of people.  They were just there for The Beatles.  People just wanted Bob Bain (the compere for the show) him off really -- let's have the Beatles.  But of course that's about the last we heard -- him introducing them and then the noise went up.  I couldn't really hear anything and we had a loudspeaker at the end of our row.   It was just constant screaming, but it didn't really matter.  It was just a matter of being there--to be part of the occasion." 

The Red Cross said that over a dozen fans fainted during the Beatles concert and they were carried out of the cinema (boo!).    Fans who were waiting outside while the first show was going on to go in for the 2nd show passed the time by singing songs about how much they loved the Beatles.  At least three girls missed the show because they had passed out while waiting to into the 2nd show.   People said that the screams during the 2nd show was so loud that you could hear them out in the streets outside of the cinema.