The Day the Beatles became THE BEATLES

 

As far as I am concerned, August 18, 1962, is the day that The Beatles became the band that I love and adore.  It was on this very day 60 years ago that Ringo Starr first officially played with John, Paul and George.   Sadly there are not any photographs of this historic occasion.  However, you can visit Port Sunlight and see the sign on the wall on the outside of the building like I did with my mom in 2017.  

Let's Jive!

Looks like this would have been a great way to spend Halloween Night! 

From my collection....

If you have spent any time talking Beatles with me, you will quickly learn that I am sort of obsessed with the Beatles 1966 North American Tour.   I am trying to to overwhelm this blog with stuff, but I am so excited to share it all with you because I just love this tour.

In the past few years I have started collecting item specific to the Beatles 1966 North American tour.   I don't have a lot of items, but here are a few that pertain to the Chicago show.   An ad from the newspaper for the concert and a ticket stub for the evening show.   The ticket stub isn't really special because it is literally a stub---no Beatles mentioned on the part that is left or anything.  However, the fan that original attended the show wrote "Beatle concert" on the back, which I think is sweet.

The Beatles go for a Wirral

On January 14, 1963 the Beatles played The Ellesmere Port Civic Hall to a very enthusiastic audience.   And while the band was still in the beginning stages of stardom, those who were there caught on quickly that the Beatles were special.  

Here are some memories from those who were there:

Patricia Greenhalgh: My friend Barbara Dickson and I had some great times following the Beatles before they became really big, in fact we were responsible for them playing Ellesmere Port Civic Hall. We knew the lads really well from the Cavern Club, so we contacted the manager of the Civic Hall and encouraged him to book them. We'd always have a chat with Paul, John and the band and have a bit of a laugh after the gigs but before they went onstage at the civic hall Paul came and invited us back stage with them. It was a really good gig. They even offered to play at my 21st birthday party but I said no because I was only having it at my brother's house in Blacon! I've still got signed records now. They were nice lads and they deserved their success. They were truly great days.
(Ellesmere Port & Neston Messenger Winter 2008)

Sue McClelland: My friend Angela and I took them tea in their dressing room. We got a kiss from each of them and their autographs. Angela's Mum organised it all and booked them.  

Lee Lucks: I'm barely 15 years, never been to a gig (a dance in those days!) and I've been invited by my friend Angela to a "do" to raise funds for the Carnival Queen in the Civic Hall at Ellesmere Port. "It's brilliant new group from Liverpool," she tells me. 'The Beatles, with an A." Along I go in my best - a straight skirt, daringly short, and a very prim white blouse with a high neck. The atmosphere is amazing and the performance electric.

The show finishes and we're waiting for Angela's mum to clear up and take us home when we're called over. "You can go backstage if you want to . . ." Wow! By now we're all in a frenzy and a little nervous but that disappears as soon as we walk into the dressing room. Four exuberant, noisy boys larking about and writing on the mirrors. It didn't matter who was who, they were all friendly, chatty and wild.

The only number I remember is Please Please Me but that started me on the collection - all my pocket money that year was spent on new releases. Most of my time that should have been spent revising for GCEs was spent listening to the records. Maybe that's why I can remember most of the words to the early hits but very little about the Battle of Hastings! 

Dennis Flavell: I was there and have an original ticket, plus the Beatles autographs, plus the receipt for the dance signed by Brian Epstein on a NEMS enterprises business card. They were paid forty pound and Please Please Me had just gone to #1 on the charts. Supporting orchestra was The Whitby Ward Trio who all (or at least 2) were at the Grammar School at the time. Roger Parrot was the keyboard player.  

Margaret Walmsley: It was my sister Joan Fairley that took them their tea in the break. George Harrison signed a cigarette for her and she smoked it! Could have been worth something now...

Pam Stout: I was at this dance and a friend (Carol Gorman) got Paul to sign a personalised autograph for me as her Mum was on the Wolverham Association who arranged the event. Happy Days! 

Gillian Campbell: I remember my Dad saying when he went to watch the Beatles at the Civic Hall John Lennon was "flirting" with one of his friend's girlfriends. There was a small fight (don't think it was a mass brawl or anything) with Lennon and my Dad, his friends and I remember him saying Screaming Lord Such (I think that's how you spell it) was involved!! 

I found all of this great information on the LiverpoolLocations blog.

