Debate: The Beatles

They may not have been particularly good on their instruments, but their harmonies were excellent, and they were the first modern harmony rock & pop-group. Most of the songs written jointly by Lennon and McCartney are vastly superior to anything separately written by either of them later. This suggests to me that George Martin may have assisted now and again, (although this has always been denied). Those subtle chord-changes within some of their songs, and the really nice melodies in them made them streets ahead of most of what you hear bands playing now. Some similar modern bands still seem to be locked into less than five chords, (usually three). They don`t seem to have the imagination to make their songs more intricate. Oh for the return of The Beatles and their comparative sophistication.

When I left school, I knew I wanted a job in music; I was thinking about song-writing in Tin Pan Alley, having written a couple at school. What the local Youth Employment Exchange (remember those?!) offered me was a job 'at a... recording studio... whatever that is.' Having recently been on a school trip to the Colaro record deck Factory in ?Dagenham?, I reckoned I'd have a look.

So, on the way home to Mill Hill (I was at a boarding school in Essex), I called in to the EMI Studios in St Johns Wood. They were looking for 2 assistant engineers, and I had an interview and a couple of weeks later, heard that I was successful and was to start in a month.

After a couple of weeks, I was offered my first late-night recording session, which the engineer, Norman Smith, told me was for a group called, he thought, 'The ...err.. Beatmen?' The name was close :)

I went on to be an assistant engineer for The Fabs for several years: in the Mark Lewison 'Beatles Sessions' book, I'm wrongly attributed as I used to sign myself AB (which stands for Antony, rather than Tony, which is what I'm known by) and the only AB anyone could think of was Abe Lincoln, who was gone by the time I got there.

It was a privilige to have been one of the insiders to the revolution, and being one of the first to hear the new recordings. Most recording artists look on recording studios as a home away from home, where they can relax and become ordinary humans for a while, and it was great to be part of the Beatle family: but even though we went out for meals with The Boys, and I was often given a lift home by Paul in his 'Wickerwork' Mini, there was always the tiniest of gaps between Us and Them...

I never saw The Beatles live on stage; I guess it was enough for us to see them in the act of creation, and I know that I always felt that it would be an anti-climax to see them trying to make themselves heard in a live gig.

It's sad to think that no-one will ever hear the way that the Beatles' songs would grow from the basic rhythm track (which I always thought was rather pedestrian!) into the fabulous songs we all know, once the vocals and 'twiddly bits' were added.

And let me say now, that despite what other people have written, The Beatles would not have been what they were without George Martin; they were worlds apart, but that's the point really. The Beatles were four distinct musical personalities, and George Martin pulled them all together and gave them a much-needed discipline in the studio.

I've just purchased the 'Love' album and its fascinating to hear something so well-known sounding ever-so slighlty different; and it intersesting that the songs that stand out for me are George's. I always thought that he was somehow a deeper musician than the others, and his songs certainly stand the test of time.

Anyone who experienced the Beatles first hand (i.e.in concert live or were privileged to meet them) will know what it was really like - fantastic. Don't ever forget them .......I won't.

On Tuesday 20th August 1963 (or 1962 ?) I went to the ticket office of the Gaumont Cinema, Bournemouth that morning and purchased a ticket to see the Beatles that evening. The performance started at 7.0 p.m., the other performers being Billy J Cramer with the Dakotas. My seat was D7 in the front of the circle where I had a very good view. It was a very memorable show though I could hardly hear anything of their music due to the constant screaming of girls. Their top number at the time was Twist and Shout. I remember the curtain going up and the Beatles in there colourless Beatle jackets. I was in schoolboy school uniform when I bought the ticket, jacket and cap, and hope that I changed into something different for the show!?I still have the ticket that I purchased. The next time that they came to Bournemouth they were so famous that I stood little chance of getting a ticket, and so never saw them again live. However it was the second time I had seen them, having seen them at Wembley Pool Arena the year before when Love Me Do was their main hit. The leading group on that occasion were The Shadows. Also appearing was Dusty Springfield and possibly The Seekers? I have the programme for this somewhere in the attic. What memories?

For Beatles fans interested in a unique perspective of their final US tour, I would recommend highly the book Ticket To Ride (pub. 1997, ISBN 0-9646452-4-6) by Barry Tashian, who also appeared briefly in the TV documentary. Subtitled "The Extraordinary Diary of the Beatles' Last Tour", the author was leader and singer/guitarist of the Remains, one of the opening acts; he was able to hang out with the Beatles and witness first-hand the aura and chaos
that surrounded them.

