Beatles at the Empire

 

Beatles at the Empire

Written by an Echo Reporter

Liverpool Echo

November 9, 1964

    Chief Superintendent Harold Whalley, head of a division of Liverpool City Police, talked last night with two young men he once advised to give up their ideas of show business fame. He told John Lennon and Paul McCartney, "I was wrong, and you were right."

     It was the first time Mr. Whalley had met the two Beatles since their meteoric rise. He first saw them in 1957 when they were part of a skiffle group managed by his son, Nigel. "I used to worry about some of the clubs and places at which they performed," he told me. "I told them that there was no future in that kind of thing and advised them to drop it. I told them a few times to get a haircut as well. I maintained that nobody could have visualized what has happened in the last few years," he added.

     Mr. Whalley's son is now a golf professional at Wrotham Heath (Kent) and goes to see the Beatles when they are in London. John and Paul talked over old times with Superintendent Whalley before they went on stage last night and he left the Empire Theater with an autographed picture in his pocket. 

    The Beatles were ordered off the balcony outside the theater after scores of teenagers had held up traffic as they dashed to the far side of Lime Street to get a better view. The group stood on the balcony for only a few minutes, waving to about 1000 people on the St George Hall side. Then, the boys and girls started to run from the theater.

     A police inspector ordered the Beatles off the balcony. Otherwise, he said, "Someone could get killed." The Beatles appearance also led to desertions from the female ranks of the Loyal Orange Lodge, who were forming up outside St George's Hall to march away after a remembrance day service. 70 police, reinforced by Mounted Police and specials, were outside the Empire to control the hundreds of teenagers waiting for the Beatles to arrive for their two performances, and most of the teenagers were disappointed. Instead of arriving at the stage door, the Beatles car pulled up outside a sside entrance, and the group ran in before most of the crowd realized they were there. 

    The St John Ambulance brigade had 40 men and 25 nurses on duty to deal with any fainting cases during the show. During the first performance, they had to deal with only two cases. Both were girls who had gone a little hysterical when their idols appeared. In the second performance, however, there were 22 casualties, one after another, of teenage girls fainting or suffering from hysteria.

     One teenage girl among the casualties told ambulances she had given up her job in the south of England and hitchhiked to Liverpool to see the Beatles. "And it was worth it.," she added.

     The Beatles 25-minute act in which they sang 10 of their best-known songs was practically inaudible from the back of the theater because of the screams from hundreds of girls who spent most of their time jumping up and down in their seats and waving. The group arrived in Liverpool early yesterday after being delayed by fog on the way from Cardiff. They stayed with their families last night before setting off this morning for their next show in Sheffield. The Beatles timed their exit with split-second precision and were away in atrice into the side street and a getaway car