UK Tour of 1965

 

No Rest For The Beatles (Cardiff 1965)

 No Rest for The Beatles

By Robert Peart

South Wales Argus

December 13, 1965

    The quiet of a wet Welsh Sunday was shattered last night when the Beatles wound up their most successful British tour yet at the Capital Cinema, Cardiff.

     Normally deserted, streets were crowded with 1000s of teenagers, many carrying larger than life photographs of their idols. Extra police on duty lined the pavement alongside a 400-yard queue of fans who had been standing in the rain hours before the show began. 

    Crash barriers were erected to stop them spilling onto the road, but traffic came to a halt as the 2,000 fans leaving the first performance mingled with an equal number waiting for the second show.

      As the curtain went up for the second time, the whole cinema erupted into screams of anticipation. Eighty bouncers and police inside took up their position while the four Liverpool lads sat calmly in the dressing room, eating sausages and mash. Two white coat waiters hurriedly cleared up their plates, and the Beatles settled down to watch a Western on a television set specifically installed in their dressing room.

     "They'll put him away for that-- the thug," called out Ringo as another Indian bit the dust. "Get right carried away, does that one? Don't you, Ringo?" said Paul.  "No," came the dour reply.

     Then the conversation switched to their latest record. "It's made number one today, according to the papers," said George. "Yes,"  added John. "It's always a relief to hear that. Every time we release a record, it can be hell wondering if it will go to the top or not. There are always those who will be only too ready to laugh if it does not.

     "The best way to stay successful is not to take it for granted. You can't afford to let up for a moment. If you do, you are finished." He picked up a bunch of grapes from a nearby bowl of fruit. "Takes away the taste of sausage", he said, brushing back his hair, which was still wet with perspiration from the first act. 

    Yet underneath this air of relaxation, tension was beginning to build up as the time. For the second spot approached.

     "No matter how many times we've done it," said John, "just before the curtain goes up, we all become a bag of nerves. Until you hear the crowd react approvingly, it's hell. Nerves are something even experience can't wipe out."

     Yet he need not have worried. The Beatles ' last live show in Britain for probably a year must have been the best performance South Wales pop fans have seen. They just could not go wrong. After the first chord, it must have been clear even to the eldest listener present, why this foursome have become the world's greatest name in pop entertainment. Their approach, still zealously fresh, proved that they have resisted the temptation to rest on their laurels.

Battle for a Beatle Kiss (London 1965)

 

Battle for a Beatle Kiss

No Writer listed

Western Daily Press

December 13, 1965

    Up went the curtains, and up rose 5,000 teenage girls from their seats in the Finbury Park Astoria, London. The Beatles were making a one-night stand there. More than 1000 girls in the stalls moved forward several rows, but were barred from the stage by a shoulder-to-shoulder cordon of uniformed policemen and police women. 

    Two girls got through and over the orchestra pit. One got her arms around Ringo's neck and stole a kiss before being jerked off. The frustrated remainder swooned in the aisles or stood on the backs of the seats, raining jelly babies, dolls, and even a top hat onto the stage.

     Twenty girls were carried out for medical treatment, and the police had difficulty in removing about 100 others who felt unable to leave their seats between the two performances. Forty more girls were wriggled out from various parts of the building, including some under a pile of policemen's top coats.

     Said a Beatles veteran, " Beatlemania is worse now than it was two years ago."

On Tour with the Beatles (By Tony Barrow 1965)

 

On Tour With the Beatles

By Tony Barrow

Liverpool Echo

December 11, 1965

    During the course of their nine-day tour, The Beatles performed 18 concerts to a total of something like 50,000 faithful fans.

     Not being too keen on trains and having a definite dislike for air travel, they have driven from city to city in an impressive black Austin Princess whose windows have been darkened so that its passengers peer out upon a colorless twilight world, whatever the time of day.

     Very seldom is it until he is in his bed and behind a latch door does a Beatle finds privacy. Not that John, George, Paul, and Ringo seek solitude. They like some people and some noise about them, but a great many people prolong their stay in the presence of the Beatles until any less extraordinary mortals would explode with impatience. 

    Picture this typical dressing room scene: A hefty backstage employee dressed in an oversized gray jersey enters for the umpteenth time.

 Gray jersey:  More tea, lads? Anyone want another cuppa? 

A Beatle: I've had four.

 Another Beatle:  No Thanks.

 Gray jersey: How about you, Ringo?

Ringo: No.  None of us wants more tea. Thanks.

Gray jersey: I'll shift the cups then.

A Beatle: You do that.

