Dad Got These Two Beatles Taped

Dad Got These Two Beatles Taped

By Bill Rogers

Liverpool Echo

June 30, 1964

     Because his children dared him, a Liverpool man out in Sydney, Australia, got past the Beatles security guards and to prove to them that he had done it, he brought back taped messages from both Paul McCartney and John Lennon. 

    The man who carried out this exploit is Kenneth F Williams, who used to live at 6 Agar Road, West Derby. His father, Mr. William F Williams, is retired from the Liverpool City police force after 24 years in the A and G divisions.  Kenneth was in the Navy as a sick berth attendant. On demobilization, he opted to remain in Australia. He married there and settled down. Before the Navy, he had worked in Liverpool's Adelphi Hotel. 

    But about that break through the security wall.  The details, I'll omit, in case any of our daring Liverpool youngsters decide to try it too. Kenneth's three children, Robert, 14, Barbara, 12, and Trisha, 10, had dared him to. "Go on, Dad, why don't you get the Beatles on tape?"  So he turned up at the hotel carrying his tape recorder, but it looked as if it might be easier to try getting into a bank vault with all those burly cops on duty.

     He tried going up in the hotel lift to The Beatles' penthouse, but that failed. His next ruse was to try to get into a press conference, but again, no dice. Eventually, by a bit of fluke, plus perseverance and bluff, he got himself a seat beside Paul McCartney during a TV interview. Once he had his knee under the table, so to speak, it wasn't difficult to get his taped message. 

    He told Paul and John that he had come out to Australia from West Derby and that his three kids were dying for an interview. He got it. Paul said into the microphone, "Hello, Bob, Barbara, and Trisha. This is Paul speaking." John was more talkative. He said, "This is John of the Beatles, Bottles, and Boodles saying 'hello' into your dad's gold-plated tape recorder. Hope you're okay and hope to see you soon."

     And the kids just had to believe the interviews were authentic because they had actually seen their father getting them on television.