A beatles fan first but do like the Stones and the Who.

The Beatles led the way with both writing and performing.
They opened the doors to America for British Artist the first time in music history.

George Martin was an influence in the production of their works and didn't hold them back.
I remember talking to Gerry Marsden (gerry and the pacemakers) he told me George Martin was against releasing You'll Never Walk Alone but allowed him to in the end. A no.1 and a mersey anthem.

Their studio recordings led the way a classic example look at Rubber Soul and Revolver.

Then came Sgt Pepper, an album that took the world by storm and shook the music industry by it ears.

Others artist tried to copy it but never over took it.

The Who Sell out, Beach Boys Pet Sounds, The Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet (with 3d image on cover)Small Faces Ogdens Nutgone Flake(first album ever released in a circular sleeve. These are to name but a few.

Another thing people seem to have forgotten about the sixties is the debt that is owed to the offshore radio stations like Radio Caroline (first lady of the airways) and Radio London, Essex,390,England, BBMS.
They challenged the government of the day and finally made the BBC realise that a Big Band playing a Beatles song on the radio was nowhere as good as listening to the original thing.

If it wasn't for the Pirates commercial radio in Britain wouldn't be what it is today.

I missed the Beatles programme - is it repeated on any other channel please ?

I saw the Beatles at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1963. Too young for me to go alone at 11 years old my father took me across London to the venue - he had only managed to get 1 ticket and I thought I was the bees knees sitting in the 3rd row waiting for them to come on stage. All around were girls screaming and I was thinking - how stupid and I hope they shut up when the Fab Four come on stage as I knew Paul would want to at least talk to me.
Well after what seemed like an eternity some distant hidden announcer just shouted THE BEATLES and the whole theatre erupted and I was taken up with it screaming like never before or since. The screaming was just contagious - you couldn't help it. 40 + years later I can still physically feel the jellied legs, sore throat and still hear the music - lucky I was at the front.
My father picked me up - he always said he thought I'd been raped - walking funny, crying and unable to speak - what a night! Oh I miss you all - god bless for my favourite memory.

Great to see many of my old Apple pals on the Beatles Timewatch programme, the survivors anyway!
I introduced the mop tops on a cold February night in 1963 having persuaded the manager of the Top Rank Suite in Oldham to pay their fee of £25 (based on the strength of 'Love me do')!
I was the DJ and spent the entire set stuck on stage with them as there was no back stage exit and the crowds required all hands on deck so I doubled as the world's smallest bouncer with the team.
It was the very start of Beatlemania. They'd performed a double gig that night having been to Peter Stringfellows venue in Yorkshire prior to slipping down to Lancashire.
The queue was round the block of the Star Inn from 5pm as new born Beatle fans travelled from the far flung towns and cities of the north to check them out. We eventually turned away around a thousand fans who tried to break down the doors causing a battalion of police to arrive.
I shared their dressing room, John asked me if I had any 'prellies'? I didn't know what he meant.
Paul read us out a telegram from the New Musical Express which congratulated them on Please Please Me going to number one later that week. Peter Stringfellow, in an interview I did with him on London's Capital Gold a few years ago, had exactly the same experience.
Whilst, after that point, no one could hear the Beatles because of the screaming, I had the perfect position, crouched in front of their amplifiers, to hear their music.
To be honest though, we were all so mesmerised by the audience, the fainting girls who had to be dragged from the front row onto stage and then lifted through the crowd to the backstage dressing room corridor, to really concentrate on the music.
To hear those rock n roll tunes delivered by the most exciting band in the world and to hear them belting out 'Please Please Me' live, was a memory I will take to the grave.
Everyone that night knew we had seen the birth of something quite extraordinary. I could hardly sleep when I eventually went home.
In the dressing room afterwards, John disappeared into the toilet with a young lady for a while as everyone else chatted and joked as the Beatles stripped and dried themselves down in that adrenalin filled atmosphere.
Paul introduced an elderly man to the group as an old friend of his fathers and they all agreed to go to his house just outside Oldham for 'a cup of tea'.
I became friends with all the Beatles, especially Paul, as my career took me to the priate ships and later Radio Luxembourg.
But, of all my Beatle memories, the Oldham Top Rank ranks right alongside my meetings with Elvis!
Enough of the name dropping. Love to you all.
Tony Prince.
(The Royal Ruler)