Gray jersey:  I'll tell you what. Just before I do that, can I get you all to sign some more pictures for me?

     So many acts of superficial kindness on the part of those who find themselves in the proximity of a Beatle have secondary and more selfish motives. 

    They put up with plenty these patient Beatles. Above all, they put up with an endless battery of constantly repeated questions and still managed to offer smile-making answers.

 Reporter:  I believe your guitar fell off the back of your car. 

George: Yes, that's right, on the way up from London.

 Reporter: Did it get smashed?

 George: Yes, it got smashed. It was in pieces. It looked as though 10 lorries had run over it. 

Reporter: Will you be able to use it again?

George: Well....

 John:  No, he won't. It's out of tune.

     Now you see, then there are all the relatives that never are. At every theater, you'll find at least one cunning fan who will try to get close to a Beatle by claiming to be one of the family. 

 Stage doorkeeper:  Can I show in your cousin Julie, Ringo?

 Ringo, I haven't got a cousin named Julie.

 Stage manager: I've got your cousin, Diana, in the wings, waiting to see you. Paul.

 Paul: I haven't got a cousin, Diana.

    Of course, there are on the rare occasions, which tend to baffle the more experienced backstage.

Stage door keeper:  Hey, John, I know this is daft, but you haven't got a cousin called Stanley, have you? 

John:  Yes, of course I have! Is he here? Show him in!

    Some Beatle People fancy their chances of reaching their favorite by telephone. Usually, their attempts at voice disguise are more amusing. In Glasgow, a little Lassie with a heavy local accent tried to persuade a Beatle aide that she was Mrs. Cynthia Lennon calling from Surrey. In London, a youngster with a magnificent cockney accent assured the theater switchboard that she was Freda Kelly, The Beatles  Liverpool fan club secretary. An average of a dozen Miss Boyds, Miss Ashers, and the like call Stage Door numbers during the course of a given evening on tour. 

    At any rate, Beatles do not live splendidly wild lives. Seldom, if ever, do they go out on the town. After a pair of shows, they retire to their hotel and enjoy an ample meal in their rooms, talk a while amongst themselves or with close friends, and disappear to their beds around three o'clock.  They adore sleep and hate to be brought from their slumber before lunchtime, unless morning departure for the next destination is essential. They eat very little at the start of their day, and are usually on the road less than an hour after they are summoned from bed by a road manager. 

    In their dressing rooms, you will always find a television set, and if there is a Beatle in the room the set will be switched on. They love watching things like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. or The Avengers, but constant interruptions prevent them from watching anything from start to finish.

     One of the strange things I discovered on tour with The Beatles was that the majority of security campaigns that surround their movements are laid on without their knowledge and certainly not at their request. The cordons of police outside and the small armies of he-men stretched across the front of the orchestra stalls are there at the instigation of constabulary officials and/or the theater manager. Sometimes, from the boys' point of view, they do their jobs too effectively. The Beatles like to see something of their fans. They dislike to see an audience which is too thoroughly disciplined, or a street crowd held back as such long range that they can't even wave or be waved at. 

    As John puts it, "We see too much of some people and not enough of others," but I didn't ask him to be more specific. 

    Now, 50,000 Beatle People, after it began, the 1965 tour is over, and the boys are number one on the charts with "We Can Work It Out" and "Day Tripper."  50,000 Beatle People and four enthusiastic entertainers think it has all been worthwhile, and so do I.

23 Girls Gate-Crash Beatles Show (London 1965)

 23 Girls Gate Crash Beatles Show

No Writer Listed

Evening Post

December 11, 1965

    The officials at a London cinema where the Beatles were playing last night got a shock just before they opened the doors to more than 3,000 teenage fans. For already inside the cinema were 23 girls-- three of them fast asleep. None of the girls had a ticket. 

    "How they got in? I don't know," said a commissioner. No one knew how long the girls had been inside the cinema, the Hammersmith Odeon, but they were escorted out before the show began. 

    The Beatles show was the last in a week long nationwide tour.

     Their first house spot went with its usual din-- screaming girls standing on seats, and inaudibility. The group's performance of their latest single "Day Tripper," and "We Can Work It Out,"  and numbers from their new LP. Rubber Soul had an ecstatic reception. 

    One of the visitors to the show was comedian Jimmy Tarbuck, who, like the Beatles, comes from Liverpool.

     Score for the first house: two rows of seats wrenched from their bases, and seventy-three cases of fainting. The second house was half an hour late in starting to allow time for the theater staff to re-bolt some of the seats which were dislodged and overturned. 