Last stop Bristoll

It is really difficult for me to think back to 1964 and a time when everyone did not carry a camera with them.     Even in the 1990's, when we still had to get film developed, my friends and I always had cameras with us.   You just never know when a Kodak moment might pop up and a camera-worthy moment sure did happen on the last night of the Beatles Autumn UK tour of 1964 in Bristol!  It is such a huge shame that not a single person took a photo of it, because today if something like this happened, it would be all over TMZ and youtube and facebook.   

Actually there are not any photographs of the Beatles in Bristol for the same reason that their weren't photos the previous night:  The Beatles requested that no one was allowed backstage and photographs weren't allowed inside of the theater.  

It was another sell-out show and fans were photographed waving their tickets before entering the theater.  17 girls who were unable to secure tickets snuck through a door in the back of the venue that had been left open for the cleaners.   The girls hid in the loo and tried to be as quiet as they could until the show began, however one of the 17 girls coughed, and a security guard heard it.   The girls were found hiding and were promptly removed from the theater, much to their disappointment.

The opening acts were full of energy for the last night of the tour.   Mary Wells was very well received yet again.   Once the Beatles came onstage, the fans began to scream, as was expected.  However, it was noted that they were a bit quieter than in years past in Bristol and at times bits of music could be heard.   It was also noted that more adults had been in attendance at this show and while teenagers highly outnumbered the grown-ups, it showed an interesting change in the Beatles fan basis.   The teenagers were throwing jelly babies, stuffed animals and love letters onto the stage.  Two girls tried to throw themselves onto the stage, but they were tackled by security before they could make it.  And 12 fans missed out on the show due to "emotional stress."

My files says this is from November 1964 so I am adding it just to have a photo in this post. 

But what was the event that happened during this concert that I wish I could see a photo of?   Well---picture this:   The Beatles are performing for the last house of the tour and they are singing "If I Fell."   Just as they get to the very last notes of this beautiful song,  someone overhead pours bags of flour on top of them!    Flour is now everywhere!   It is in Ringo's drums, on the floor, in their moptops, in the guitars, etc etc.    And what are the Beatles doing?

According to the newspaper reports, "The Beatles collapsed in fits of laughter, pointing at each other and dancing around the stage in stitches.  There was flour in their hair, on their suits, in their eyebrows, in their guitars and all over Ringo's drums.  Ringo turned his tom-tom upside down and banged it in a vain attempt to get rid of the flour.  Paul, bent double with laughter, grabbed the mike and shouted, "It's the last night of the tour, you see."  Then they broke into giggles again.  The audience just sat roaring and shrieking with laughter until the Beatles recovered enough to launch into "I wanna be your man."


Wouldn't you have LOVED to have seen this?   Their reaction must have been hilarious!


So who did such a thing?   In an article in the newspaper the following days, a story called "How we Bombed the Beatles" was published which was written by the supposed culprits.   Three young men and a policeman's daughter confessed that they shimmy's up a drainpipe in the back of the building, ran across the roof and dropped down through a trapdoor into the lighting department and waited for the right moment to drop the flour.     And everyone believe that it was a prank by these four individuals until a writer at the Post investigated further and discovered that it was a stagehand that did the deed.   Whoever dumped the flour of the Fab 4, sure knew how to end the tour on a funny note! 

Beatles in Sheffield

I could not locate any photographs from the Beatles tour stop in Sheffield on November 9, 1964, which is a real shame.  

As the tour was coming to an end,  and the late night in Liverpool the previous night, it was obvious that the Beatles were getting tired and run-down by November 9th.    They asked that no one come backstage before the shows so that they could just rest and relax and not be "on" for the press (this explains why photographs of them backstage could not be found).    This upset a lot of folks who were demanding to see the Beatles in person before they went on stage.  One such person was Olympic long jumper Sheila Parkin who was promised a meeting with the Beatles to present them with a reward that they won from the local newspaper.    She was quite upset that she was refused entry backstage and her people  took it up with Brian Epstein, who apologized profusely (as he was the one that promised a meeting) and made it up to her by allowing her a private meeting with the boys later in London, which she happily agreed to.    Some reporters from a hospital, who were told that they were going to be allowed backstage to record messages from the Beatles waited for hours to get in, only to be turned away five hours later and told that no one was coming inside to see the Beatles as they were just too tired.

When things with the press started to get a bit rowdy, Neil Aspinal was sent to talk to the press and explain that two of the Beatles were asleep and that he had told Paul about the award they had won and Paul responded by saying, "Hey, that's gear." 

