Performing on Ready Steady Go

March 20, 1964

I love this performance of the Beatles on the Ready Steady Go Show.   I especially enjoy all of the fan artwork that is on display on the show. 

Back from their holiday

 

October 4, 1963

Watching John play

 

Beatles back from their holiday

 

Ready to Rock with John

 

Are you ready steady go?

 October 4, 1963

Wonderful

I LOVE this George photo.  It is just perfection.   George is playing the guitar.  He is looking good.  There is fan artwork behind him. 

Life in the fish bowl

The Beatles are Ready, Steady Go!

Ringo didn't want to chat--he just wanted to play his drums

Get ready, steady go!

McCartney-Lennon

Truth is stranger than fiction: Melanie Coe

Now and then I am going to be sharing some articles about some strange coincidences that happened in Beatles-dom and I am going to start with one of my favorites, Melanie Coe.

In 1963 Melanie Coe was 13 years old and was a dancer on the television show  "Ready Steady Go!" She had been part of the show for about a year when on October 4, 1963 the Beatles appeared on the British program.   Melanie participated in a lip sync contest.   She and three other girls did their best dance and lip sync to Brenda Lee's song, "Let's Jump the Broomstick."      

The winner of the lip sync contest got a LP record.   But more important than the prize was the judge of the contest.   Paul McCartney was the person that chose the winner and he decided that Melanie did the best job (and when you watch the youtube of it, you will most likely agree).

She came forward and received her prize and shook Paul's hand while he congratulated her.   And Miss Coe was forgotten and should have just been a cute little moment in Beatles history.    

In 1967 Melanie was 17 years old and was a pregnant teenager.   She was very scared and feared her mother would severely punish her.  She ran off, not with the father of the child, but with another man and they hid away for three weeks until Melanie's parents found them and made her return home and terminate the pregnancy.    As Melanie explained in 2008, "As a 17-year-old I had everything money could buy - diamonds, furs, a car - but my father and mother never once told me they loved me."

Paul McCartney was reading the Daily Mail in February of 1967 and read a story about the run-away Melanie and how her parents were looking for her.   The story in the paper gave Paul the idea to write "She's Leaving Home."    The song is fiction, but the line about how the parents gave her everything money could buy came right from the article. 

Did Paul know that the runaway girl in the newspaper article was the same girl that won a lip sync contest that he judged over 3 years earlier?    I would guess he didn't.    Melanie looked very different in 1967 than she did in 1963.    And Melanie said that while filming Ready Steady Go, she had spent more time chatting with George and Ringo that day than with Paul or John.    

It is just one of those really strange coincidences in Beatles fandom....

The Fabulous Four

Ready, Steady, Ring--GO!

RSG '64

This guitar makes me gently weep

I am sort of sad to see George Harrison's Rickenbacker guitar that he bought in 1963 up for auction right now.     George bought the Rickenbacker 425 guitar when he was in Benton, Illinois in September 1963 on holiday with his brother.    He and Gabe McCarty went to Red Fenton's music store in Mount Vernon, Illinois (which is the closest large town to Benton, even though Mount Vernon is pretty small).   They did not have the guitar in black.  George wanted it in black because it would match John's guitar.   So the guy at the shop told George to come back in a week and he would have the guitar refinished in black.    The shop owner was quite shocked that George paid him in cash because it was an expensive purchase and he didn't think by looking at George that he would have that much money on him in cash.  

George really didn't play the guitar for a very long time.   He is seen with on on the Ready Steady Go television performance from October 1963 and during the 1963 Swedish tour.   He also used it in the recording of I wanna hold your hand and This Boy.   Then George sort of moved on to other guitars.  In the late 1960's George gave the Rickenbacker to George Peckham, who worked with Apple and was a guitar player who needed a guitar.   George just gave him this guitar because it was a good rhythm  guitar and he handed it over without a guitar case or anything.  

I know I am showcasing George's guitar from RSG '63, but just check out the lovely fan in the background!  She is too adorable!   She is standing there all ready to get her book autographed. 