Backstage With the Beatles (Birmingham 1965)

Pictures by Leslie Stonehouse

 

Backstage with the Beatles 

No Writer Listed

Birmingham Weekly Mercury

December 12, 1965

    The other night in Birmingham, a bouncing ball of sound and fury burst out of a darkened stage and shot the tingling senses of 5,000 teenagers through a timeless hour. 

    The Beatles came to the city's Odeon Cinema at a little after eight o'clock. They buttoned up their drab, superbly cut military style jackets, filed down a corridor, and spilled onto the stage. Ringo fiddled with the screws holding down his bass drum. John made faces and pulled his black cap down a notch. Paul grinned and tapped his toe on the boards. George, hollow-cheeked and angular, squinted into a spotlight and scratched his fluffy head. 

    One of them said "Lizzie", and they were off, bathed in a coat of bluey-purple light, ducking the flying jelly babies and doing their best to cut through the screams with that famous, compelling nasal drone. They looked as if they were enjoying it, and I think they probably were.

    When it was all over, they went back to watch their favorite program, "The Man from UNCLE," and drank coffee.

     Up in the manager's office, the phone rang, and a girl's voice said, "Can I speak to George Harrison, please?"  They told her that George was tired.

Beatle Hit By Jelly Baby (Sheffield 1965)

 

Beatle Hit By Jelly Baby

No writer listed

Daily Express

December 9, 1965

The Beatle  Paul McCartney was hit in the face last night by a Jelly Baby sweet thrown onto the stage of a cinema in Sheffield where the pop group were appearing. He rubbed an eye, then carried on playing.

Return Disc Asks Beatle (Sheffield 1965)

 A lot of photos were taken of the Beatles in Sheffield thanks to Beatle Book Monthly, but still, there isn't a lot of information about this stop.   George did speak to the press while in Sheffield.  I wonder if they ever got the gold disc back or if it is just out there somewhere waiting to be auctioned off. 

Return Disc Asks Beatle

No Writer Listed

Evening News and Star

December 9, 1965

    Beatle George Harrison appealed last night for the return of a golden disc he gave his friend, actress and model Pattie Boyd. The record A Hard Day's Night was stolen from 20-year-old Miss Boyd's flat in Audley Street, Mayfair, London, yesterday.

     George said at the Gauntlet Theater in Sheffield, "The disc is not actually worth much, but there is a great deal of sentimental value. I hope whoever took it will return it."

Movie Role Bug Beatles (1965)

 Movie Role Bug Beatles

By Robert Musel (UPI)

Oakland Tribune

December 20, 1965

    The fog was so thick, the four young millionaires took an hour to drive two miles, and when they reached their hotel, they were able to slip swiftly inside, unseen, while girl fans groped blindly in the cotton wool mist outside, uttering despairing cries of, "Where are you, John? Or "Paul?" Or "Ringo?" or "George?"

     But there was sterner business on hand for the Beatles than their usual broken field run through teenage tacklers. Until dawn broke over Manchester with the sun like a hazy gray egg yolk, they talked about the most critical decision of their film career thus far. To wit, what kind of film do we do next?

     Although it is fashionable and has been for months to talk about the end of the Beatle era, the present concert tour of the hairy foursome is a hysterical sell out everywhere, and their latest single record, "Day Tripper", went right to the top of almost every British charts The advanced sale on their new album, Rubber Soul is over half a million. So it was not their image as musicians and songwriters that concerned them this vital night.

     After three years, the troubadour tycoons considered themselves firmly established. Not so in films, however, and their producer, Walter Shenson, called the session to order by asking the boys for ideas.

     This much quickly emerged according to Shenson's first-come, first-served principle. "The problem is that the boys quite rightly want to break away from making films about the Beatles, and it's a decision for which they deserve a lot of credit. A Hard Day's Night was a kind of documentary about the daily life of the Beatles, and a worldwide hit.

     "Help! was, you might say, a cartoon strip involving the Beatles. And it is also providing very successfully. But neither of these require a great deal of acting."  In Help!, they were moved around more or less like puppets by  American New Wave director Dick Lester; everything happened around them, not to them. 

    These films serve the purpose of providing the fantastic pulling power of the Beatles at the box office. Now they must move on. Shenson, a San Franciscan, has frank respect for the talent and mentality of the Beatles. "I try to guide them, but I don't force them," he says. "I know what they want and what they would like to do is what the Marx Brothers used to do. The films always starred the Marx Brothers, but they were always shown playing their roles inside a well-defined plot-- at an opera, for instance, or in a South American Revolution."

