It's Your Jobs -- We Choose The Beatles (1995)

 

Fans in the rain in Slough with the Beatles banner made from a stolen sheet-- November 5, 1963

It's Your Jobs -- We Choose The Beatles

By Jane Young

Burnham and Taplow Observer

December 15, 1995

    The Beatles ' new single, "Free as a Bird", featuring vocals recorded before John Lennon's death, looks set to top the charts this month. Despite the slating it has received by critics, the single cannot equal past glories, and fans might prefer to remember the Beatles as they were in their heyday, when riotous, fawning fans crowded the streets of Slough. 

    The world's most famous pop band were at the height of their powers when they played two shows at the Adelphi Theater on Tuesday, November 5, 1963. The group had just made an appearance on The Royal Variety Show, where John Lennon told "those in the cheap seats, clap your hands. Those upstairs just rattled your jewelry. "

    According to a music biz anecdote, the Queen spoke to band members after the show and asked what they were doing next. The mop top pop stars said they were "playing a gig in Slough," which HRH replied, "Oh, really, that's just down the road from me."

     Though the Queen didn't turn up for the concert at the Bath Road venue (Now the Gala Bingo Hall), more than 80 policemen were called to control crowds who ran riot outside. 100 of fans surged against cordons around the theater, hoping for a glimpse of their idols, and fireworks were thrown at policemen trying to hold them back.

     Inside the theater, the super group played two 25-minute sets, including "Twist and Shout," "From Me to You "and "She Loves You", but most of the music was drowned out by screaming female fans.

     Patrick Alford, who now runs music nights at a Slough club, the Wheatsheaf, was one of the lucky ones who got into the gig. "I remember George Harrison coming on and saying, 'It's nice to be here in Slug.' That's the honest truth. His Liverpudlian accent was so thick he couldn't say Slough.

     "The gig was a family outing for me. I was 13, and went with my brother and four sisters. It was freezing, and I remember we turned up in the morning to see if we could sneak in and catch the band rehearsing or get an autograph. But security was too tight. 

    "We were in the 4s 6d seats, and couldn't hear a thing. As soon as the Beatles played the first chord,  everyone just went bananas, jumping up and down, drumming their feet, shouting, waving their arms like mad. It was a small venue, and the majority of the audience were girls. They all started screaming, and I have never heard anything like it. They completely drowned out the music. It was an amazing gig," he said.

    After the show, 2000 fans swarmed out of the Adelphi, and those who had been stuck outside in the rain all night tried to mob the stage door. But just 30 seconds after the curtain fell, the Liverpudlian rockers had been whisked away in an Austin Princess protected by two Jaguar police cars. 

    One girl broke free of the crowd and ran straight in front of the convoy. She was grabbed by a policeman and pulled to safety. 

    Miraculously, there were no arrests or injuries that night. Ambulance men treated 11 girls who had fainted. One said she had left Windover at 6:30am to get to Slough and had not eaten all day. 

    Fans had started to arrive outside the Adelphi at 9:30am, including a band of girls from Warren Field School and Slough High School who marched down High Street with a banner chanting their own Beatles song to the tune of "Onward Christian Soldiers."

     Madeline Heritage made the banner from an old sheet she had pinched from her home on Swallow Street, Ivor Heath. But she told the reporter from The Observer at the time that her mother wouldn't mind, because she was a Beatles fan, too.