Decorum and Delight on the Beatles' Return (Liverpool 1965)

 

Decorum and Delight on the Beatles' Return

By a "Daily Post" Reporter

Liverpool Daily Post

December 6, 1965

    Liverpool welcomed the Beatles home again last night with a mixture of decorum and delight. Outside the Empire Theatre, a strong force of police reported no trouble as 5,000 teenagers queued in orderly fashion for the two packed houses. 

    But inside, Beatlemania was in full scream. As the MBE group went through their half-hour act, said Ringo of the reception, "You heard them. You saw them. That's the answer to the knockers who say we are on the way out."

    When the Beatles appeared on stage, the noise was deafening. A chorus of high-pitched ecstatic acclaim, enough to pierce the eardrums. Row upon row of girls jumped up and down in their seats, waving scarves, programs, and pictures of the famous Four.

     The Beatles program included numbers from their new LP and single records, but the reception was such that almost everything about their performance was lost. "Can you hear me?" Paul McCartney shouted into the mic, trying desperately to say a few words of introduction to a number, but his words were drowned out by screams and shouts. 

    It was a Yeah, yeah, yeah welcome. As Ringo said, the answer to the knockers, but the 23 members of the St John Ambulance brigade dealt with only 17 cases in the two performances. "The second house was a bit rougher", said a spokesman, "but generally, they all behaved themselves. It was a picnic compared to the Rolling Stones and the previous Beatles shows."

     He described it as a "record quiet night."

     At the end of the show, there were only a few sightseers. The Beatles were smuggled out of the theater and driven to the homes of their relatives on Merseyside.