All of this resulted in some negative publicity in the newspapers for the Beatle, which was a headache for Derek Taylor to try to sort thought the next morning.  

Some reports claim that the Beatles showed little energy when performing during this concert.  But the fans who were there remember the show with great joy.  Says one fan named Linda, "I saw them at the City Hall when I was 15, all I heard was Twist and Shout, the rest was drowned by screams. The roads around the stage door afterwards were choc-a-block and I went home to my Mum and Dad and cried, they thought I was crazy - I was for the Beatles. My Dad described them as long haired layabouts!!"   And Angela, "My mother and I saw The Beatles at the city hall,I remember we paid 17/6 each for two near front seats which seemed extravagant at the time. All we did was see them as it was impossible to hear a note they played so deafening was the screaming.I remember being thrilled when Paul seemed to look at me as he was singing. We went to quite a few pop concerts about that time including The Stones but I have never seen or rather heard anything like that night before or since. After the concert it was bedlam outside,a taxi with four young men in it drove away,I believe it was a decoy.The fans charged after it and I was almost knocked over,I fell against the wall and got chalk marks on my new coat."


I am not sure if the Beatles were in that taxi Angela saw or not, but I do know that they ended up getting into a helicopter that took them to the Park Hal Residential Country Club where they landed on the front lawn.    This is where they slept that night, ready to finish up one more concert and end the Autumn UK tour of 1964. 

They weren't standing at the dock but performing in Southhampton

Once again I have very little information about the November 6, 1964 performances in Southampton.    What is know is that The Beatles  were interviewed by Tony Bilbow in their dressing room before they went onstage for a television program called Day By Day.  

The only report that can be found about the actual concert comes from  the Echo newspaper who reported this about the Beatles  in concert:

The biggest roar of the evening was for Ringo and his solo spot.  He could be heard--just.  Certainly, the Beatles give full value for money these days.  Their 20 minutes was crammed with top numbers--no hip twitching, no histrionics, no pandering to the jungle instincts of the little girls.

And so the concert during the 1964 UK Autumn tour in Southampton remains a mystery and just another stop on a hectic schedule.

One of the only girls in the room

The information I am posting here came from this page.   It is about a WIBBAGE radio disc jockey named Bill Wright and his daughter, Kelly.   Kelly was only 9 years old when the Beatles came to Philadelphia and she was a Beatles maniac!   Because of the connection through her father, she met a variety of bands in the 1960's, but nothing compared to when she met the Beatles 50 years ago today!

Copyright Kelly Wright

Kelly Wright on how she became a Beatles fan:

" I was lucky because Dad used to get promotional albums and 45's.  The first one I had was "I wanna hold your hand" flip side "I Saw Her Standing there" and I played that until the grooves wore through."

Kelly on how she got to meet the Beatles:

"There was a press conference that was being held before the show.  The first idea was that I would attend the press conference just like anyone else might because my Dad was on at the station.  Then we found out there was a strange rule that no females were allowed in this press conference.  I was upset beyond compare but I heard Frank Rizzo, the police commissioner, got involved and somehow they figured out an idea that I was to present the Beatles with a plaque from the girls of Philadelphia and that is what enabled me to stay at the press conference when there were no other females allowed except a group of nine girls that had been chosen from the radio audience of WIBBAGE to be able to meet them.  That happened after my experience of presenting them with this plaque."

Kelly on meeting the Beatles

I remember when they first walked into the press conference.  I had my brand new autograph book in my hand.  I had my Beatles ring on.  I had my size 12 1/2 blue dress and ankle socks.  I bit on my autograph book and it still has bite marks on it  (Kelly bit on her autograph book to stop herself from screaming.  She thought if she screamed, they would kick her out of the press conference and she would miss her chance at meeting the Beatles).   Someone ushered me up in between the four of them where they were standing next to folding chairs.  My Dad was there.   I went to stand up on a chair for a photo with this plaque that was poster size and made of wood and medal.   I was so nervous that I almost fell off the chair.  John Lennon very gently but firmly grabbed my arm to steady me and help me to stand up straight on the chair.  His touch just did it for me.  He was my kindred spirit from then on.   They were just such regular people.  John was just a regular, caring person.  Once I was standing on the chair listening to them and talking to them, there was no reason to scream.  They were really regular, nice people.  They paid some attention to me and that was so important.  That John Lennon would be paying so much attention to me, a little girl.