I have been to The Granada, Woolwich (no longer there) to see them but I can't remember the year or who was on with them? I have also seen them at their Christmas show which was at The Hammersmith Odeon (I believe that building has changed it's name)with Jimmy Saville as the compare (I think is was 1965?). The main things that I can remember from that show was the giant Christmas tree on the stage and as each person was announced by Jimmy Saville they emerged from a door in the huge base in the shape of a flower pot to noisy cheers. The late Freddie Garrity of Freddie & The Dreamers swung across the stage on a rope dressed as a Fairy which made every one laugh. I was seated at the back of the stalls with my girlfriend and some other friends. When The Beatles came on every one stood up and the screaming overpowered their performance. We eventually had to stand to be able to at least see them. I wish I could remember who the other artists were on their shows - can any one reading this remember ?

Seeing the Timewatch programme brought back memories of when I and two friends met the Beatles when they played the Cheltenham Gaumont back in November 1963. I think this was the first venue on their nationwide tour and, having been to the concert the night before, the next morning we found out which hotel they were staying at and just walked straight in and asked at reception if we could see them. We were ushered into the lounge and after a few minutes George and John appeared, sat down and chatted to us like we were all old friends.
I remember a waiter bringing coffee and being offered a cigarette by one of the boys. After about half an hour Paul and Ringo arrived and we chatted for a few more minutes before they had to leave as they had to get to London to rehearse for the Royal Variety Show. I kept that cigarette stub for years after and I still treasure the autographs I got at that time. Looking back it was amazing that there was no security and we were able to just walk into that hotel. How times have changed!

I first saw the Beatles when they were a supporting group with the Chris Montez and Tommy Roe show at the Gaumont in Doncaster, they had just released Please Please Me. They then returned to Doncaster in 1963, my Mum would not let me queue for tickets, the local paper ran a compitition to win tickets, my Mum wrote a poem for me including the titles of their records and it won me 2 tickets 3 rows from the front, I remember the date I won the tickets as it was the day John Kennedy was assinated 22nd November 1963. I can`t remember what they sang as I was totally spellbound.

Fantastic program last night. Thank you Timewatch!
I saw The Beatles in I think 63 or 64 at Finsbury Park, Astoria. I went with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin and remember being really fed up because I couldn't hear a thing! The screaming was like aircraft noise and drowned out pretty much all the music - every so often though something would filter through so my memory of the show musically is strange. What an experience though. I'm ashamed to say that we were the only ones sitting down. I didn't stand up once but If my Aunt and Uncle hadn't been there it would have been totally different. I would have been adding to the aircraft noise!!!
When I watch programmes like this it's with a tinge of sadness - it was such a special time.

Yes, I can remember seeing them at this venue, they played last in the evening after Sounds Incorporated, Jimmy Saville was the compere, when they appeared, they played tracks from Hard Days Night, George had a Rickenbacker 12 string, which sounded great, because we were high up we could hear them pretty well, downstairs, I am sure you would not have heard as much. They used Vox AC30'S which were tiny compared to today, and ringo sat high up at the back on his silver drum kit.
Johns guitar strap broke half way through a song, and a roadie ran on and changed it whilst he supported the guitar. They played all their hits up to that time,
all in all a great evening. if only I had kept the stubs of the tickets !

i saw them at THE MAJESTIC in Birkenhead Before they were really famius. they were great. Also on THE TOWER in New Brighton. Saw a poster advertising the show at THE BEATLES STORY. iN lIVERPOOL. Was amazed all over again.

I guess I was one of the lucky ones.
I was at school in my teens when Beatlemania took hold in the uk, i would have loved to have seen them perform live in front of an audience.

When I left school I got a job at EMI Records Ltd Blythe Road Hayes and on a couple of occassions i got sent to Abbey Road Studios and was lucky to see them there.
It was during this period EMI released Revolver and SGT Pepper.

During the 70's i was working as a DJ and was on many record company mailing lists to receive promotional material including Apple.

I was in London just prior to christmas and was asked to go to Apple Records and meet up with Shirley.
I arrived and went in to the offices, I met the late George Harrison in the reception area as he had just arrived we exchanged the usual hello hows things etc and then to my utter surprise George gave me an Apple watch.

