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.

Calm Queues For The Beatles (Birmingham 1965)

 

Calm Queues For The Beatles Police Surprised

No Writer Listed

The Scotsman

December 10, 1965

    The police in Birmingham were taken by surprise last night when the Beatles arrived for a one-night stand in the city. The queues were so orderly outside the cinema where the group was appearing that one police inspector said, "If they are like this, next time, we will take the barricades down and let them walk in."

We're Speechless Said V.I.P. Fans (1963)

 

We're Speechless Said V.I.P. Fans

By Fred Norris

Birmingham Mail 

December 16, 1963

    Cheryl Fellows, a 16-year-old schoolgirl of 95 Bromsgrove Road, Halesowen, kissed the back of her left hand, which had been autographed by Paul McCartney, and said, "This  I will never wash again." 

    Mr. Edwis ard Turner of 165 Robin Hood Lane, Hall Green, a dedicated Beatles fan, yet at 69, a sort of elder statesman of the party, declared, "The experience of a lifetime. How I admire the vitality of these four young men. I can never thank the Evening Mail and Dispatch enough for this day of days in the life of a man who has already been actively interested in theater."

     Miss Fellows and Mr. Turner were two of the six winners of the Evening Mail and Dispatch "Meet the Beatles" contest.

    Yesterday, they all visited the Aston studios to attend the recording of the special Christmas edition of ABC TV's. Thank Your Lucky Stars. It was a bonus plus occasion. They not only saw the full dress rehearsal and the recording of a show they can see at home again next Saturday on their TV screens. They also met the Beatles, chatted to them, and became VIPs in their own right for the night.

     Because of heavy commitments on the previous day, the Beatles had arrived four hours late to the studios. This threw the day's schedule completely out of gear. Miss Carol Ann Young, a 17-year-old American girl from Charleston, West Virginia, now staying at 79 Clarence Road, Kings Heath, said, "Just seeing them as they appear on a TV show is good enough for me. I'm happy enough now."

     But minutes later, Miss Young and the other winners found themselves talking to John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Miss Young walked out of the studio nursing her arm as though it were in a sling. "Do not touch," she said, "Paul has autographed it and like Cheryl, I am never going to wash it. 

    "They were so wonderful to me. They are completely unspoiled, just like boys who might live next door. I told them I came from America, and I wish them well on their visit next year. I'm sure they will do well. I've written to all my friends in the States saying how marvelous they are. "

    Mrs Yvette Jones, a 43-year-old mother of three, of 29 Beechwood Road, Smithwick, said, "I have hardly been able to eat ever since I knew I was a winner of the contest. This has been one of the greatest thrills of my life. I have a 19 year old daughter, Rosemary, a 16 year old son, Alan, and another daughter, Barbara, who's 13. They're all fanatical Beatles fans.

     "Before the Beatles came along, I was a cube, more than a square, but their fantastic vitality won me over completely. Tonight has been the most wonderful Christmas present I could ask for, I mean, actually, to meet the Beatles and talk to them. I'm speechless. "

1 5-year-old Mary Hatwell of 240, Gillot Road, Edgbaston, was equally speechless for a while, but she had an added thrill. Her father, a keen Bing Crosby fan, once had his photograph taken with the famous old groaner. "Now that I have my photograph with The Beatles", she said, "I consider I've got my own back on Dad." Just then, Mr. Hatwell arrived to drive his daughter home. Let him have the last word,

     "Yes, Mary," he said. "And in years to come, you will show that photograph to people and say, 'Remember those old squares who called themselves the Beatles?'"  Mary protested. "Never!"

 All that Mr. Hatwell said was " I said the same thing about good old Bing."

Was Sailor Sam at this show?

 June 4, 1963 - Birmingham

Birmingham backstage

The Beatles are supposedly watching themselves on "Top of the Pops" on the television backstage between shows in Birmingham.  Don't they look thrilled?

Beatles in Birminham

Beatle fans waiting in the rain before the concert in Birmingham in 1964

Ringo and John walking into the Odeon

Another day of the tour for the Beatles as the moved onto Birmingham on October 11, 1964.    Here are some memories from those who experienced this performance:

I was 11 years old. My sister worked at the Odeon cinema in Birmingham. She would literally force me along to these weekly live events. But this evening was different — I sensed it. My instructions were to sit in the middle of the lower amphitheater and under no circumstances move from my allocated seat until the whole place had been emptied of people.

Mentally tied to my seat, suddenly the place became a seething mass of excited, screaming teenagers. The girls around me started quaking, changing from nice normal people into lunatics. The first acts dragged through their sets, then the company mimed the position and way the four members of the next band held their instruments. The place went wild. The girl near to me pulled at her hair, screaming and then as the curtains opened promptly fainted on the spot. Girls were being carried out; some only part-conscious or so overcome they had become hysterical.

The whole thing seemed over in a flash. By the end, the front six or seven rows of people had been removed in tears by the St John’s Ambulance. I went to many other festivals, concerts, but never have I experienced anything like that night.

Professor Marty St. James

Don't ask me how because we were right at the back, but for some strange reason we could hear them singing over all that screaming and it was a fantastic concert.  You could hear everything.  There were police in uniforms placed all along the wall upstairs, but the girls downstairs were trying to get up on the stage.  I couldn't believe that we could hear every word.  When the curtain came down at the end everyone was waiting for them to come back out and take their ovation, but when the curtains opened there were just their guitars on the stage.   John Harte (age 18 at the time)