Exciting news following the recent publication of David Bedford’s latest book, “The Country of Liverpool: Nashville of the North” is going to be made into a documentary film.
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However, Brian Epstein was not the first candidate for the position of Beatles manager. A Liverpool-based promoter called Sam Leach, who regularly organised dances and live shows in local venues, frequently hired the Beatles. As he was giving them regular work and they were all very good friends, he suggested he should become their manager.
The group agreed and on the strength of a handshake with John Lennon, the group’s leader, he thought he’d secured the position as their first manager.
The Beatles Play Aldershot
Sam Leach, George Harrison, John Lennon and Dick Matthews
On the 9th December 1961 Sam booked the Palais Ballroom in Aldershot, about forty miles outside London. He paid for a full-page ad in the Aldershot News and expected a good turnout for the gig. However, he had paid by cheque and the newspaper would not insert the ad until the cheque had cleared.
The cheque didn’t clear in time and on that night only 18 people turned up to see the Beatles.
George Harrison and John Lennon dancing together
After the hiccup at Aldershot everything was going very well for a few weeks until Brian Epstein stepped into the frame. The Beatles, ever eager to climb the ladder of success, were tempted by Brian’s obvious wealth and promises of fame and fortune. With a heavy heart John Lennon had to break the news to Sam that they had signed with “Eppy”.
This first-hand account of Debbie’s teen years frequenting and eventually helping to run the original Cavern Club is the authentic inside story of the Beatles launch pad, full of triumphs and failures – and surprise celebrity encounters.
£17.25Original price was: £17.25.£13.50Current price is: £13.50.
The Beatles meet the Queen Mother at the Prince of Wales Theatre
The Beatles’ famous appearance on the Royal Command Performance took place at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Coventry Street, London, on 4th November 1963. This is an annual charity event, which is always attended by at least one member of the Royal Family. For this concert the Royals were the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. These performances are very high-class occasions with extremely expensive tickets.
It was in front of this distinguished audience that John made his famous comment: “For our next number I’d like to ask for your help. Will those in the cheaper seats clap your hands? The rest of you just rattle your jewellery!”
F***ing Jewellery?
It sounded like an impromptu joke, but in a later interview John Lennon said that the Beatles actually worked it out the day before the show – so this was a well thought out comment! However, John told Brian he was going to tell the crowd to rattle their f***ing jewellery. If John had used that word in front of the Royals it would have been the end of the Beatles career!
Luckily, John’s comment did not outrage the Royals; after the show the Queen Mother asked Paul McCartney where they were playing next. Paul said they were playing Slough. The Queen Mother was delighted and said, “Ah, that’s near us!” Windsor Castle, a royal residence, is just down the road from Slough. She did not go to the concert though.
The Beatles were asked to perform on the show many times after this – but always refused. As John Lennon said in the Beatles Anthology book:
“We managed to refuse all sorts of things that people don’t know about. We did the Royal Variety Show, and we were asked discreetly to do it every year after that, but we always said, ‘Stuff it.’ So every year there was a story in the newspapers: ‘Why no Beatles for the Queen?’ which was pretty funny, because they didn’t know we’d refused. That show’s a bad gig, anyway. Everybody’s very nervous and uptight and nobody performs well. The time we did do it, I cracked a joke on stage. I was fantastically nervous, but I wanted to say something to rebel a bit, and that was the best I could do.”
John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harrison and Ringo Starr with American TV show host Ed Sullivan on the 8th February 1964
On 31st October 1963, Ed Sullivan was passing through London’s Heathrow Airport when he witnessed “Beatlemania” for the first time. By chance, The Beatles were just returning from their overseas tour in Sweden. There were hundreds of fans gathered in the rain, as well as over 50 journalists and TV crew covering the event.
Who Are The Beatles?
Sullivan asked the journalists; “Who is this all for?” The reply was, “The Beatles”. Ed Sullivan then asked the important question: “Who are The Beatles?” Ed Sullivan began investigating who The Beatles were and, as he recalled later; “I made up my mind that this was the same sort of mass hit hysteria that had characterized the Elvis Presley days.”
This planted the seed in Sullivan’s mind that he needed to have this sensational British group on his show. As we know, that first Ed Sullivan Show appearance in front of 73 million people changed pop music forever, especially for the Beatles.
Mary McCartney
Paul and Mike McCartney
The 31st October 1956 was a tragic one for Paul and Mike McCartney, as this was the day they lost their mother, Mary. Paul was only 14 years old. Although he later commemorated his mother in song, things changed for Paul from this day. His brother Mike always said that the way for Paul to cope with losing their mother was music. Just two weeks after Mary died, Paul went to the Liverpool Empire and saw Lonnie Donegan in concert. Following that concert, inspired by Donegan, he asked his father Jim if he could swap his trumpet for a guitar. Jim agreed.