     Questions from the floor from John Lennon: "What about a cowboy movie?" This was kicked around for a while. "One advantage," Lennon said, "is that there were no Beatles 100 years or so ago, and that's a good reason for thinking about it."

     "Maybe a Three Musketeers idea?"

     "What about songs? From Shenson

    " Oh, we'll get the songs in, all right."

     Another suggestion has the boys acting as would-be burglars bungling a job. Paul McCartney is very partial to this one. 

    "I asked them," Shenson said later, "whether in the next film, we would be able to develop relationships. For example, they might have girlfriends, and would this affect their image? They said they didn't think their fans would worry about it for more than five seconds."

     As Shenson departed from London after A Hard Day's Night of conferring with the stars, he said, "We've gotten this far. We are looking for a good story. The background doesn't matter, nor does the location, but it must provide opportunities for the boys as actors.

     "The Beatles will not be the first to have become film stars before they establish a reputation as actors."

     Friends of the Beatles believe, incidentally, that the long romance of McCartney and pretty redhead actress Jane Asher may soon make him the third married Beatle. Both Lennon and Ringo Starr are fathers, but George Harrison steadily claims he is only good friends with everybody.

To the Beatles (Manchester 1965)

 

To the Beatles

By Margarot Willcock

Manchester Evening News

December 10, 1965

    I ran my daughter and her friend to the Beatles show in Manchester on Tuesday. The fog and black ice were so bad that it took me two hours to get there. I did not feel like going home and then running to pick them up after the show. So when the opportunity arose to purchase a ticket in the foyer, I snapped it up. 

    What an experience! I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The only song they sang I did not care for was "Yesterday." The tune was good, but the words-- why should the Beatles sing about yesterday with such a glorious future in front of them? Are they cheesed off with fame and success? 

    They certainly deserve the MBE, but that night's audience should get the OBE for getting there! 

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.

Threat to Close the Cavern (1965)

 

Threat to Close the Cavern:  Little We Can Do Says Beatles

No Writer Listed

Liverpool Echo and Evening Express

December 6, 1965

    Teenage girls last night presented the Beatles with a letter asking them to save the Cavern from closure. The famous beat center based in a Liverpool warehouse cellar is threatened with shut down by the city council because owner, Mr. Ray McFall cannot afford the new £3000 drainage system the council says must be installed.

     Before the Beatles, who started their climb to stardom at the Cavern, went on stage at the city's Empire Theater yesterday, 15-year-old Josephine McQuaid of College Road, Crosby, and Susan Hall of nearby Myers Road West, were allowed to see them.

     After receiving the letter, the Beatles held an impromptu press conference backstage and said they were all sorry to hear of the threat to close the Cavern, but there was little they could do. Paul McCartney said, "If the city council looked upon it as a tourist attraction instead of just an old warehouse, I'm sure that something could be done about it. It could be developed by the council into something like a coffee bar, which would be a great attraction to visitors."

     Said Ringo Starr, "I think the ball is in Ray McFall's court. In a way, I'll be sorry if the Cavern goes, because for two years or more, it was the greatest club in whole of Britain."

     John Lennon added, "We don't feel we owe the Cavern anything physical. All we owe it is allegiance."

     And George Harrison observed, "We don't want to commit ourselves too much."

     The Beatles today continue the British tour. This year, they'll be spending their first Christmas at home for five years.

The Beatles Fans were So Genteel (Newcastle 1965)

 

The Beatles Fans Were So Genteel

By  A Sunday Sun Reporter

Sunday Sun

December 5, 1965

     50 policemen stood outside the City Hall, Newcastle, last night. Inside the hall, two dozen ushers waited for girls to make a rush for the stage, and St John Ambulance men waited to carry off unconscious girls. But it never happened. 

    The 2,500 fans who packed into the hall to see the first Beatles concert in Newcastle in two years screamed themselves hoarse, but the expected chaos didn't come. 

    The concertgoers dutifully showed their tickets to policemen, thus gaining entry to Northumberland Road; the queues filed quietly into the hall. 

    Excitement and impatience grew during the supporting acts, and here and there, choruses of "We want the Beatles" hit the air. There were screams every time a door opened. The stage seemed set for pandemonium, but only the screaming brought back memories of the old Beatlemania. 

    The Beatles sang for 30 minutes, often losing out to the bigger noise in the auditorium, but the ushers and ambulance men just looked bored. One earned his pay by telling a girl who was hanging precariously over the gallery rail to sit down. Another by telling a girl not to hang banners over the rail. But otherwise it was the most ordinary, big star concert at the hall for several months, a Sunday school party compared to the last Rolling Stones concert. 

