Fab Four Blog

The Beatles still on Holiday in Tenerife.

This whole week the Beatles are on vacation.

Paul, George & and Ringo vacationing in Tenerife. John and Brian Epstein vacationing in Spain.

The Beatles on their 2nd week of vacation in Santa Cruz, Tenerife.

The Beatles in Santa Cruz, Tenerife on vacation this week.

The Beatles are sunning in Santa Cruz, Tenerife this week.

The Beatles on their 12 day Holiday in Santa Cruz, Tenerife.

While the Beatles are on vacation, they had their No. 1 hit today - 50 years ago

The Beatles are really enjoying their vacation this week!

The Beatles still sunning and funning in Tenerife.

The Beatles are on vacation in Tenerife this week.

The Beatles on Holiday............

(Victory) Memorial Hall, Northwich

The day after this performance on April 28th, Paul, George, and Ringo took off for a 12 day holiday in Santa Cruz, Tenerife. John and Brian Epstein flew to Spain.

Music Hall, Shrewsbury

The first of two consecutive bookings for promoter Lewis Buckley.

Ballroom, Fairfield Hall, Park Lane, Croydon, Surrey

This "Mersey Beat Showcase" date was arranged by promoter John Smith back in January, before the Beatles had a hit with "Please Please Me" and before Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Big Three had emerged out of Liverpool. Concerned that he might not fill the ballroom for one "house", let alone two, Smith engaged star singer/actor John Leyton to top the bill.

Three months later, however, on the day of the shows, Leyton fell ill and was unable to fulfil the booking. But when Smith posted notices to this effect outside the ballroom's main entrance there was great cheering. No one had come to see him.

Majestic Ballroom, Seven Sisters Rd. Finsbury Park, London

Another of NEMS' "Mersey Beat Showcase" presentations. This Top Rank ballroom was situated close by the Finsbury Park Astoria Cinema where the Beatles would play on many future occasions. 2,000 people attended this evening.

The Beatles at Floral Hall, Southport

Today the Beatles took the day off :)

Empire Pool, Empire Way, Wembley, Middlessex and Pigalle Club, Piccadilly, London

The afternoon performance at Wembley marked the Beatle's biggest concert date yet, both in stature and size of venue, a reported 10,000 pop fans crowding into the arena to see a 14-act bill, headed by Cliff Richard and the Shadows, in the "New Musical Express" 1962-63 Annual Poll-Winner's All-Star Concert. Although the Beatles hadn't actually won any of the reader's polls, which had been conducted before the end of 1962, the NME slotted them in. They performed four songs, "Please Please Me", "From Me To You", "Twist And Shout" and "Long Tall Sally". The evening booking at the Pigalle Club was an odd one, and the Beatles only appearance at this fashionable central London restaurant/night club later to become the "in" meeting place for the Mod movement. On this evening almost the entire audience was Jewish, the only advertisement for the engagement having appeared in the weekly newspaper "Jewish Chronicle".

Ballroom, Mersey View Pleasure Grounds, Overton Hills, Frodsham, Cheshire

The Beatle's only appearance at this north-west venue although other top Liverpool groups had played here regularly since 1961.

The Beatles at King's Hall, Stoke-On-Trent

The second "Mersey Beat Showcase" date

During the first half of 1963, the BBC presented and broadcast live, three concerts direct from this famous venue, each performed in front of an audience. The Beatles appeared on only this occasion, in a show titled "Swinging Sound '63", alongside a host of other artists, including Del Shannon, the Springfields, Lance Percival, Rolf Harris, the Vernons Girls, Kenny Lynch, Shane Fenton and the Fentones, and George Melly.

The concert was a fairly complicated affair, taking place in two distinct halves, 8:00 to 8:50 and 9:10 to 10:15 pm, with an interval in between. Only the second half was broadcast; the first was not even recorded, so in essence, this could be classified as a Beatles concert appearance and the sencond half a live radio appearance. Furthermore, the BBC's General Overseas Service beamed a simultaneous broadcast across much of the globe between 9:15 and 10:00 pm, which meant that overseas listeners missed out on the Beatles by seconds, since they did not play in the second half until 10:02 pm.

This was the Beatles first appearance at the Royal Albert Hall, a venue they would remember in their 1967 song "A Day In The Life", and they spent virtually the entire day there, mostly in the dressing room. They were called at 10:15 am for a 10:45 to 11:30 rehearsal, and again at 12:45 pm for a 1:00 to 1:30 rehearsal of the concert's finale.