Its a square shape has the apple logo as the dial and no numerals ( sure beatle fans will have seen them) and made by the Old England Watch Company.

I also have a Back to mono badge as worn by Santa on the cover of the christmas album by Phil Spector when that was issued by apple.

Both of these are my treasured possesions of my beatles collection. I was also lucky to have met the other beatles at apple. biggest regret not getting their autographs.

In December 1963, when I was just 10, I was taken by my older sister to see The Beatles at Lewisham Odeon. They were consummate performers, though we couldn't hear much because of the screaming. The group before them had the temerity to sing "A Taste Of Honey", which the boys themselves had recorded, and they were booed from the stage! On the way home we sang Beatles songs at the top of our lungs. I feel truly privileged to have seen them - I haven't met many other people who did.

...and now something rally different. I went to the same grammar school (Liverpool Collegiate School) as the original drummer Pete Best, the best looking and most popular with girl fans, at least the ones I knew, who was in the school swimming team. After leaving school at 16 I worked in an office in Dale Street and the Cavern was just a couple of hundred yards around the corner. Consequently we were able to slip into the Cavern at lunchtime for a quick session. This was long before the Liverpool sound became world famous. I lived in Croxteth on the same council housing estate where Wayne Rooney was brought up and at the top of my road was the community hall where the Beatles appeared a couple of times. On one Saturday night I was walking by the entrance and the Beatles (original group) got out of a van and John Lennon said "please let the gentleman through" and they all stepped aside. I thanked them and went on my way. I wish I had had my Brownie box camera with me then or offered my services as manager! Some years later I got a job in Hampstead, London and shared a room with an Iranian whose sister lived in Kensington. I went with my friend to a get-together and met a cousin of Jane Asher, called Ann- a pretty blond with curly/wavey hair who took me into her confidence. She said that Paul McCartney and Jane were close friends but the press must not be told. I never did break that trust. At that time, thanks to the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers and many others, a scouser accent was a passport to most parties, there was a certain pulling factor. Ann, I would have loved to have taken you out for a meal but didn't have two ha'pennies to rub together at that time. I hope you see this message and I did fancy you at the time. I qualified as an accountant and spent many years in Switzerland and Africa but I often wonder what if things had taken a different turn.

WHEN JOHN WAS KILLED, MY WIFE AND I WERE DEVASTATED. IT WAS LIKE LOSING A BROTHER, I LOVED, AND IDENTIFIED WITH HIM, FROM FIRST SEEING THE BEATLES. WHEN MY WIFE AND I WERE EXPECTING OUR FIRST CHILD IN 1982, WE WANTED, IF IT WAS A BOY, TO HONOUR JOHN IN SOME WAY. WE WERE STUCK FOR BOYS NAMES, AND A FRIEND SUGGESTED THE NAME JAY, WE LIKED THAT, AND DECIDED ON JAY LENNON McKNIGHT. WE DID HAVE A BOY, ONE OF THE MIDWIVES AT THE BIRTH SAID THAT SHE HAD DELIVERED JULIAN LENNON, AS OUR SON WAS BORN TO BEATLES MUSIC. A WHILE AFTER THE BIRTH, SOMEONE SAID I KNOW WHY YOU CALLED YOUR SON JAY, WE WERE BAFFLED AND ASKED WHAT HE MEANT, HE SAID JAY STANDS FOR 'JOHN AND YOKO'. THIS WAS PURE COINCIDENSE, BUT SEEMED VERY APPROPRIATE, ESPECIALLY WITH LENNON BEING HIS SECOND NAME. JAY IS NOW 24 AND PROUD OF HIS NAME

I saw the Beatles in Blackpool, must have been 1963/64. I was looking at their tour venues last night after the Timewatch programme and they appeared at the ABC and the Grand, I seem to remember them appearing at the Opera House and when the show was first advertised they weren't top of the bill. Between the advertising going up and the appearance they hit the top of the charts and the show running order was changed. My Mum had got my sister two tickets but as she couldn't go they were given to me. Believe it or not I couldn't find anyone who wanted the other ticket as no-one had really heard of the Beatles. In the end I went to the show and left the ticket on the door to give to anyone who wanted it. Does anyone remember this show and was it at the Opera House or, after all this time, is my memory playing me up ?