     Mr. Tony Barrow, publicity officer, said afterwards, "It's obvious, the fans are starting to listen to the songs instead of just wanting to grab the boys and scream. That's just spontaneous."  But a policeman, shivering on a futile guard duty, had another opinion on it. "The big hysteria is over, man," he said, "The Beatles are popular, but it's not as mad as it used to be."

Beatles in Glasgow

 

Beatles in Glasgow

By C.S.

Kirkintilloch Herald

December 8, 1965

    Along with some 20 other reporters, I was invited to attend a press conference in the Carola Restaurant, Renfield Street, last week to meet the Beatles. 

    The Beatles, not surprisingly, were several minutes late for the conference. It took place only a matter of hours before their show at the Odeon was due to start, and when they finally arrived via the emergency exit, I thought it was somehow an anti-climax. A man sitting near me summed it up exactly. "It's amazing," he said. "They are not 10 feet tall."

     Despite the fact that they had traveled a long distance, the four boys were full of energy. Only George Harrison remained quiet, and the reason for this, he said, was that the guitar he was to play at the show had fallen out of the boot of the car on the way north.

    "We had it strapped on, but somehow it fell off. We went back to look, but found it in little bits. About 100 lorries must have run over it."

     "And it was out of tune, too," said John Lennon. But George did not appreciate the remark. "I've only got about three guitars that I use on stage," he said, "and this was one of my favorites."

     Paul McCartney caused a minor sensation by arriving wearing a six-foot-long tie of pale blue and lemon silk. "It was given to him by comedian Arthur English," said John Lennon, unwilling as ever to miss an opportunity for a joke.

    Paul objected. "I saw it. I liked it, and I bought it," he said.

     One reporter asked John Lennon how it felt to have been voted the top male singer of the year. John looked surprised. "I didn't win that. Did I?" he asked. "I think it was something else to do with personality, but whatever it was, it was wonderful."

     Before long, however, the Beatles were hustled through the emergency door by members of Brian Epstein's agency.

     John Paul and Ringo all gave cheery farewell grins. Only George looked gloomy. He was probably still thinking of his guitar. 

Beatles Besieged in Hotel Scene (Glasgow, 1965)

 Beatles Besieged in Hotel Scene 

By a "Record" Reporter

The Daily Record

December 4, 1965

    Hundreds of fans mobbed Glasgow Central Station last night — even before The Beatles’ show had ended. News that the Four were going to stay overnight at the Central Hotel had spread like wildfire as the Beatles played to their second-show audience.

    Railway police set guard rails inside the entrance to Central, keeping the screaming youngsters from the rear of the hotel. When The Beatles’ limousine swept from the street into the tunnel, the screams rose to a crescendo.

     The boys went straight to the hotel to a third-floor suite of three rooms on Hope Street. At least 300 fans chanted: “We love The Beatles,” and sang: “Why are we waiting?”

    At 11.30, about a dozen police started to clear the station courtyard and the fans left quietly.

     A spokesman for the hotel management said: "The Beatles are spending the night in the hotel and will be leaving at midday tomorrow."

    Earlier, 6000 Beatles fans were at the show’s two houses at the Odeon, Glasgow.

AMBULANCES

Outside the theatre an ambulance stood by for fainting cases. A mobile canteen of the St. Andrew’s men and nurses, serving cups of tea, waited in the chilly air. 

    Six girls were taken to the Royal Infirmary semi-conscious, and 125 were treated by ambulancemen for hysteria and fainting.

    As the second show ended, fans tried to rush onto the stage, but 150 attendants kept them back. The Beatles escaped through a side door.

    More than 200 extra police were on duty for the group’s visit. A police spokesman said later: "The crowds were very good and there was no serious trouble."

    Beatles publicity man Tony Barrow said later: "The boys loved their Glasgow audience — but they always do. It was a pleasure to be here."

    A Central police spokesman said later: "There have been a number of arrests for breach of the peace."

    At a Press conference before the show, George Harrison revealed that one of his 14 guitars had fallen from the boot of the Beatles’ car on the A1 between Berwick and Glasgow. He added: "We stopped the car and went back to look for it. It was in little pieces when we found it. I don’t know how much it was insured for. I don’t even know if it was insured — but it was one of my own guitars and I liked it very much."

Paul's Tie is a "Screamer" (Glasgow 1965)

Paul McCartney drapes his floral tie over the shoulder of Glasgow Beauty Queen Catherine Spence, while John looks pained.  "Give your Mum back her curtains," he tell Paul. 

