The Long and the Short (1966)

 

The Long and the Short 

Rave Editors

Rave Magazine

February 1966

    The long and short of this particular Beatles lunch date was that the Beatles weren't exactly the world champion spaghetti eaters. It's not that the four boys didn't like the stuff- they did. It was a question of, how did they ever get to eat it? Like their spaghetti, our story begins here and goes on.

     When in Rome, do as the Romans do. That's the old saying, and the Beatles, non-conformist that they are, went along with the idea, just for a laugh and a giggle. Every good Roman has his daily spaghetti, just as the Scotsman has his porridge. 

    So with two days to spend in Rome, John, Paul, George, and Ringo decided to have a go at spaghetti, eating at a special luncheon in their hotel. This all took place on the Beatles' last European tour. All over the continent, they went tasting --wine in Spain, delicate dishes in France. So it was only natural, really, that spaghetti in Italy was to be the next in line. 

    The results rather bewildered the Italian photographer, as you can imagine. With comments like, "Is it dead?" From John as he inspected a single strand from his plate.  "No. One of them just wriggled off my fork," George replied, looking rather dubiously at his mountainous pile. 

    Ringo, meanwhile, had wound most of his spaghetti over his fork, and it was now progressing up his arm. "Get back, you fools!" he shouted to the advancing white strands. Paul twirled on. John, however, soon decided that the best way to win was to twist the spaghetti round his fork until it was the size of a candyfloss and then take big bites out of it, candyfloss style, unsuccessfully. We might add. 

    His next move was to take a huge handful, hold it above his head, and just let it all drop, well, most of it anyway, into his mouth. George nodded approval at John's move. "Yeah, John, think you're right. It's quicker by hand. Can't understand how Italians get fat. It'll take me a week to get this lot untangled, let alone eat it."

     Rango, meanwhile, had been taking spaghetti eating tuition from an Italian girl present at the lunch. She was the president of their Italian fan club, and though it was only fair to help, her name was Anna Maria Cecchi, a cousin of Gina Lollobrigida --unsurprisingly enough, an expert on the matter at hand.

     Now spurred on to great things, Ringo started eating professionally from his plate and Paul too at the same time, a continuous stream of spaghetti going into his mouth. "Beat that," said John. They could not. So the other three retired, covered in most of their lunch, leaving Ringo as the champion of the day, a very unusual day in the life of a Beatle.

Blues Singer (1966)

This terrible quality photograph shows the Beatles with Beryl in the hotel room in Barcelona

 

Blues Singer

By Steve James

The Eastern Evening News

January 1, 1966

    Christmas usually sees blue singer Beryl Bryden paying a visit to Norwich to see her folk in Branksome Road, and she managed to fit in her usual stay this time, though her engagements made it a bit more fleeting than usual. 

    I managed to get a few words with her before she left on her way to sing in an American Air Force camp. Though she's getting plenty of work, particularly in the clubs up north, she mourned that "nobody wants to record jazz now", and when I asked her about TV and radio dates, I was a bit surprised to hear her say she's had only a couple or so of these in the past year-- for she's one of the country's leading blue singers, after all.

     But whatever the situation over here, they certainly appreciate the Bryden Blues on the continent. Why? Beryl has been taped for the Dutch pirate radio, Radio Veronica! "We did five numbers in three hours," she recalled.

     I've seen Beryl praised in French, Belgian, Dutch, and German papers before, but this time she's added another language to her cutting book. It's Spanish. "Una cantate de mucho peso" ran one headline following Beryl's appearance in Spain. She told me that the words meant "a weighty singer" the reference being to her not inconsiderable poundage, rather than to the nature of her songs. 

    I also noticed a reference to "Una tablar de laver" which is the washboard on which Beryl makes the rhythm sizzle. Another headline was an odd mixture of German and English, "Happy jazz mit Beryl Bryden". No translation needed!

     But Beryl's outstanding memory of recent months is meeting the Beatles when they sang in Barcelona and hearing one of them greet her with, "Hi, Beryl, where's your washboard?"

     They remembered seeing her in the Hamburg club at which they were playing in the days before they found fame. 

    After their performance in the Barcelona bullring, The Beatles invited Beryl to join them at their hotel. There, they got her to sing "Moving On" and persuaded her to fetch her washboard from her own hotel and join them in an informal session. George and Paul were on guitars, John on harmonica, and Ringo played the maracas. 

    Beryl gave me a crisp summary of the personalities of the individual Beatles. "John-- intelligent, witty. Paul --he's sweet, a charmer. George --rather quiet until he opens up. Ringo-- makes dry remarks."

Sometimes I play the fool

July 4, 1965

Fans in the balcony

Spanish bass

The cute one