 
 Kelly on getting the Beatles autographs

 From my memory, I had been escorted back out to the audience where my brother and our baby sitter was.  I realized that I had this autograph book but no autographs.  I apparently became a backstage brat.  I left my chair and went to the side door and knocked on it.  When someone opened it, I said that I was Bill Wright's daughter and I  need autographs.  Somehow or another everything kicked into gear again and I was being led down a long, this hallway.  A door opened up and the first person I saw was John and I made a beeline right to him and he picked up his pen, took my autograph book and he signed it, "to Kelly love from John Lennon."  From John I went to over to Paul.  He said the same thing in his autograph, "To Kelly love from..."  George did the same.   Ringo was out in the hall, so when I was leaving and saying goodbye to the guys--Ringo just signed it "Ringo Starr."  He was busy flirting with some female reporter.  That was it!

I got my ticket

I thought I would take this opportunity to share with you an item from my Beatles collection.   I bought this off ebay earlier this year and it is a ticket stub from a showing of the movie, "A Hard Day's Night."    I love the fact that it is ripped a little  bit, because it shows that it was actually used by a real fan and someone ripped the small part off the ticket before she went in to see the film.    I also loved the tickets back then!  They sure do not make neat tickets like that today!

 

But what I really love about the ticket stub is that the fan wrote on the back of it who she went to see the movie with.   Little things like this make Beatles memorabilia so awesome to me. 

Performing in Hong Kong

 

To commemorate a concert that very little is ever said about that occurred 50 years ago today, I thought I would reproduce  part of  an article about when the Beatles played in Hong Kong that I found online from the South China Morning Post. 

When the Beatles came to Hong Kong

By Charley Lanyon

June 9, 1964, has been called the most important day in Hong Kong’s pop history. In the collective memory of the city, The Beatles’ appearance at the Princess Theatre in Kowloon – today the site of the Mira Hotel – marked the beginning of an era: the era of Hong Kong English-language rock 'n' roll, and ultimately of the Cantonese-language pop that it gave birth to.

However, when speaking to the people who were there – audience members and the movers and shakers of Hong Kong’s 1960s pop scene – a more complicated picture emerges. Have we been giving the Fab Four too much credit?

First of all, Fab Three would be more accurate: The Beatles who appeared in Hong Kong were short one Ringo Starr, who was recovering from tonsillitis in a London hospital; he was temporarily replaced by drummer Jimmy Nicol.

Also, the commonly heard story that the Princess Theatre was packed with thousands of screaming, music-starved Hong Kong youngsters doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. The screams were real, but according to Hong Kong institution DJ Ray “Uncle Ray” Cordeiro, they most likely came from military servicemen. In fact, the concert was the only time in Beatles history where the promoter lost money. Tickets went unsold.

“It was quite a flop because the teenagers couldn’t afford to buy the tickets … and the parents didn’t know who The Beatles were. So the theatre was empty,” Cordeiro says.

According to Cordeiro, the promoter was forced to offer the unsold tickets to the army, free of charge, and the auditorium was filled with soldiers in uniforms.

Other audience members remember things a bit differently. Anders Nelsson, then a teenager and lead singer of the band The Kontinentals, and Philip Chan Yan-kin of the Astro-Notes, clearly remember throngs of screaming female fans. Nelsson recalls barely being able to make out the music, “the girls were screaming so loud and the PA system was so bad that it was basically an experience rather than a concert”.

The First concert

I love reading the stories of fans who attended a Beatles concert.   Everyone's story is just so interesting and their memories are just so fascinating.   It really adds to the history of the Beatles.  That is why I am encouraging any of you who attended a Beatles concert to write down your memories.  If you would like to share them with this blog, I would be super excited!  But if not...it is just an important historical memory to have documented.   

Here is a story of someone who saw the Beatles in 1963.   I love it!   Sadly out of the thousands of concert photos I have, the folder for "October 5, 1963" is empty!  I do not have any photos from this concert!  So I will have to post photos from a different concert from the tour.

This story was written by Moira Warren and is from the January 1977 issue of "With a little help from my friends."

That very first Beatle concert

By Moira Warren (Scotland)

Saturday 5^th October 1963 – what a magical date.  That was the day I first saw THEM.  The Beatles—in person on stage at the Glasgow concert Hall!  It was the opening night of a Scottish tour (a very short 3 day tour which also included Kirkcaldy and Dundee) but it all really started for me a few weeks before “B day” when my friend, June arrived on y doorstep, all breathless from running, waving those 2 precious little blue bits of paper and asked would I like to go see the Beatles with her!  (would I?) I made a sort of choking, gasping sound in answer as I snatched one of the tickets and kissed it so she guessed I did want to see the Beatles!

