There are places we
ASOUTHPORT councillor has urged the town to celebrate its heritage more, citing the role it played in the development of The Beatles as evidence of its key part in the nation’s history.
Cllr Sir Ron Watson recalled seeing a plaque in a Lancashire town that the band played just once, and it dawned on him that more could be done to acknowledge the relationship between the resort and the band in their peak years.
Sir Ron said: “I can’t think of the town, I apologise for that, but I remember thinking that in comparison to Southport the involvement was nothing.
“I saw The Beatles, I made a note of it about 30 times, but I saw them a lot more than that.
“I used to work for Canadian Pacific, and one of the reasons I took the job was so I could get up to the Cavern at lunchtimes, 5p (a shilling) to get in.
“The issue there is that the number of people who saw The Beatles when I think they were at their peak as a rock ’n’ roll band in 1961-63 are few and far between, because they were playing to audiences of 50, 100 perhaps, sometimes maybe 300 but that was it.
“So there’s only a few thousand actually who saw them before they hit the big time, and then when they hit the big time they were a different band.
“But this town played quite an important part in their development, because [Brian] Epstein wanted them to move out and he saw Southport – it seems funny now – as a bit further away, a bit more prestigious.
“So he started trying to get them more and more gigs here.
“They played a series of gigs here in 1962 at the Kingsway, and they really were at their peak. They were sensational.”
He argued that the Kingsway shows were during the period that audiences can claim to have truly seen The Beatles.
“After that it altered, if you saw them during that period it was a different band.
“I was in America once doing a radio programme with a lady who said she’d seen them in 1965 at Shea Stadium in New York.
“And I said, ‘Well, you didn’t really, unless you saw them at the Star Club in Hamburg, the Cavern in Liverpool, or the Kingsway.’
“She didn’t really like the answer, and I said that it’s a bit like saying you saw Elvis in Las Vegas in 1976.
“You did, but it wasn’t the same Elvis that was on the Louisiana Hayride in 1956. It’s a different product, for want of a better word.
“So the numbers who saw them like that, it’s not that many, a few thousand if that.”
The Dukes Ward councillor said that he had been trying to persuade Beatles tour guides to acknowledge the role Southport played in the band’s development.
“We don’t make enough of it as a town, there are people like Cavern City Tours for example, so we’ve been trying to persuade them to put the town on their tour maps.
“They have a big Beatles convention every August and thousands come from all over the world, and they do bus tours around famous sites etc.
“We’ve never got into that, but the first recorded film that there is of the Beatles anywhere is taken at the Floral Hall.
“It’s just a few minutes, but I was at the show and I remember it.
“I would argue, from a historical point of view, that the first recording like that is important.
“There’s no sound to it, but it is historically important.”
The connections to Southport don’t finish at venues, with the town linked to personnel changes.
“Ringo, example, was in another band for called Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and he left to join the Beatles.
“His place was taken by a guy called Gibson Kemp, who was my best friend at school.
“He then joined another band called Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes; Ted Taylor had a butcher shop in Birkdale for years.
“So there’s a lot of local connections, that’s the point I’m trying to make.
“I think they played at the Birkdale Labour Club. They played quite a few venues over the years but the Kingsway shows were by far the best.
“We don’t make enough of it, there’s a very good argument for trying to put together an exhibition that you could put in the Atkinson. Not all the time, but on occasions which show the history, there’s quite a lot of photographs still around of the band and the venues. “You could do a tourist trail where you could go between them. “I’m not just doing it for commercial reasons. From a historical point of view this is the most successful band the world has ever known and the town played its part.
“I don’t think enough people know about it.”
He added that the venues played should follow the lead of the other Lancashire town that celebrated its connection.
He said: “In towns and cities you can produce local plaques, I think for example there should be one at the Floral Hall where the first recording was made, and when they do something with the Kingsway site I’d personally like to see one there, then the Atkinson as well.
“One of the most important gigs they ever played was in what was called the Cambridge Hall and Joe Brown was top of the bill, the Beatles were second, and it was the first time where they were on the same bill as a big figure.”
Sir Ron added that more should be done to commemorate all the talent that Southport has produced and nurtured.
He said: “The town has produced people of exceptional talent or played a part in the development of exceptional talent.
“Whether or not it’s more or less than other areas I wouldn’t really know but I do know it’s notable and I do think it’s interesting.
“I think it’s a part of the town’s heritage that we should celebrate, because there’s got to be something in the air that’s got people to where they are.”