 

Paul's Tie is a "Screamer"

No writer listed

Daily Record

December 4, 1965

    Just about the loudest thing about the Beatles' visit to Glasgow last night was Paul McCartney's tie. It almost out-screamed the fans at the Odeon Cinema. There were fantastic scenes, and 50 girls had to be helped from the cinema.

Beatles Came in Night and Slipped Away (1965)

 

A plaque outside the King Arm Hotel, Berkwick, states that Charles Dickens stayed there during his lifetime. Now the management could erect another plaque stating that the Beatles stayed there. Ringo, Paul, John, and George stayed overnight in the hotel on their way to Glasgow, but few people knew about it. John Lennon turns to crack a joke to Ringo Starr and George Harrison, but Paul McCartney was missing. 

Beatles Came in Night and Slipped Away - Cloak of Secrecy Beat Fans

No Writer Listed

Berwick Advertiser

December 9, 1965

    The Beatles: John, Paul, George, and Ringo slipped in and out of Berwick in a cloak of secrecy on Friday. Only a handful of people knew that they had arrived, and they were planning to head north on Friday afternoon. 

    It was all so different from the amazing scenes when the Beatles were expected and never came. Then there were crowds everywhere, crowds who waited, hopeful but fruitless. 

    Hardly anyone saw them go on Friday, and even fewer saw their arrival in the early hours of the morning. The famous Four chart toppers, MBEs, idols of the pop lovers, crept quietly upstairs to their rooms in the King's Arms Hotel in Hide Hill. They had breakfast in bed, and just after lunchtime, they slipped out of the hotel with little fuss.

     The management and the staff of the King's Arms Hotel were sworn to secrecy. Police knew the famous Four were in town. They, too, kept it quiet, and hardly anybody else knew until the last minute that the Beatles were in town. 

    They left Berwick in a rainstorm in a black Austin Princess car with the rear windows clouded over.

     The Beatles had been in town, and they had left without a Yeah, yeah, yeah. Left with a ticket to ride in comfort, without crowds or hysteria. 

    A few miles up the road, misfortune befell one of George Harrison's three guitars. It fell from the car onto the A1 road and broke.

New Found (by me) photos from UK Winter Tour '65

 

Alright -- I am excited to share these, even though they are terrible quality.  I work pretty hard to keep up with this site.  Every year I focus on a few years more than the others -- for 2025, the focus years are 1960, 1965, 1970 & 1975

It isn't easy to find new photos and stories for 1965 after all of these years,  so I start early.  I have been looking for some new information about the UK Winter 1965 tour because we have such little information about it.  I was digging into British newspaper articles and found something that I didn't know existed:  photographs of the Beatles performing on December 9, 1965, in Birmingham.  I stumbled upon these in the Birmingham Weekly Mercury newspaper's December 12, 1965 issue.  

I was so excited to share these photos that I didn't want to wait until December (but I will wait to share the backstage images).  Now I realize that these are TERRIBLE quality.  They are so dark and you can barely make out the Beatles in some of them.  But these prove that there are photos from this concert out there and maybe someone owns actual copies of these photos or has the actual newspaper in a scrapbook.  Who knows?  

The Beatles and Me (1965)

 

The Beatles and Me

By Neil Aspinall

1965

All the way through the Beatles' most recent tour of Great Britain, I kept a special diary of everything that happened. All told, there were 18 concerts in towns all over England, Scotland and Wales. This tour replaced the usual London stage show, which the boys have been in the habit of putting on in London over Christmas and New Year's. They felt that they would rather rest over the holidays, but they asked Brian Epstein to arrange the tour so that they could see something of their fans in different parts of the U.K. It goes without saying that every single concert was a complete sellout -- in fact, most of the tickets were snapped up on the day each theatre's book office opened. 

I know there is plenty of news on any Beatles' tour, but I wanted to jot down all the behind-the scenes' incidents the papers never heard about...

Monday, 6 December-  Today is the only free day of the tour. Conveniently, the boys can stay with relatives in Merseyside instead of checking into a hotel. George is with his parents in their new home located close to the town of Warrington, about ten miles out of Liverpool. Pattie Boyd traveled up from London to see last night's show at the Liverpool Empire. She arrived at the theatre with George's mother and father, and the press photographers spotted those three familiar faces on the sidewalk outside the theater even before fans recognized the party. 

