On this day 6th Oct 1962, a group of four lads from Liverpool released their fist single "Love Me Do". John, Paul, Ringo, George, would go on to change the shape of music for ever. Graham.
Yes Steve, The 5th beatle,I never brought any of their records but I did enjoy listening to their music.I was nine at the time of the above single and I remember seeing the news reels of the huge following of screaming fans throughout the sixties. Their music is still popular today. Graham.
Despite being the best record of 1962, "Love Me Go" struggled to get into the UK pop Top 20, while Rolf Harris climbed above them to reach the top 5 with some dreadful record. Back then, there was a lack of "air-time" for good artists due to the BBC monopoly on Radio, and there only being just 2 TV channels. That started to change in 1963 thanks to ITV's "Ready Steady Go!". But the swinging 60's really kicked off in 1964 thanks to Radio Caroline and the other offshore radio stations. Caroline still going strong: Radio Caroline
1964. The Beatles played at my local Cinema.Friends and myself stayed out all night. We all told lies to our parents.Telling them we were staying at each others homes.The people waiting to buy tickets wound round the high street. The following day we appeared on the local television, as the first ten to buy their tickets. I was asked by my Father how we had managed that? Help me if you can , I'm feeling down Help me get my feet back on the ground. Won't you please,please help me? Veronica.
I never managed to see them 'live' even though we only lived 15 miles from Liverpool in 1962. I remember our insurance agent saying he lived next door to George's parents - great fame! I still listen to some of their songs on youtube. Especially this one:
When Wings played at Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool in November 1979 the queues started on the Wednesday before the ticket office opened at 10am on the Sunday. I was on nights and heard the local radio station news broadcasts of the increasing crowd - estimated to be over a thousand strong by the Saturday night. Several of my colleagues decided to go down and join the queue for tickets as we finished night shift at 7am on the Sunday morning. As the local radio were describing the numbers already in the queue I decided there was little chance of getting a ticket and went home to bed. When I went back to work on Sunday night one of my colleagues gave me a ticket for the front row of the balcony for the first performance and told me the following tale - The 5 of them got to the Royal Court about 7.20am - when it was still dark - and started walking back from the front of the queue. After a short walk past the “huddled masses” (maybe 50 strong) in their sleeping bags immediately outside the theatre the queue apparently stopped so they joined the end - very surprised in light of the radio broadcasts. When it got light one of the lads went for a walk and returned to tell his mates that there were about another 1,500 people queuing round the corner - split up into blocks of 100 or so for crowd control purposes! No one challenged them so they just stayed with the fans who had likely been there for 3 days and were on their way home with their tickets after little more than a 3 hour queue! Steve
I still say the sixty's / seventy's was the best music era, (just my opinion) I particularly liked Tamla Mowtown, Every pub would have a jukebox blasting away,and parked outside one might see scooters, or motor bikes, parked outside.Very rarely would both been seen together. The Mods and Rocker era, Graham.
We spent a couple of days in Liverpool recently, and visited "The Beatles Story". This is a kind of simple museum that you walk through carrying an audio/video handset. I can recommend it, not only to seniors of a certain age, but I noticed that many young people were also fascinated by what these 4 guys achieved back in the day ...with a little help from [a number of 5th Beatles] friends. The Beatles Story
