The Night of the Beatles Foot (1984)

 

The Night of the Beatles Foot

By Richard Harris

The Evening Post (Nottingham, UK)

December 19, 1984

    How I envy all these people with memories of the day they met Paul McCartney. The lucky few who shook John Lennon by the hand or got a friendly wave from Ringo Starr.  Me? The best I got was a quick glimpse of George Harrison's naked left foot.

     It seems we all have our memories of the day the Beatles came to town. We've been reliving some of them in the columns of The Post these past few days. What amazes me is how many actually managed to meet the Fab Four.

     The closest I got was behind 1000 screaming teenage girls who defied a bitterly cold winter's night to catch a glimpse of their idols, who were clowning around behind the lace curtains of a third-floor window.

     After all this time, I can't even remember why I was there. I wasn't even a Beatles fan then. When I turned up on the night, the four mop heads played at the local Odeon. They shared the bill with Gerry and the Pacemakers. I recall he brought the first half to a close with "You'll Never Walk Alone" in the days before it became a football anthem.  The second half started with one Tommy. Quickly. I wonder, what, if anything, ever happened to him?  He sang a song called "I'll Never Get Over You" to an audience that was already becoming breathless in anticipation. It's funny how you remember such useless details so clearly after so long. 

    And then the Beatles came on stage, in those ridiculous little gray suits with the twee collars. There was a good deal of screaming, cheering, whistling, and shouting, and probably somewhere in the distance, the lads were belting out "Twist and Shout", although I couldn't be sure it was, as they say, something of an experience. 

    But as a concert, it was a dead loss, because apart from a far-off pounding which rocked the floor and up through the seats. You couldn't hear a thing except the screaming of the fans.

     But you might be asking, 'What about George Harrison's bare foot?' Oh, yes!  It was afterwards, when in a chanting fever-pitch crowd outside the cinema, we were spilling over the road and onto the flower beds in the center of the town. All eyes were on a tiny third-floor window where an electric light burned brightly. Everyone assumed it was their dressing room. It could have been the chief projectionist's office, but what the heck.

     We stood there for ages. The girls were getting more and more frenzied, then the foot, it appeared, shoeless and sockless, out of the window from behind the curtain, twisting this way and that, as if waving to the crowd.

     Now I, not being a Beatles aficionado at that time, was singularly unable, at a distance of 150 yards, to tell the foot of a Beatles from the foot of an ice cream lady or an usherette. But the fans were in no doubt. "Look a foot," I muttered, not realizing the significance of the discovery. 

    And then the cry went up. "It's George! " they yelled. "George! George! George!" They chanted, for he was, in those days, the pinup of the four. It was a moment to savor.

     And when the time comes for me to bounce my grandchildren on my knee and tell them about the time I nearly met the Beatles. 

Well a barefoot was better than nothing, wasn't it.

The Day We Met the Beatles Face to Face

To purchase tickets, your name had to be chosen from a lottery. The Beatles discuss this in the article below. 

The only known image of the Beatles on this date is this shot taken from a 8mm film. 

 

The Day we Met the Beatles Face to Face

By Jack Statham

The Nottingham Journal (Nottingham, England)

December 13, 1963

Oh, we were to meet the Beatles face to face, but when and where was the most closely guarded secret in Nottingham City Police Headquarters. Reporter and photographer, we sat in the lounge. The curtains drawn, the lights dimmed, ostensibly waiting for an incognito police car and presumably blind folds to sweep us to a secret rendezvous. 

Superintendent O.D. Sutton, in charge of "Operation Beatlemania", swung through the door. "They're here!"  At the next moment, four agile young men in dark overcoats with upturned collars and little but their famous hairstyles visible exploded into the room -- John Paul, George and Ringo

And I mean, exploded. Ringo Starr flipped back the lid of the piano and began tapping out a rhythmic beat. John Lennon seated himself at one end  and t gave out with two fingers, hot jazz on the sudden impulse.

 And that is where we met the Beatles -- at City Police Headquarters!

 Three minutes later, and they were away. Their own car was left for the time being in the police yard. They changed to another one and were whisked away into the Odeon Cinema under the cloak of police secrecy. 

Even before they left, they had been spotted. A plainclothes police officer had to shoo away police office staff girls who had flocked to the lounge door. The Beatles, it seems, are not safe even in a police station, but all this was three bewildering minutes away. 

Neil Aspinall, the boys road manager apologized. "We're on a tight schedule. I can only give you two minutes."

"How do you think we got here?" John Lennon asked as we shook hands. "By helicopter, going to land on the theater roof."

 "Did you hear we had been in a crash? Yeah, it happened every time."

 It is normal procedure for the Beatles to give press interviews at the theater, but this was not to be allowed at the Odeon, a Rank group cinema. The boys were surprised. "This is the first time this has happened," said George Harrison, the lead guitar.  "It's a bit daft," agreed John Lennon, the rhythm guitar.  "I can see it in some papers tomorrow. 'We were unable to arrange an interview with The Beatles." said Ringo, "and we will be blamed."

 They talk with the famous twang of Liverpool and presented themselves as immensely likable young men eager to oblige, and without any side. 

 All the Beatles were interested to hear Nottingham's original solution to the problem of a lot of allocating tickets but did not think the ballot idea particularly good. "In a sense, it is fair enough," George pointed out," but it could be hard on some of our keenest fans, who would probably have been prepared to queue a long while if they were certain at the end of it they would get a ticket.

" Yes, it does prevent all those police riots we hear so much about. But do the fans prefer it? Wouldn't they sooner queue and be certain?  Sure, we have played Nottingham before."  chimed in Paul. "We last played with Chris Montez and his band, and we have done dances here."

 "We think Nottingham is a fab place," went on George.  John came back, and the Beatles, motioned by their road manager, made as one man for the door.

 "Sorry, we have got to rush, but that's the way it is," apologized John as they put on their blue-gray scarves again, Ringo turned to Paul; "They have called these scruffy old overcoats and mufflers in the press," he said, "We wore these years ago. We always wear them." Then they were gone.

 Superintendent Sutton of the Central Division, a man with the hottest property in British show business for one night, went with them. 

Their chauffeur remained behind. "Yes, it's always like this," he said, "but you've seen nothing yet. At lunchtime," he said," they started the 110-mile drive from Scarborough." From the Odeon stage, they would be driven through the night to London and from there to play Southampton on Friday the 13th.

 "We shall not be stopping on the way,"  He added. "Honestly, it has reached a stage where we dare not stop anywhere anymore."

 His prized passengers now earn a total weekly income of more than 2000 pounds, some say 7000 pounds. A year ago, their haircuts and yeah, yeah, yeah were just beginning to count with the record-buying public. Now, under the shrewd management of Brian Epstein, none are higher on the popularity list. They put over the image of love with about as much delicacy as a steamroller cracking a walnut and in a rowdy, rhythmic style that is all their own. Wisely, they bank most of what they earn. "We know it may not last," they explain.

 If success has gone to their heads, it did not show yesterday.

 Two new Beatle fans signing in...