Did everybody agree with the general points that the programme was making about the reasons for the break up of the Beatles? As I saw it, the reasons given were: 1. Dislike of being continually on tour. 2. Personal fall out. 3. Musically divergent plans for future development. 4. Frustration at not being able to hear their music. Best wishes, John

Hi

I remember going either to the Odeon in Hammersmith or it may have been when they were at Finsbury, but at one of those venues, we managed to slip out a sideway when we were streaming out. I knocked on the door of a dressing room, hoping it was the Beatles, but no just the support group, only the Yardbirds. The one that came to the door I think was Eric Clapton. The rest of the Yardbirds were in the room further back. The one who opened the door very nicely agreed to sign my diary, I felt I was doing him a favour letting him sign. How silly do I feel now Eric Clapton the greatest guitar player (slowhand). My children use this now to confirm their mothers not in touch with the world and never was. We managed to get above the stage after moving from that dressing room, We heard Jimmy Saville shouting at the stage clearing guys, so we moved from the high point where we were in incase he looked up and gave us some of his wrath. They were special days. I think a posthumous knighthood should be given to George, so making his wife a Lady ( she is so already that we know) and Ringo to be Knighted, they were the making of the musical industry in this country, those four, the fab four started it all. Paul I am pleased to say has this recognition now but it should have been given to them all.
I am so pleased my friend Susan and I went to these shows
the Beatles were wonderfull boys.

tera

Hi, I came up with the original idea for The Beatles film for Timewatch and took it to a genuinely interested and excited John Farren (TW Editor.) I also dug up some of the most interesting footage and I am now working on another film.

I am interested in tracing anyone who has home movies or photos or programmes or ephemera that might be useful. If you have anything, feel free to email me at - PaulClark (at) Objectiveproductions.com.

(Remember to re-insert the @ sign.)

Below is a summary of what the idea of the show was about, and what I hope it achieves:

BEATLEMANIA

It’s not all about She Loves You, Yeah Yeah Yeah, you know.

A friend of mine had been collecting tapes of The Beatles for some years. Odd segments of songs that never made it on to the records; strange bits of backwards music; overdubs of Lennon singing Strawberry Fields slower and in a lower key, and McCartney, Harrison and Starr crooning gracefully in all too unrecognisable versions of famous mop-top classics.

The marketplace in such materials has been going for almost as long as The Beatles themselves, and some say that the ‘Black Market’ in Beatles out-takes is worth almost as much as Apple and EMI’s cut of the Fab Four pie.

Fascinating as all this is to the obsessive Beatles fanatic, what interests me more is the material that is legitimately out there, not stolen or bootlegged, but actual footage and photographs of the band at various stages through their career that could be tracked down, rediscovered and subsequently revealed to the wider public.

Over five years I have hunted down a great deal of Beatle-related ephemera, from film to stills. Some of it was pure happenstance; some of it came from others who make their living out of the sale of collectables. At least one glorious colour home movie came directly from a contact who deals in suchlike.

As one would guess, much of the most fascinating film turned out to be just the sort of stolen or bootlegged material that I, and the BBC, would not touch with a Yellow Submarine barge pole.

Yet other discoveries are genuinely unseen, rare glimpses in to the private world of the 20th Centuries biggest icons, images kept for forty years by their legitimate owners and only now revealed for the first time.

Some of the finds are truly illuminating. There is the footage from the location shoots of their various live action films, including some rather entertaining colour from Help!

There is the off camera clowning from Magical Mystery Tour and the very sixties local TV interviews from their visit to the South West of the UK.

Then there is the colour home movie of The Beatles, filmed by The Beatles.

Many of these gems have made it into the final edit of Timewatch: Beatlemania for the delectation of both fans and newcomers alike.

Others, although fascinating, were either legally contentious (and much of the unpublished and unbroadcast Beatles material is) or outside the budget of a prudent BBC film.

A third tranch of possible bits and pieces were thought to be historically interesting but added nothing to the story we already knew, and therefore went back to the archives for another day.

Once we had found the rare footage, we had to find equally unusual and untold stories from those who were actually there at the time; tales that also had the air of something that was still missing from the overarching myth of The Beatles.

Four decades on and many of those closest to the group are, sadly, no longer with us. Yet we managed to find and interview key people closest to The Beatles and, unsurprisingly, they each had their part of the tale to tell.

