Ipswich was the only "witch" that Halloween

On October 31, 1964 the Beatles showed up a little late for their performance at Ipswich.  This caused some people to believe that the Beatles weren't going to show up at all and it was just a terrible publicity stunt.  However, the Beatles DID show up inside of a police car along with Brian Epstein.  

A reception was held inside of the theater for them, which was full of television and newspaper reporters who drank wine and asked the Beatles a variety of the usual questions.  Then there was a press call and for 10 minutes the Beatles and around 6 people from the press squeezed into the small manager's office.   One of the press men, David, who was only 18 at the time said this about the experience, " I was a Beatles fan and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to say I met them --- well, sort of--because we were in the same room, but there wasn't much meaningful conversation.  They were affable, but you could tell that it was just another press meeting and another show.  They were polite, but bored.  They were tired. "

David continues to say, "I took a few photographs and then they went into the inner foyer area and they did an interview with Anglia Television.  I took a photo of them with some competition winners.   A few years ago a chap said to me, 'You took my pictures with the Beatles when I was a competition winner.'  He won a toy guitar signed by The Beatles and a I said, 'Wow, that must have been worth some money.'  He said, 'I swapped it later that day for an Airfix kit because I didn't like the Beatles.'  Goodness only knows what that would have been worth because while there mush be a few autographed albums, there were no or very few autographed toy guitars.  I wonder where that ended up?  It probably got thrown on a skip."

Brian Epstein put host, David Lowe in charge of the Beatles for the night.  One of the biggest issues he had was that John Lennon's small harmonica went missing between shows.  After the first show, John threw the harmonica down and Lowe's 14 year old song found it and thought he had discovered an discarded Beatles souvenir.   When John could not find the missing instrument, he was unhappy to say the least and he refused to go back onstage for the second performance until they found it.    Lowe somehow discovered that his son had it and was back at home by this point and he had to get a taxi back to his house and discovered his son was asleep with the harmonica under his pillow.   He got the harmonica back to John and the concert continued as plan with no one knowing the drama going on backstage. 

David Lowe with the Beatles

There are several memories of the Beatles concert that can be found in the Creasy book.  Here are some of them:

It was pandemonium when they came on.  No sooner had the curtains opened as we announced, "Ladies and Gentleman, the world-famous Beatles" than the scream went up and the two girls int he front row -- who had been at the very front of the queuing for tickets  promptly fainted and had to be carried to the back on stretchers.  they never saw a thing.  The rest of the show went well, but really there was too much screaming and shouting.  It was impossible to hear what they were singing but it was as if people didn't except to hear them.  --  cinema manager that night

 I could hear quite well, given the screaming.  I had a great seat, though -- an aisle seat about eight to ten rows from the front, quite central.  It must have been very difficult for the others on the show because I remember between the acts the chants of "We want the Beatles" over and over again.  I also clearly remember the four lads obviously totally enjoying themselves.  It was almost as if they were looking at each other and thinking, "Can you believe this?"  Mary Well I remember well.  She was a big favourite of mine and 'My Guy' was terrific. --Bob

Photographer, David, says that no photographer were allowed to be taken of the Beatles onstage during the performance and all photographs had to have been taken backstage and he was one of the few there that night.    He does remember the concert, "You really couldn't hear anything with all the screaming.  they just had those three Vox amps.  No more than you'd have for a band playing a pub today You really had no chance."

The Beatles left the theater and went to the Great White Horse Hotel in Ipswich, where they stayed the night and they also spent some time signing autographs.