The first song Paul wrote was called “I Lost My Little Girl”: was this Paul writing about the loss of his mother by creating a fictional broken relationship with a girl?
Ian James
Paul needed someone to teach him to play the guitar which he did. He went to his school friend Ian James, who helped Paul to learn the guitar. Ian, from the Dingle, spent hours teaching Paul to play – Paul was a natural.
Ian James – photo taken by Paul McCartney
I interviewed Ian for my book,“The Fab One Hundred and Four: The Evolution of The Beatles”, and he told how he helped Paul to prepare for meeting John at St. Peter’s Church on 6th July 1957, as well as Ian’s memories of being there at Woolton that momentous day.
Selling The Guitar
Ian James with the guitar Paul learned to play on
Ian shared his memories of still being friends with Paul, going to Woolton, and what happened when he decided to sell his guitar. It was valued at approximately £30,000.
However, when he was advised to get a letter from Paul McCartney, that valuation was dismissed.
It Sold for How Much?
Discover what happened when Ian visited Paul McCartney in London before the auction and how much the guitar sold for – an incredible amount of money!!!
Find out Ian’s story and every musician and influencer in the evolution of The Beatles – 104 people!
Nigel Greenberg set up Cavern Sound Ltd. Nigel’s connection with the Cavern went way back. “During my teenage years one of my close friends was Franklin Sytner,” he recalls. “We shared an interest in skiffle, and some nights I would tag along with Frank to the Cavern Club, which was then owned by his brother.”
By 1961 the music scene in Liverpool was starting to take off. Hundreds of groups were playing in suburban dance halls and city centre clubs. Most bands were quartets – lead, rhythm and bass guitarists and a drummer. Each guitarist needed an amplifier and the group also needed a public address system with microphones and loudspeakers.
Frank’s older brother, Alan Sytner, had opened the premises in 1957 as a jazz club, but from the early ’60s skiffle groups started playing. Alan eventually sold the Cavern to Ray McFall, who took over on 3rd October 1959, with Mr. Acker Bilk and his band top of the bill.
At The Cavern Club, Mathew Street
Nigel outside The Cavern
After installing a new sound system for Hope Hall, a city centre cinema that doubled as a live music venue, they were approached by Ray McFall and Bob Wooler to discuss a new venture. By 1963 the Beatles had made Liverpool and the Cavern world famous, and now Ray and Bob wanted to open a recording studio in the vacant cellar next door, where local bands could record demo discs. Cavern Sound Ltd was incorporated and the studio opened in late 1964.
25th October 1964: Cavern Sound Ltd. Opens
Nigel explains: “It transpired that Ray’s sound studio idea was a last-gasp attempt to generate additional revenue to prop up the club, which was rapidly going down the drain. He loved the limelight and even accompanied the Beatles on their first trip to the US at enormous cost.
Find Out The Whole Story Now
Read the fascinating story of this little-known period in the Cavern’s history and how Nigel met Debbie many years later on a blind date and realised their paths crossed many years before in The Cavern! It is all in Cavern Club: The Inside Story
Leslie Cavendish, The Beatles hairdresser recalls the time he was visiting George Harrison at the London University Hospital on February 1969, as he had his tonsils removed and he wanted to see a friendly face. So, Derek Taylor asked me to go and visit him at the hospital.
Because the world’s press was waiting outside Derek told me not to say anything, especially as I told a journalist that Lennon was going bald!
A Day in his Life
I walked in and a few recognised me, but I just went straight into reception and went to the ward. I mentioned that I had never seen so many press people, before but George said that it was a normal day in his life.
When I came down and came out of the entrance they asked if I had any news about Beatle George. “Will he be able to sing again, how ill is he?” etc. etc.
I have always watched people on the TV say this and now I had my chance; “NO COMMENT”, and then I smiled and went back to work.
George had this very special peaceful aura around him and all the times I had been in his company you felt it and maybe it was “SOMETHING IN THE WAY HE SMILED.”
Leslie Cavendish
Read more about this story and so much more in Leslie’s book, The Cutting Edge.
The Cutting Edge (Paperback)
The Beatles’ hair changed the world. As their increasingly wild, untamed manes grew, to the horror of parents everywhere, they set off a cultural revolution as the most tangible symbol of the Sixties’ psychedelic dream of peace, love and playful rebellion. In the midst of this epochal change was Leslie Cavendish, hairdresser to the Beatles and some of the greatest stars of the music and entertainment industry.