Ringo is staying with his folks in the Liverpool suburb of Gateacre. Last year, John's Aunt Mimi moved away from Liverpool (she's living in Bournemouth, a pleasant seaside resort on England's south coast). So John is staying with Paul.  They are at the McCartney home on the South side of the Mersey in Wirral. 

Ringo made it a quiet family day at home. So did George. John and Paul were more active. They got up very early (for them), at around 10 o'clock. Straight after breakfast, Paul fetched his two Moped bicycles and he and John went off for a ride round the picturesque Wirral countryside. The Mopeds are bikes with small motors fitted to them - cost around $100 each, and Paul has had this pair since last summer. 

One afternoon last July, I remember Paul and a friend trying out his Mopeds for the first time.  They decided to spend the warm summer afternoon exploring the countryside near Paul's father's new home. 

"You'll be recognized right away," joked Paul's dad. 

"That's what you think!" replied Paul. And he put on a shabby old raincoat, a little beret with his hair pulled back beneath it, and a false mustache. Of all the Beatles, Paul has always been the biggest believer in theatrical-type disguises!

"Got an old pair of specs?" Paul asked his father.  The glasses completed his camouflage. 

"How on earth will you be able to see through those?" asked his father, looking at the thick lenses in the spectacles. 

"I needn't wear these all the time, " Paul replied, slipping them into this pocket. "I'll shove them on if I have to stop for petrol or anything." (Petrol is the word the English use for gasoline). 

Inevitably, the Moped ran low on petrol, and Paul had to pull in at a service station. The problem was that he couldn't find the right pump for the special Moped two-stroke fuel mixture because the lenses of his glasses blurred his view. At last, he found the right pump. A girl attendant came over. At once, Paul put on one of his special accents. 

"Fill 'er up, please," he said in a mock American accent. 

"Sure, Paul," the girl replied at once. 

"How did you recognize me?" asked Paul, surprised. 

"I'd know that voice anywhere, luv!" she told him. 

If Paul had used his natural accent and not worn such a fantastic set of old clothes, I guess he would have fooled any service station attendant. He will overdo the disguise bit to such an extent that he sticks out in any crowd and is a suspicioius character from the start. You'd be amazed how different a Beatle looks with his hair brushed back. That's as far as Paul should have gone -- just worn the beret to keep his long hair pulled back from his face. 

As I have said, John and Paul made the most of their day off. In the afternoon, they piled into a car with Paul's dad and drove to Chester, a historic, walled city about thirty miles south of Liverpool. Here, Paul and John invaded an antique shop. The visit was completely unplanned and took the owners by surprised. In no time, schoolgirls crowded the streets outside, and scores of excited Beatle People pressed their noses against the shop window to watch John and Paul hunting through the dealer's fascinating stock. John bought a 16th-century Bible, a beautiful work of art with superb hand-lettering. He also bought books on magic and proverbs, plus three volumes of an old steamship logbook.

Tuesday - 7 December - The second leg of our nationwide tour kicked off today with shows at the ABC Theatre in Andwich, a district of Manchester. As you know, London is renowned for its pea-soup fogs.  Even if you haven't been in one and seen the real thing, you must know what they're like from Doris Day's films. To tell you the truth, London doesn't have many really thick fogs. But today, in Manchester, we were stuck for five hours in the worst smog I've ever seen -- the sort where your handkerchief is covered with black soot every time you blow your nose!

At lunchtime, Alf Bicknell got the big Austin Princess out of its garage in Liverpool, picked me up, and started calling for each of the boys.  There didn't seem to be any reason to hurry because the journey from Liverpool to Manchester is less than forty miles, and George, our last pick-up, was in Warrington, which was right on our route some miles east of Merseyside. In Liverpool, it was a wonderfully clear day, cold, crisp, cloudless, and sunny. When we reached George's, he was ready - a pleasant surprise. 

"Tony Barrow has been on the phone from Manchester," George told us. "According to him, there's thick fog there."  It was hard to believe because the weather was so lovely where we were, so we didn't worry too much about the fog warning.  Suddenly, on the outskirts of Manchester, we drove into a wall of smog.  In seconds, we were plunged into the dark grey mass, and our speed was reduced to less than five miles an hour.  To add to the chaos, it was rush hour in Manchester. Everyone was trying to get home and traffic jams were increasing the confusion. At the ABC in Ardwick, the added ten minutes to the regular intermission to give us extra time. Then, when the Beatles were due to stage, the emcee announced an extra intermission because the Princess was still crawling slowly through fog-bound Manchester. Fifteen minutes later, the boys rushed on stage as the cries of "WE WANT THE BEATLES!" reached an ear-piercing peak!

