1963, March

The Beatles at De Montfort Hall, Granville Rd., Leicester, Leicestershire - The final night of the tour with Tommy Roe and Chris Montez.

The Beatles at Guildhall, The Square, Portsmouth, Hampshire

The Beatles at Odeon Cinema, Loampit Vale, Lewisham, London

The Beatles at ABC Cinema, London Inn Square, Exeter, Devonshire

The Beatles at ABC Cinema, Abingdon Square, Northampton, Northamptonshire

The Beatles at Granada Cinema in Mansfield

The Beatles spent the tour's one-day break today at a number of local locations with photographer Dezo Hoffmann, with both stills and 8mm mute color home-movie footage resulting. They later repeated this exercise in Weston-super-Mare.

Empire Theatre, Liverpool

A celebrated return to the Beatles hometown, their first Liverpool performance in more than a month.

The Beatles playing at City Hall, Northumberland Rd. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland

The Beatles featured at the Gaumont Cinema, Doncaster

While the Lads worked hard without much fanfare "Please Please Me" The Beatles First LP was released in Great Britain with the following tracks.

1. I Saw Her Standing There 2. Misery 3. Anna (Go To Him) 4. Chains 5. Boys 6. Ask Me Why 7. Please Please Me 8. Love Me Do 9. P.S. I Love You 10. Baby It's You 11. Do You Want To Know A Secret 12. A Taste Of Honey 13. There's A Place 14. Twist And Shout

Studio One, BBC Piccadilly Studios, Piccadilly, London

Between 1:00 and 2:00 pm, following a 10:00 am rehearsal, the Beatles recorded a BBC Radio session for "On the Scene", broadcast in the Light Programme from 5:00 to 5:29 pm on Thursday, March 28th. They performed three songs, "Misery", Please Please Me", and "Do you want to know a secret", working for the very first time in Picadilly in central London.

After the session, the group drove south, to Croydon, to continue the Roe/Montez tour.

ABC Cinema, South St. Romford, Essex

Regal Cinema, St. Andrews Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

Regal Cinema, St. Aldate Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire

Embassy Cinema, Peterborough

Studio 3A, Broadcasting House, Portland PI, London and City Hall, Sheffield

Owing to their Radio Luxembourg commitment, and John's cold, the Beatle's had been forced to cancel the March 11th session for this day's BBC Light Programme Radio Show "Saturday Club" (recording had been arranged for the Playhouse Theatre in London between 5:30 and 6:30 pm)

Instead, they made their contribution live from Broadcasting House, the central London HQ of domestic BBC radio. The group arrived by taxi in time for a 9:00 am rehearsal and then performed six songs live, "I saw her standing there", "Misery", Too Much Monkey Business", "I'm talking about You", "Please Please Me", and "The Hippy Hippy Shake".

After the programming was over, the Beatles sped 158 miles north in order to be at the City Hall in Sheffield in time for the first Roe/Montez tour "house" at 6:10 pm.

Colston Hall, Colston St. Bristol

John returned to the Beatle's line-up for these two "houses".

Gaumont Cinema, Snow Hill, Wolverhampton, Staffs

Editing, mono mixing and stereo mixing of "From Me To You", by George Martin and team took place this day at EMI Studios, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. The Beatles were absent, still traveling south from York to Wolverhampton for another night's work without John Lennon.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London and Rialto Theatre, York

The Beatles traveled from Bedford to York for this evening's two Roe/Montez "house" via EMI Studios in London, where they participated in a 10:00 am to 1:00 pm harmonica over-dubbing session for "Thank You Girl", recording takes 14-28. When finished, the song was edited and then mixed into mono and stereo. It was just as well that no vocals were required, since John was voiceless and didn't play at York.

Granada Cinema, Bedford

The Roe/Montez tour. This was a three-man Beatles performance because a bad cold kept John in bed. The songs, particularly "Please please me", were re-arranged so that George and Paul could take over his vocal lines.

EMI House, London

The Beatles spent the evening of the one-day Monday respite from the tour inside the small ground floor studio within EMI House, making their 4th and last appearance on the Company's "The Friday Spectacular", broadcast on Radio Luxembourg on March 15th from 10:00 to 11:00 pm. Once again, they chatted about themselves and their work, around which "Please please me" and "Ask me why" were transmitted.

Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst St. Birmingham, Warks

After this date, the tour resumed on the 12th.

Granada Cinema, Barking Rd. East Ham, London

Five days after concluding the Helen Shapiro tour, five days in which they had fulfilled three live engagements, a recording session for EMI and a radio session for the BBC - the Beatles set off going around a still-snowbound Britain on a second theater package tour. Top billing this time was shared by two American individuals, Tommy Roe and Chris Montez, although both were very quickly superseded-on the first "house" of the first night, in fact by the increasingly all conquering Beatles.

Their repertoire on this tour was "Love me do", "Misery", "A taste of honey", "Do you want to know a secret", "Please please me" and "I saw her standing there".

The Beatles at the Royal Hall, Ripon Rd. Harrogate, Yorkshire

Elizabethan Ballroom, Co-Operative House

Parliament St. Nottingham, Nottinghamshire

An inspirational idea from Brian Epstein, a one-night stand featuring his fast growing array of artists, all beginning to enjoy great success. The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Big Three, and Bill J. Kramer with the Dakotas all appeared, as well as the Cavern Club compete Bob Wooler. On this occasion the entire entourage traveled down from Liverpool on two coaches run by NEMS Enterprises, joined by 80 fans who paid an all-in fare of of 25 shillings (1.25 pd).

This was the first of six such engagements over the following three months, concluding on June 16th. It became known as the "Mersey Beat Showcase" tour.

Playhouse Theater, Manchester

A return trip to the Playhouse in Manchester for the Beatles 5th and final appearance on the BBC Light Program radio show "Here we go", produced by Peter Pilbeam, the man who had auditioned and broadcast the group before they had an EMI recording contract. After a 4:00 pm rehearsal, the group took part in the recording from 8:00 to 8:45, performing "I saw her standing there", "Misery", "Do you want to know a secret" and "Please please me", although "I saw her standing there" was edited out of the broadcast tape, transmitted from 5:00 to 5:29pm on Tuesday, March 12th.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

Five days after writing on the Helen Shapiro coach, the Beatles recorded "From me to you" this day at EMI. It began the session at the B-side of their 3rd single, during the session, however, it was promoted to premier status over the previously preferred "Thank you Girl", also taped this day (under the working title, "Thank you little girl) which became the new B-side. The Beatles worked in Studio two between 2:30-9:00pm - although the session had been booked for 2:30-5:30 and 7:00-10:00 - recording 13 takes of "From me to you" and the same number of "Thank you girl". The single was issued by EMI on Thursday, April 11th.

With some studio time remaining, the Beatles recorded two more Lennon-McCartney titles, "The one after 909" and "What goes on", although in the end, it was possible only to tape the former. Five takes were recorded but the result was deemed unsatisfactory and this version remains unissued. The Beatles returned to the song during the "Get Back" sessions (1969) hence it's inclusion on the album, 'Let it be', and they returned to "What goes on" for "Rubber Soul" (1965)

The Beatles first 100 pound booking at the Plaza Ballroom, St. Helens

Gaumont Cinema, Piccadilly, Hanley, Staffordshire

The final night of the Helen Shapiro package tour. By this time, the Beatles had been elevated on the bill from playing the first spot to the final act in the first half.

City Hall, Barker's Pool, Sheffield, Yorkshire and then Studio One, Didsbury Studio Centre, Parrs Wood Rd. Manchester, Lancashire

After finishing the 2nd Shapiro "House" at Sheffield, the Beatles drove 38 miles to Manchester, to appear live on the ABC TV news magazine program ABC At Large, boradcast in the Midlands and north regions only from the company's Didsbury Studio Centre between 11:00 and 11:50pm.

Together with Brian Epstein, they participated in a lengthy interview with David Hamilton (later a top radio DJ) answering questions about their sudden fame and pondering why they had succeeded where hundreds of other groups, from Liverpool to elsewhere, had not done so.

The feature also included interviews with pop fans and an appearance by Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers. The Beatles did not perform music on this program, although a brief clip of a mimed "Please please me" from their most recent appearance on ABC'S "Thank your lucky stars" (taped February 17) was shown again.