BEATLES FESTFELIXSTOWE SPA PAVILION TO HOST EAST ANGLIA’S FIRST EVER THREE DAY BEATLES FEST EVENT
Beatles Fest Felixstowe
LAUNCH DAY LATEST
WHEN IS IT?
This Fabulous event, the first of its kind in the Anglia Region, is to be held on the weekend of June 20th – 22nd 2025, and what an event it promises to be!!
The lasting influence and legacy of The Beatles shows no signs of dimming, in fact it continues to grow, with new issues of their brilliant catalogue, that will forever it seems burn bright and inspire.
WHERE IS IT?
The Felixstowe Spa Pavilion Theatre – Situated right on the coastline, this 88 year old Art Deco building is nationally famous and well established in entertainment history is the venue for this innovative event designed to celebrate both the 1960’s and The Beatles. Along with the fab four, the 1960’s still remains the most popular decade for art and music the world over.
By bringing the two together – Felixstowe is primed to explode into a joyous celebration of the Fab Four and this most brilliant decade.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?FRIDAY NIGHT
THE KORGIS
It all begins on Friday Night (20th June) with a performance from the 70s and 80’s Supergroup The Korgis. Led by frontmen James Warren and Al Steele, the group will perform a stunning package of their well known hits , including ‘If I Had You’, ‘I Just Can’t Help It’, ‘If It’s Alright With You Baby’, and ‘Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime’. The group members themselves are also linked with many other bands including Tears for Fears, and will perform some of their songs as well as a special section paying homage to The FAB 4 as well!- What a way to start things off!!!
WHAT IS HAPPENING? SATURDAY
INSIDE NUMBER 3
Saturday unveils a great line up with a great ‘Inside no3’ presentation to include an audio and visual presentation of many of the products from Apple Records, the legendary Label, that at its time became the centre of musical influence. Artists such as Badfinger, Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Hot Chocolate, The Plastic Ono Band, and others including Billy Preston, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Splinter, all contributed to the success story. – This will be presented along with a video wall and some artefacts.
THE APPLEJACKS
There will be a video wall of Beatle Hits in the early afternoon along with a presentation by author Andrew Phillips on the meetings and working together of Decca Group, The Applejacks and The Beatles, this will prove to be very illuminating!!
THE QUARRYMEN
The Quarrymen
The evening promises a real slice of history with a Q and A session and a performance from The Quarrymenand Friends. Two of the original Quarrymen band are to be found here with assistance from others in performing the original songs that they played along with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, which laid the foundations to become The Beatles – What a treat to behold and experience!!
WHAT IS HAPPENING – SUNDAY
JOEY MOLLAND AND GARY VON SCYOC
Sunday sees more with a special presentation of solo Beatles hits from 1970 and beyond with the presentation of some interviews by solo Apple artists including the late Joey Molland from Badfinger and Gary Van Scyoc from Elephants Memory, who played and recorded with John Lennon in the early 1970’s.
NICKY HORNE
The afternoon sees Ex- Capital Radio DJ and Presenter Nicky Horne explain and play his interviews that he obtained with John Lennon and George Harrison in the early 70’s, and with a Q and A session to boot!!
THE UPBEAT BEATLES
The evening then sees a very special tribute concert performance by The Upbeat Beatles, taking us through those fabulous hits that you can sing and dance to and bring those memories of those great times back again. – What a great weekend and time to relive and feel those wonderful years, that still holds so much magic for the entire world !!
There will also be trade stands and licensed replica Beatles musical instruments and much more memorabilia on display. There are also some FREE EVENTS being organised around the fee paying ones in order to keep attendees occupied and in order to jam pack the weekends events!
WHERE CAN I GET MY TICKETS?
All events can be visited separately with a ticket or an ALL SHOWS WEEKEND PASS can be obtained offering a discount value deal, for only £126.40. To book this special offer call 0800 107 5291 and Hotel Bookings can also be made on this number. There are some free events as well within the weekend. So BEATLESFEST 2025 is the place to be for this unique weekend. You’ll have a brilliant break with great music and opportunities to explore the wonderful town of Felixstowe, – Go on, you know won’t regret It!!
PRESS QUOTE: RAY ANDERSON SAID “This first of its kind event in East Anglia is quite unique. It traces everything from the very start when John met Paul in the 1950’s with The Quarrymen and beyond to the Apple days and to when the band disbanded. People are booking from all over the world for this event. It’ll be BEATLES wall-to-wall and an event not to be missed!”
For further quotes and details PLEASE check out the BEATLESFEST website: www.beatlesfest.co.uk
When The Beatles were carrying the whole world in their wake, it seemed to be the case that every manufacturer that could, would make something, or anything that could be attached to them in order that they would increase their turnover and their income.
However one thing or item that largely went unnoticed was the special or first day issue cover or envelope. These nowadays are an accepted form of high quality marketing. It was this condition of High Quality that stopped many companies receiving permission or an endorsement from The Beatles Management Structure, or more importantly Brian Epstein himself.
The Beatles First Day Covers
This did ensure that many large sums of money from products did not benefit the group in any way, but the First Day or Special Event Cover seemed to pass by largely unnoticed. Over the years I have been able to obtain quite a few of these and I thought that again this part of my collection from my personal archive would be engaging for many fans.
Now these items are one off examples that I was fortunate enough to obtain. Some of them were promotional ideas and thoughts largely from EMI and other loosely linked organisations. They now make a very interesting and rare part of Beatles History.
The listing is as follows, with a brief pen picture description.
1). A standard Parlophone Stationery Envelope used at times for promotional purposes.