Fellow Liverpulian, jazz singer and arts critic George Melly introduced the Beatles on stage during both halves of the concert. In the first, at around 8:40 pm, they played two songs, "Please Please Me" and "Misery", with only the briefest of pauses in between.

In the second half, broadcast live, the group sang "Twist and Shout", and "From Me To You", again segued. They had planned on opening with "Thank you Girl" released earlier, but switched it to the more upbeat "Twist and Shout" at the last moment, unbeknown to the BBC producers Terry Henebery and Ron Belchier. In the grand finale, all the acts on the bill, including the Beatles, crowded onto the stage for an instrumental blast of "Mack The Knife", which they played for over three minutes, until the "Light Programme" broadcast was faded down at 10:15. (Written in 1928 by Kurt Weill for "The Three Penny Opera", "Mack The Knife" has since been recorded by hundreds of artists.

After the broadcast Paul first met his fiancee-to-be, aspriring young actress and "teen" TV personality Jane Asher, who (earlier in the evening) had posed, screaming for the Beatles, for a photographer from "Radio Times", the BBC's weekly listings journal.

The Beatles at the Majestic Ballroom, Mill Street, Luton, Bedfordshire

The Beatles at Studio Four, Granada TV Centre, Manchester

The Beatle's first appearance on Granada Television in three months was this live (mimed) performance of "From Me To You", on
'Scene At 6:30', a new half hour news magazine program from North England, succeeding from People and Places. Following 3:00 - 4:00 and 4:15 - 6:00 pm rehearsals, it was broadcast between 6:30 and 7:00 pm, clashing with the Beatle's taped BBC TV appearance on "The 625 Show" which was on from 6:25 to 6:50.

The Beatles at the Riverside Dancing Club, Bridge Hotel, Teme St. Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire

Teddington Studio Centre, Teddington

Taping of the Beatles third appearance on the ABC Television program, "Thank Your Lucky Stars", broadcast across most of the ITV network on Saturday, April 20th from 5:50 to 6:30 pm.

In this edition, the group were called for an 11:00 am rehearsal and took part in the continuous taping during the afternoon, miming to one song, "From Me To You". The Beatles were third on the bill, other guests including the not yet successful Dave Clark Five, The Vernons Girls, Bert Weedon and, topping the line-up, visiting American Del Shannon, with whom the Beatles would work again the next Thursday.

After the TYLS taping, the Beatles drove to the nearby town of Richmond-upon-Thames to see, for the first time, another up and coming new group, the Rolling Stones, in live action at the Crawdaddy Club in the town's Station Hotel pub.

Studio E, Lime Grove Studios, Lime Grove, Shepherd's Bush, London

After 11 appearances on British independent television, the - at last - was the Beatles debut on the national BBC network, a video recording for "The 625 Show", transmitted from 6:25 to 6:50 pm on Tuesday, April 16th and billed as featuring "up and coming young talent".

The recording took place at the Corporation's Lime Grove Studios in West London, a 10:30 to 11:30 am band call, 11:30 am to 1:00 pm and 2:15 to 3:45 camera rehearsal and 4:30 to 6:00 final rehearsal preceding the 7:30 to 8:15 pm taping.

The Beatles performed three songs on the program, "From Me To You', "Thank You Girl", and "Please Please Me". The latter song closed the show and so the Beatles were enjoined by the entire cast: singer Jimmy Young, singers/guitarists Rolf and Tino, singer Bobbi Carrol, singer/guitarist Hank Locklin, guitarist Wout Steenhuis, a four-piece orchestra led by Micky Greeve, pianist Johnny Pearson and musical conductor Edwin Braben.

This taping of "The 625 Show" precluded the Beatles from making an adverstised personal appearance (though they weren't scheduled to perform) at a football club dance held this night at the Civic Hall in Uppermill, near Oldham, Lancashire. Instead, the Beatles stayed local to London, going to a party thrown at his North Harrow home by the Shadow's guitarist Bruce Welch. Here they met Cliff Richard for the first time.

Night Cavern Club, Liverpool

A special Good Friday return to the Cavern Club, spearheading another eight-hour "Rhythm & Blues Marathon"

The Beatles appearing at the Co-operative Hall, Long St. Middleton, Lancashire

Majestic Ballroom, Birkenhead

The Beatles last appearance at this venue.