Beatle Fans Recall a Day In the Life (1990)

Jo Reese with two friends and Paul McCartney outside the Odeon in 1963 

 Beatle Fans Recall a Day in the Life

By Yvonne Wray

Gloucestershire Echo

December 29, 1990

    Two old school pals have been reliving all their yesterdays, including the time they spent sipping coffee and having a cigarette with The Beatles.

     Jo Reese and Marilyn Clarke marched into the Cheltenham Hotel where the Fab Four were staying, and ended up chatting to John Lennon and George Harrison. "We just went into the hotel and asked to see the Beatles. We were ushered into the lounge, and we were brought coffee."

     "Then in walked John Lennon and George Harrison," said Marilyn. "They were just normal people. We had a chat about the concert the night before. We were flabbergasted that we got in at all."

     Jo and Marilyn, who were just 17, had already buttonholed a national newspaper reporter to get them backstage after the Beatles concert at the Odeon Cinema in winchcombe Street in 1963.

     They managed to find out that their idols were staying at the Savoy Hotel in Bayshill Road and watlzed into the foyer the next day.

    Jo, who lives in Sanford Mills Close to Cheltenham, and Marilyn of Lincoln Close, Tewkesbury, have been recalling the big day on local radio.  The interviews are to be broadcast again on New Year's Day.

     Jo said, "John was just like you would imagine him to be, quite cynical and sarcastic. We smoked one of his cigarettes, even though we didn't smoke. We were shaking like leaves ."

    While the pair were talking to John and George, they also got to say hello to Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, who were on their way out of the hotel to climb into their limousine.

     Marilyn said, "I kept the cigarette butt for ages, and I still got the autographs, although unfortunately, I didn't get John's."

     Jo said, "We used to have a great time in Cheltenham. Then the Odeon was a stage cinema ,and all the big bands came."