But for the bad weather, the boys would have driven back to Merseyside, after the Manchester shows.  As it was, the journey would have been hopeless. They had no baggage - not even a toothbrush between them -- but we booked into Manchester's Midland Hotel for the night. The boys posed for press photographers in a set of special smog masks brought along by the London Daily Express. Plans for a proper press conference fell through because of our late arrival, but the boys spent some time chatting with Kathy Fleet, who represented radio station WDRC and the Harford Times.  Kathy had flown all the way from Hartford, Connecticut, for her interview!

The boys stayed up at the Midland until well after three in the morning.  They spent four hours with producer Walter Shenson, discussing plans for their next movie. It was at this meeting that the boys made their final decision not to use the existing script based on the story of "A Talent for Loving." They admitted that they were not totally against the idea of a comedy-type Western, but they wanted something with a less complicated plot. Paul was enthusiastic about trying something involving a big robbery of some sort. In any event, all four Beatles agreed with Walter Shenson that they wanted to lay four individual personalities. They didn't mind keeping the names John, Paul, George, and Ringo, but they were all for finding a script that would let them play four entirely different parts instead of playing themselves. By two o'clock in the morning, everyone was hungry. George called room service and tried to get cornflakes. 

"They can't do it," he reported. "They say the food is all locked up."

"I'll have a go," said Paul, and he asked for fruit salad. They couldn't do that, either. So all of us finished up with jugs of hot chocolate and plates of butties. 

Tonight we are staying some miles out of Sheffield at a quiet little country club situated in the village of Spinkhill. With us are the Moody Blues, and together, our two parties seem to have taken over the place! As I write, it is nearly three o'clock in the morning, and everyone has just gone off to bed. I have just watched and taken part in the craziest game of billiards in the world! I'm not clear who actually started the game, but in no time, all four Beatles and four Moody Blues were involved. 

Two teams were formed, with four people at each end of the table. One white billiard ball was put in the center of the table. The billiard cues were turned round, and, using the flat end of the cues, the ball was belted up and down the table at high speed. The object was to shoot the ball past the opposing team so that it hit the end of the table. This counted as a goal. The game became fast and furious, with the ball hurtling up and down the table at a while speed, eight cues knocking it to and fro as hard as possible. 

The boys made up extra rules for their new game as they went along. Each game was concluded when one team or the other scored 21 goals. Then the teams switched ends and changed one or two players while exhausted. Beatles or Moodies dropped into chairs to watch the next bout. 

"This is gear," commented John. "We must always stay in country clubs, Nel! You can't do this sort of thing in hotels."

I have seldom seen the Beatles get so much pleasure out of a game around a billiard table. I'm sure the boys will remember tonight for a long time. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Incidentally, this version of billiards turned out to be a little rougher than the regular one. Most of us skinned our knuckles in the excitement of the game, and everyone went off to bed nursing at least one bloody hand. 

Friday 10 December -- Today it was raining and very cold. We drove from Sheffield to Birmingham. The Birmingham police had conducted a special plan whereby we'd meet a pair of escorted vehicles outside the city. We reached the rendezvous ahead of schedule and found ourselves sitting in the Princess with nothing to do but wait. After a while, Ringo suggested that we drive about for a while. We stopped at a shop and the boys suggested that I buy something such as pocket solitaire to pass the time. The shop had all sorts of novelty items, too, and I spotted some brass hand-warmers. Each one worked like a cigarette lighter and was wrapped in a little velvet bag. 

"Give me four of those, please," I said to the salesman.

"These are the last two in the shop," he told me. 

I took them and wondered who would manage to take possession of them once I was back in the car. John and Paul won, but they let Ringo and George have a go every now and again. 

In the dressing room at Birmingham, I found John sitting in one corner with a small, old-fashioned banjo. Propped on the back of a chair in front of him was a book called "Amateur Banjo Tutor."

"It's not mine," replied John, as he picked out the yug-a-dug chords just like it said in the book. 

"You remember, we got Mal to collect some of the stuff we bought in Chester?" He bought this while he was there. It's a sort of antique, I think."

Mal Evans joined us and pointed out the signature on the banjo.

"It's autographed -- if it's genuine," he said proudly. 

The banjo was signed "George Formby" - the name of a great English music hall star who died a few years ago. Formby certainly played the banjo, but we'll never know whether Mal's "find" was really an authentic souvenir or not. In the meantime, it seems to be keeping John happy. You see, what I mean when I say that the Beatles find a lot of pleasure in small things you'd never dream would interest them?

Backstage at Cardiff