In 1999 this guitar was sold by Christie's auction house and George even verified that it had been his guitar and the whole story behind it was true.   The main place this guitar has been on display from 2000-2013 was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.     I saw the guitar in person there in 2001 when I traveled to see the John Lennon exhibit.   It also appeared for a year at the John Lennon museum in Japan, but returned to the Rock Hall after that year.    It is currently on display in New York City as part of a Beatles Grammy display.   And I knew it was there, but I assumed that it would return once again to the Rock Hall.     I like this guitar because George bought it at a store near where I live.   I don't know....I feel bonded to it.    I liked the idea that if I really wanted to see it, then it was tucked away as part of the Beatles exhibit in Cleveland.

photo copyright  https://www.flickr.com/photos/quirkytravelguy/

But I guess it just wasn't mean to be because right now it is up for auction with Julien's auction house as part of their "music icons, legends and rebels" auction that will take place on May 17, 2014.   I can only hope that another museum or the Hard Rock gets a hold of it.   I hate things like this going into a private collection because then us fans never get to see it.   The only private collection that would be reasonable is if it went back to Dhani Harrison.  



*much thanks goes to the book Beatles Gear by Andy Babiuk

Ready, Steady, Go!

On Friday, March 20, 1964 at 6:15pm, Beatles fans in England were treated to watching their favorite guys from Liverpool on the television program, "Ready, Steady, Go!"   Now this wasn't the first time the boys had been on this show, but it was pretty great that they took time out of making their new movie to appear on television. 

It was a pretty impressive show.  The Beatles mimed to some of their songs "(It Won't be Long, Can't buy me love and You can't do that).   John talked to the host about his new book and the guys were interviewed.   One of the highlights of the highlights of the interviews was when Cathy McGowan interviewed Ringo and one of the questions she asked him was if he was a mod or a rocker and of course Ringo answered very off the cuff, "I'm not a mod or a rocker, I'm a mocker!"   Of course this is a great line and it was included in the Beatles movie, "A Hard Day's Night."

The neat thing about the show was the background consisted of artwork of the Beatles made by fans.  As you know, fan art is something Beatle fans have made since the beginning of the fandom and it continues today at Beatle conventions.    I think having the fan art decorating the Beatles while they are performing and being interviewed is awesome!  And just think if YOU did some of the art and to see the Beatles standing in front of it would totally just put you over the moon.  

Towards the end of the program, the Beatles judged the art contest.  But they judged it in typical Beatle style, buy drawing mustaches and black eyes on the art.   Here is what Tony Barrow had to say about it:

Toward the end of the programme, the camera found Keith Fordyce standing in front of a wall covered in caricatures of the Fab Four: 'Last week we had a contest asking you to send in paintings, drawings, cartoons or photo montages of the Beatles and we got an absolutely fabulous response, 32 sack loads of entries.' To the accompaniment of their recording of ' This Boy' all four Beatles inspected the impressive selection of entries, using marker pens to add mustaches and comments here and there.  John scrawled "Buy My Book" in big letters across one and drew in a funny face on another.  Paul blackened in the eyes of a cartoon of himself.  Eventually they decided that someone named Jeremy was the winner and with shouts of of 'Good old Jerry!' John handed him a pair of albums as a prize.

This is one of the fan drawings that was in the contest and drawn on by the Beatles (I think by George).  Can you see it in the background of the photos?   It was sold at auction many years ago.

So who was this young man, Jeremy, who won the contest?   It was Jeremy Ratter who would later be known as Penny Rimbaud  who was the drummer of a heavy punk band in the 1970's called "Crass."  Strangely the albums he chose were two classical albums, which I always wondered if that was really what he wanted or if it was done for a joke.     The Beatles signed Jeremy's winning piece of art, which was his artistic take on "I wanna hold your hand."  But it is unknown what ever happened to the autographed artwork.

John giving the classical albums to Jeremy Ratter.  His winning drawing is right behind him.

The Beatles on the March 20, 1964 Ready Steady Go is a great show to watch.  If you decided to find it on youtube, make sure you look for Mal Evans totally walking in front of the camera and the host pushing him out of the way.   It makes me laugh every time!

--Information for this post was found in the article "Ready Steady Go!" by Tony Barrow published in the October 2000 issue of Beatle Book Monthly