Beatlemania Memories of the legendary four
THE recent release of The Beatles documentary, Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years, showed what life was like for the Fab Four at the height of their popularity.
Now a new book, The Beatles – I Was There, uncovers the stories of the fans who saw the band live.
Author Richard Houghton spoke to more than 400 people lucky enough to see the group between 1957 and 1966 to record their memories.
The Beatles made several trips to Scotland during that period and the book features tales of Scots who saw John, Paul, Ringo and George as they went from unknowns to the biggest stars in the world.
TWO RED SHOES, ELGIN, JANUARY 3, 1963
Arthur McKerron used to go to the back café of the Two Red Shoes for a meal. He asked the owner’s wife who was performing in the dance hall that night and she replied it was “some group called The Beatles”.
“The place was deserted,” Arthur recalled. “One couple were more or less just walking or jiving around the hall and three or four couples were sitting at tables.”
The next day student nurse Adeline Reid and her friend were leaving their boarding house to go to the local hospital when she saw The Beatles hanging out a window of the boarding house next door.
“They shouted at me,” Adeline recalled. “John asked me to take his pulse. My face went the colour of a tomato.
“Our landlady proceeded to reprimand them for their cheek. She did not approve of them talking to her girls in such a shocking manner!”
TOWN HALL, DINGWALL, JANUARY 4, 1963
The Beatles were in direct competition to the weekly dance in the Pavilion in Strathpeffer. There was only going to be one winner – and it wasn’t the Fab Four!
“The few that were there, including my crowd, all shared a taxi and headed to the Strath,” said Doreen Douglas.
Billy Shanks, then 17, recalled: “The funny thing is that when I went in, the doorman said, ‘Before you pay, go up and have a listen’.
“They played Love Me Do when I looked in the door and I thought, ‘No, no, it’s not my type of music’ and went to the local village hall five miles away to hear The Melotones.”
Margaret Paterson was 17 and going on her first date with her late husband Tommy.
“I thought he had stood me up,” she said. “It was almost over when Tommy’s friend remembered to tell me to go to the Strathpeffer gig and Tommy would meet me there.
“I sat on the stage all night chatting to The Beatles and Paul in particular, who told me not to be upset as there were more fish in the sea than ever came out of it.”
MUSEUM HALL, BRIDGE OF ALLAN, JANUARY 5, 1963
Andi Lothian was the promoter for the concert, which had a crowd consisting of “96 drunk young farmers and four women”.
“The place was just a rammie,” Andi said. “I was quite despondent as we had lost money on the event.”
BEACH BALLROOM, ABERDEEN, JANUARY 6, 1963
Bill Cowie, 15 at the time, and his brother Mike turned up early, so knocked on the stage door and were invited in to meet them.
“They were tuning their guitars and discussing their playlist,” Bill recalled.
He requested Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen, which John later dedicated to the “lads in the front row”. After the first set, Bill and Mike went back to the dressing room and Paul offered them a cup of tea.
Afterwards, Kathleen Donald, 15, and her friend Pat Masson knocked on the dressing room door for autographs.
“When I got married and left my parents’ home, my mum had a clear-out and threw away the autographs,” Kathleen said. “Can you imagine? When I tackled her about it, she said ‘Oh, it was just a few names on a bit of paper’.”
CARLTON THEATRE, KIRKCALDY, OCTOBER 6, 1963
The day after the Aberdeen show, Andi Lothian and Albert Bonici turned up unannounced at Brian Epstein’s London office and said they wanted to book the band again, but would only pay them £30 a night rather than £40 like the last time.
Epstein said they could have the band, but the fee would be £500 per night. Knowing they were going to be massive, they agreed. By the time the Fab Four arrived in Kirkcaldy, they