Those 2 weeks or so literally dragged until October 5^th.  At work, I was often found just sitting in a daze thinking about actually seeing the Beatles!  Their records “She loves you” was #1 and although that was their 3^rd #1 in a row that year, most people were just beginning to notice this fairly new group from Liverpool but I’d noticed them months before.  I’d fallen in love with the Beatle sound and Paul in particular at the beginning of ’63.  After seeing them on TV and hearing them interviewed on radio, I was just dying to actually see them in the flesh.

At long last, October 5^th came.   I got up at the crack of dawn but couldn’t eat a thing.  I don’t know now what I wore but I’d guess it was a black polo necked jumper and either skirt or trousers.  I think it was trousers.  I also know for sure I had at least a dozen Beatles badges on that regulation black polo!  (All Beatle fans wore black polo’s!)  I think you call them turtlenecks in America.  I hung around the clock all morning looking at it every two minutes, just waiting or June to call round se we could set off. It was pretty cold that day but I can’t say I felt it as we left at about 2:30pm to catch a bus into town.  Our show (the second) didn’t start until 8:30pm so we had hours to wait.  We decided to just walk around the town looking for anyone remotely “Beatle-like” (in those days they were easy to spot because not many had long hair yet).  After the shows we found out the boys had been staying at the Central Hotel but although we walked past there at least twice, we hadn’t seen a thing!

There wasn’t the obvious Beatlemania that Glasgow was soon to see 6 months later in April 1964 when the Beatles next visited, but the excitement amongst the fans was intense to say the least.

Eventually we made our way back to the concert halls to queue for the 2^nd show.  Hundreds of girls were already waiting outside so after all the waiting, this was it!

Here we were standing outside the hall and THEY were inside! We heard a fresh wave of screams great what must have been the last number of the 1^st show.  It was, and soon tearful, sobbing girls stumbled out to the normally busy, but usually much quieter Argyle Street.  Passersby over the age of 20 stared in amazement, they didn’t know The Beatles were the cause of all the excitement!  John, George, Paul and Ringo were not to become household words for another 6 weeks or so – then the whole of Britain (and soon the world) would know exactly who those four cheeky looking kids with the stone-age hairstyles were.

We privileged few (for the hall only held 1,500) knew already that these four boys were special.

We noticed extra policemen arrive just then and soon whispers began about a bomb being in the building!  There mustn’t be, I prayed.  Not with the Beatles inside—there can’t be!  Of course after a ten minute search it turned out to be a hoax – but what an anxious ten minutes!  We should have known it was a hoax after all, how could a poor little bomb be heard above “Twist and Shout?”

One of our local newspapers, the “Evening Citizen” had a special front page on the Beatles that night, and I’ve never seen papers sell so fast!  Our papers were to have “Beatle” specials every few months until about ’66 after that – but in October ’63 we just didn’t realize how things were to explode for the Beatles.  June and I dutifully handed over our 3d for our copy of “The Citizen” and started talking to a very agitated girl there on her own.  We’d noticed her before and she seemed even more excited than the others, although by this time every girl (including me) was shaking like a leaf!  She said “Hello.  I’m Irene, George’s my favorite and I’m going to meet them after the show!”  To that, I replied, “Hello.  I’m Moira.  Paul’s my favorite, and pull the other one, it’s got bells on.”  Of course we didn’t believe her but Irene kept bouncing up and down insisting she was going to meet him (George that is).  She was waving a newspaper which confirmed her story about 6 lucky competition winners meeting the Beatles after the show.  We did eventually write to her, but at that moment as we were slowly being allowed into the hall that was the last thing on our minds.  We had but 4 thoughts!

In the foyer we paid 2/- for a programme, gasping at the four familiar faces on the cover as we did so I said, “Look at Paul!” and June replied, “ohhh, look at John!”  Our conversations usually sounded a bit like that.  We hurried to row K14 and I didn’t know at the time but I was right on john’s side.  The tickets cost 17/6d but worth it to get such good seats (13 was all I was earning at the time so 17/6d seemed a lot then).   At last the show started but we had to sit for what seemed like ages before they were due on.  We sat shuffling our feet, biting our nails and politely clapping a whole host of acts like the “the Carnavelles,”  “Malcolm Clarke and the Cresters,” “Johnny Hudson and the Teenbeats,”  “Housten Wells and the Marksmen,” “the Overlanders,” and “Andy Ross and his Show Band” (yes really).  Looking back, I can’t remember what any of them looked like.  Needless to say, none of them have been heard of from that day to this!  What we Beatle fans have to suffer!  Then as an army of assorted policemen, ambulancemen and Stewards (about 50) positioned themselves around the front of the stage, my stomach turned a dozen summersaults and the curtains opened and the loudest shriek that Glasgow had ever heard ripped its way around the Hall and bounced from wall to wall!  I’d never heard anything like it because this was the first concert I’d ever been to in my life.  I’ll never forget it as long as I live. 