Tony Bramwell was George’s best mate from schooldays. He carried Harrison’s guitar to early gigs and ended up as Brian Epstein’s right-hand man, dealing with all of the day-to-day problems of keeping the biggest band in the world on the road and happy. The author of a fascinating book on the subject, Bramwell has brought Timewatch the detail and the reality of those early, silly days. He also turns out to be a nice fellow, which sort of chimes with the whole story of The Beatles and those around them. Once you finish watching the show, I highly recommend you buy the book.

Tony Barrow was their PR man at a time when they’d inadvertently offended Imelda Marcos (the story is in the programme and I won’t spoil it for you here) and upset some of the Japanese people (another shaggy-dog tale in the film) and, to cap it all, infuriated a fair percentage of the United States with Lennon’s ill thought-out comments on his importance and that of established religion. Barrow eloquently re-tells the true story of his advice to John in Timewatch; far more eloquent than Lennon’s own attempts to explain it all at the time. It is a fascinating insight in to the back-story and one that I hope viewers will not have seen told elsewhere.

Maureen Cleve was the journalist who wrote the original story for the London Evening Standard. It made no waves at all until, some weeks later, it was re-published in the States. Once again, we went back to the original source to find out the true, untold story. Cleve admits to her own shock and distress at the reaction to the piece. “I was horrified. They could have been killed.” In retrospect, and with Lennon’s death at the hands of a gunman in 1980, it chills the spine.

There are others too numerous to name here in the film, and more still who were interviewed but whose fascinating, personal insights had to be left out in order that we made a Timewatch and not an alternative box-set Anthology. However, some of the other interviewees are on the DVD- 'Unseen Beatles'.

There is still much in the way of unseen film and untold stories out there, and the more one looks for it, the more one finds. The problem with researching such an enigmatic and culturally defining group as The Beatles is that the hunt, of necessity, continues. I’m currently on the trail of some rare material that supposedly exists that pre-dates 1963, and no doubt that will see the light of day very soon.

I hope that this film brings The Beatles to a wider audience, but more than that, it makes those of you, like me, over forties, laugh. These were very different times and, as with so many Timewatch films, we can now suddenly see it all in perspective as part of an era, rather than something than just appeared.

The attitude of the time has gone, lost forever, and we will never see their likes again- travelling up and down the country in a beaten up van; wise-cracking at numerous pointless press conferences; making colour tv film that end up being shown in black and white, and making albums (rather than CDs) that change the way we interpret the world and all in it. Quite something, in the way they moved.

In some ways Chris Wilson’s Timewatch film is intentionally a Reithian version of the Beatles’ rather airbrushed Anthology; it aims to entertain, educate and inform. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Paul Clark developed ‘Beatlemania’ for Vera Productions/BBC Timewatch.

I saw the Beatles at Leyton Baths Just before the release of Fom Me to You. My lasting memory was the energy of the performance. I don't recall that it was spoilt by too much screaming, I think the sound was quite good for that time.

I will be 57 this year and still No. 1 beatle fan! Throughout my teenage years 12-20 years old I grew up together with the beatles, their fabulous music and personalities. Without the beatles I don't know what those years would have been like. I waited outside Abbey Road studios, stagedoors, and saw them on stage twice at their Christmas shows. I ordered the LPs and EPs before they came out in the shops and my room was awash with posters. I saw A Hard Days Night film every day twice a day for a week. I still have today my beatle monthly magazine cuttings in a colage I made, on my stairwell. My (now grown up) children were bought up on beatle music. I have been to Strawberry Fields in central Park N.Y. on the anniversary of John's death and sung songs outside Abbey Road with my candle after George died. I thank Timewatch for this fab programme, it took me back to being that girl again. "I love you Beatles, oh yes I do!"

Beatles song “Yesterday”

When I was five years old, my four year old sister, Astrid, died of leukaemia. Because of this and a number of other reasons I became a loner as a child.

In my family we were about the first to wear long hair and listen to the Stones, Beatles etc. When I heard the music of the Beatles it was for me an experience like drinking water in the desert; the warm melodies, the vivid lyrics with some melancholy; I'll follow the sun/every little thing/ you've got to hide your love away/things we said today/I'll cry instead/tell me what you see/I've just seen a face; all songs that evolved even more and more as the Beatles went on.