2). A Gibraltar Special Issue First Day Cover showing a 1967 John Lennon Photograph to commentate the Marriage of John and Yoko.
3). A Hard Days Night Special Envelope from 1964 to commemorate the release of The Beatles First Film complete with stamp and date stamp.
4). Apple 1968 Our First Four and a mint set of the individual Stamps. This is part of my Our First Four set. This set has been shown here before.
5). Isle of Man First Day Cover signed personally by Ringo Starr.
6). A one off envelope idea not preceded with.
7). A War Is Over Envelope from that period. This was obtained from EMI Records . Apparently only a very few were issued.
8). A Dark Horse Records Special Stationery Envelope used for Press Releases. This one was for the duo Splinter on the occasion of their first album. The Place I love.
9). The Special Envelope used by Capitol Records to enclose the re-call letters for the Butcher Covers for the Yesterday and Today Covers.
10). A general shot of the letter; one finished in Red and one in Blue Emblazoned Inks. Both of these and the envelope came via EMI in London England. These had been sent to EMI as courtesy copies from Capitol Records in the USA.
11). A single close up shot of the Red Sample letter. Note the emblazoned word SAMPLE placed on the letter.
This completes the description of the illustrated items, and I add that there are more to be shown at a later date. These are priceless artefacts from my archives, and are kept in the dark and out of contact with direct sunlight. This is the first viewing undertaken for over two years.
Inside Number Three – The Illustrated History of Apple Records
Inside No3 takes you through that famous door, deep into the minds of all who worked there at Apple Records. This is done also in a very different way. This is not a kiss-and-tell diary, it is through fan adulation and understanding via a personal collection of artifacts and memorabilia that author Nigel Pearce has built up over the last 50 years.
BIG L RADIO LONDON THE PIRATE KING RETURNS TO THE AIR TO CELEBRATE THE 60TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY OF THE STATION FIRST GOING ON THE AIR IN 1964 !!!!
Radio London
This massive event occurs on Sunday and Monday 22/23rd December for 6 MASSIVE Hours on both days!!
Radio London 60th Anniversary
There is romance, memories, nostalgia and above all MASSIVE BEATLES CONTENT to listen out for and remember forever.
The proprietor and owner has taken his own Beatles Leanings to put out a BRILLIANT PROGRAMME. He has also invited Beatles fan, historian and Apple Collector Nigel Pearce, to open his Treasure Chest and play a whole program of Beatles Rarities and rarely heard tracks.!! True paradise indeed !!
Nigel Pearce – Author and Radio Presenter
For details of the Frequencies and Timings please go to the BigLRadiolondon website and all will be revealed.
This will be a huge delight and will be beamed all around the world on Short Wave, AM, and in glorious stereo on the World Wide Web.
This great unique celebration is most definitely not to be missed for all Beatles and ’60s music fans, so put it in your diary and travel back to those times when the Pirates ruled the airwaves!!
Inside Number Three – The Illustrated History of Apple Records
Inside No3 takes you through that famous door, deep into the minds of all who worked there at Apple Records. This is done also in a very different way. This is not a kiss-and-tell diary, it is through fan adulation and understanding via a personal collection of artifacts and memorabilia that author Nigel Pearce has built up over the last 50 years.
How do you become a Beatles author, blogger, filmmaker, podcaster and member of The Quarrymen?
You get ill with a chronic incurable, painful, condition, but find a very wise and understanding doctor.
David far left with The Quarrymen
This is the story of how David Bedford started work on his first book, Liddypool: Birthplace of The Beatles, and went on to write and co-write several other books too, as well as the documentary film “Looking for Lennon” and so many more Beatles projects.
This is the story, from an interview in 2014 and then updated in 2024.
This set came my way about two months before the release of the Abbey Road Set in 2019.
It was what we call a ‘Brown Envelope Job’.
I was totally amazed at what was inside – although the finished and released package was beautifully packaged and set out, this gave me a huge insight into how the package was heading. Again this is a ‘working’ box set, it displayed some wonderful thought. Apparently, there were 100 constructed and this is number 12.
This is the front of the sample package.
All four parts note pieces displayed. You will find that the wording displayed here was used except for package four – The Alternate Abbey Road.
Abbey Road Project
Abbey Road Internal Package
This is the general shot of the internal workings of the package thus far. You can see that it resembles in some way the design of the UK Our First Four Package from 1968. Complete with four photos 3 of which are from that famous shoot in August 1969. Sample CDs are displayed along with a small photograph also from that shoot. Some are perhaps the original copies being somewhat light struck!! This photograph also shows the holding box to the left.
Abbey Road Package contents
This is the rear of the interior package
It shows different versions of the rear of the Abbey Road cover, complete with the track listings for each album. Of great interest is package four which was never issued, This is another 2019 re-mix with the later versions of Here Comes The Sun, – the Accapella version of Because. and an Intro version of Come Together. As said this was never issued in any form, but is canned somewhere, nice to have it. I admit I have it on my computer and make backup copies when my playing one gets scratched due to the potholed roads offered by the authorities in our wonderful country!!
Rear of the Abbey Road Package
This set was never issued, but having it in my collection is a real plus. Knowing that only 100 were issued, having one is extra special. So, I do hope this one-off viewing will meet with your approval. Like all of my Apple material, it is kept in a box stored out of sunlight and is very rarely opened, hence its excellent condition!
Inside Number Three – The Illustrated History of Apple Records
Inside No3 takes you through that famous door, deep into the minds of all who worked there at Apple Records. This is done also in a very different way. This is not a kiss-and-tell diary, it is through fan adulation and understanding via a personal collection of artifacts and memorabilia that author Nigel Pearce has built up over the last 50 years.