There they were at last!  John, George and Paul beaming wilding and looking so innocent.  I can’t really remember if Ringo, sitting high up and poised on his dreams was smiling too—somehow don’t think so. 

George seemed terrified of the noise as he gingerly stepped forward, took held of the mike with his left hand and said something that was completely inaudible before starting to sing.  They chose “Roll over Beethoven” to open the show but they alone knew that at the time!  (I found out the next day after reading the reviews).  I couldn’t hear a thing except the screams and the shouts of “John, Paul, George and Ringo!”

Now I knew why George looked so scared, before he’d finished singing, he was knee deep in Jelly Babies!  And he kept flinching as one or more sailed past his head.  He seemed glad to get back in front of Ringo’s drum and leave Paul and John in the line of fire (serves him right for saying he liked Jelly Babies!).  As Paul stepped forward I could see him clearer.  We were directly in front of John so I had to stand sideways to see Paul best.  I’m really glad John’s shortsighted and couldn’t’ see into the audience!  Paul looked even more angelic in person as he introduced the next song (whatever that was).  He looked like a beautiful choir boy in his lovely collarless suit.  They were a grey/blue colour and Paul had a knife-edge crease in his trousers.  I remember that!  His black Cuban-heeled boots made him look much taller than I’d imagined he’d be.  My eyes simply adored him.  I just knew Paul McCartney was going to stay someone very special in my life.  The 30 or 40 minutes they were on stage flew like 30 seconds.  I don’t remember the order of the songs or even all of them.  But I do remember Ringo, in a huge spotlight, belting out “Boys” for all his worth.  Paul screamed the backing vocals to that as if in an effort to drown poor Ringo out.  I think George was at the mic too but I can’t honestly remember.  Anyway, Ringo retaliated by punishing those drums.  I thought any minute his foot would go through the floor!

I remember Paul singing “A taste of honey”, “I’ll get you,” then “She loves you” next with Paul and George trying to outdo each other, you know, at the “Oooo” bits to see who could shake his furry head the wildest!  I’ll never forget the way they kept looking at each other and laughing.  They must have known the effect they were having on us poor girls.  “Please please me,”  “From me to you,”  “I saw her standing there”, “Do you want to know a secret” and then all too soon John was asking us to clap and hands and stamp our feet for “Twist and Shout” there’ll never be a song to equal that for a closing a show!  He literally brought the house down that night because if we’d only have looked up, the entire balcony was jumping up and down in time to the music!  I do remember looking up once or twice – so I guess there was something going on.  John screamed “Twist and Shout” like his life depended on it!  He sung it with such force that even I had to turn my head around.  After that, I kept one eye on John and the other on Paul and George.

In the near riot that had developed, 100 seats collapsed and a girl tensed up with emotion punched clear though a plasterboard wall!  Anyway the following day’s newspapers reported that riot long with the story of the balcony swaying dangerously and plaster etc., falling down below.  So the result of all that meant a complete ban on any more concerts in that particular hall. 

As the last chord of “Twist and Shout” faded and died, the curtains closed and they were gone.  I flopped to my seat exhausted then we picked up our programmes and other souvenirs, just looking at one another.  We didn’t need to speak; we both felt exactly the same.  No words are quite adequate when you’ve just seen them.  We slowly made our way out amidst an eerie silence, broken only by sobs as I remember.  When I at last spoke, on our way home, I found my voice a hoarse whisper (I stayed like that for the next week too).  I could have sworn it’d been everyone else screaming!  I don’t really remember how or when we eventually got home.  It was late anyway.  I suppose it’s possible we could’ve walked the 7 miles.  I just don’t remember.

What I will always remember was the first time I ever saw John, Paul, George and Ringo.  I did see the Beatles in ’64 and ’65 too.  But that very first concert will always hold extra special memories.  What I’d give to go back to 1963 for just one hour!