But in 1965 I – at home – heard for the first time the poetic, melancholic song Yesterday with lines as ; "I'm not half the man I used to be, there's a shadow hanging over me, oh yesterday came suddenly". Not realizing how deep the wounds inside were, I felt understood and uplifted. More and more the Beatles became like friends/brothers to me, although I was (and am) too self-willed to hang any photo of anyone in my room. For me, 'being a fan' was that I let myself be inspired by musicians and not becoming a clone. But the friendship within the Beatles was for me also inspiring; "it did exist, and how colourful".

So, at high school in Amsterdam, some teachers knew I loved the Beatles and liked to sing Yesterday a cappella. And every time, when I was thrown out of class I walked around the school through the long corridors, along other classes. On many occasions my English teacher would ask me to come into his classroom and sing Yesterday. Every time I sang it with great pleasure, forgetting half the lyrics and sometimes singing much to high (without giving up), but I enjoyed it very much and

My friend and I were regular visitors to Slough Adelphi and had been attending the Roy Orbison concert when it was announced that The Beatles were to play the following month - I think it may have been March 1963. I had already bought Love Me Do the previous year and had just bought Please Please Me so after the concert we decided to go and book tickets in the foyer. We were the first to do so and we able to choose two seats in the middle of the front row. Gerry and the Pacemakers were also on the bill. By the time we went to see them they had become so popular that so many of our friends were very envious. Now it all seems like a dream, but I do remember screaming so much that I was left with a sore throat but happy memories! Was anyone else there?

I saw the Beatles live at the Public Hall Preston on the 13th September 1963 when I was sixteen. I was lucky enough to buy a ticket on the front row only two to three metres from the stage. Back then Preston was a dark and dank northern mill town and as teenagers we felt isolated from the main music scene. We purchased our tickets from a small back street newsagents and couldn't believe our luck. The Beatles were of course magnificent live and we could hear them despite the screaming. Although I did not meet them and never got their autographs I did briefly talk to George Harrison's mother before the show. She came to the side of the stage to look at the spectacle of the excited audience and appeared bewildered by it all. I cannot remember her exact words but she expressed surprise and shock at the rapid rise to fame of her son's band, and amazement at the reaction the band invoked in their fans.

What can anyone say more than the kid's of my generation were so lucky to have lived though the sixty's .If nothing else had happened in my life then, I like so many others was lucky enough to have seen them live, and listened to the music of the best group that ever lived,I still have all there LP's singles and EP's and now all there CD's,I still play there music most days ,my favourite album being ,RUBBER SOUL ,Nigel

I was only 13, but the Beatles at the Brighton Hippodrome on the 12th July and 25th October, 1964 were the most exciting concerts of my life. I, like the rest of the audience screamed all the way through, hardly hearing a thing. I recorded in my diary that I managed to get my jelly babies on stage, and that John needed a haircut. I also recall seeing the Beatles actually arrive at the Theatre, and it is my proud boast that I had to make way for Brian Epstein. I still have the tickets and the press coverage for the 25th October. Also a note that they were late on the 12th July as George had an accident on the way.

I'm 53. I remember going to the Christmas Shows at Hammersmith (then)Odeon. I recall seeing the Moody Blues, Freddie & the Dreamers & Elke Brooks with them. You couldn't hear anything when they performed.Also saw them at NME pollwinners concerts at Wembley, along with other bands that are still famous names today. At the age of 12 my ambition was to marry Paul. Now he's free, I'm still married! I spent my summer holidays outside Twickenham film studios, while they were filming Help. I also went to Buckingham Palace when they got their MBEs and various airport departures & arrivals. I prefer their album work to their hits. The Beatles were the first to change the youth music & culture in this country. Before the Beatles, we had Skiffle, Elvis and Bill Hayley. We all dressed like our parents.

I saw the Beatles at Hammersmith Odeon sometime in the Sixties, 1966? One of the supporting bands was the Yardbirds (including Eric Clapton) and the compere was Jimmy Saville. I can't remember anyone else on the bill! I do recall a lot of screaming but not so much that you couldn't hear them play. I was also at the Saville Theatre which was owned by Brian Epstein, on the day he died. It was supposed to be a Jimi Hendrix plus Crazy World of Arthur Brown concert but got cancelled as a mark of respect, much to the displeasure of the audience.