It was 60 years Beatlemania Ago today... was born
IT was the first inkling that something huge was about to happen in pop music.
Sixty years ago this week, an up-and-coming band from Liverpool set off on their debut tour. The Beatles were just one of 10 acts supporting teen singer Helen Shapiro, taking in venues from Doncaster to Taunton in February and March 1963.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were billed fourth, behind the Red Price Band, The Honeys and Dave Allen.
Their positioning was not bad, considering their debut single, Love Me Do, had peaked at No.17.
But then things started to change. Their second single, Please Please Me, had hit No.1 in the Melody Maker and NME charts when released in January.
They were bumped up the tour playlist, to the more prestigious second slot.
Fans began buying tickets to get close to John, Paul, George and Ringo rather than the chart-topping Walkin’ Back to Happiness starlet Shapiro.
The lads soon found themselves the centre of attention as women, overcome with emotion, threw themselves at the Fab
Four – and Beatlemania was born.
As the girlfriend of George Harrison, Bernadette Byrne witnessed the phenomenon unfold at a
1963 gig at Southport’s
Floral Hall.
She recalls: “As George came out after the show, a horde of girls chased him.
“He banged his arm as he shut the door and the girls clawed at the car windows.
“It was the start of Beatlemania... total madness.”
Bernadette knew for herself the strength of the band’s unique appeal.
She quickly became a superfan after seeing The Beatles perform at Liverpool’s Hambleton Hall in 1961.
She says: “They came on stage and looked so different. They had leather coats and cowboy boots on.
“When I heard the music, I was sold.”
The hair salon worker and her pals regularly watched the group’s daytime and evening shows at Liverpool’s
Cavern Club, dropping in on their lunch breaks.
She says: “My boss used to tell me I had to stop coming back looking like a drowned rat. It was so hot and sweaty in the Cavern. It was underground and water would roll down the walls.
“It stank of smoke, coffee, sweat and urinals. But it was an amazing atmosphere.
“We would be about four feet away from the band when they were on stage and after the shows, the lads would chat to us at the coffee bar at the back of the club.”
Bernadette and George got together after she had been to the cinema with Paul McCartney and ended up back at the house of Liverpool musician Rory Storm.
She says: “George was there. We got chatting and a few weeks later I had a note slipped through the door asking if I could ring him. I rang straight away and he arranged for us to go to the Abbey Cinema.”
But courting a member of a band on the brink of superstardom was a tricky business. Bernadette says: “As we were coming out of the cinema, a few girls noticed George and started asking for his autograph.
“He rushed me down the stairs and into the car outside.”
ROMANCE
Because The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein had banned the lads from dating, she and George had to keep their budding romance secret.
But other fans found out, and would send spiteful letters to the salon where Bernadette worked.
She reveals: “Jealous fans would write, saying, ‘My friend Mary doesn’t like you because you went out with George’.” The couple found respite from the chaos at Bernadette’s home where her mum, Peggy Farrell, would cook George his tea.
Bernadette says: “It was a place for him to escape all the chaos. He would come over after gigs.
“He was known as the quiet Beatle, but he was very chatty when he was on his own.
“We used to chat about records, films and cars. He loved girl groups like The Shirelles and The Ronettes.
“He was car mad as well. If he
hadn’t been a musician I think he would have been a racing driver.
“He loved speed. At one point, he changed his blue Ford Anglia for a Jaguar and we all went for a spin. But he almost flipped it when we were going around a bend and hit the kerb. Luckily he managed to get control of it again.”
The pair split after The Beatles moved to London later in 1963. But Bernadette kept George’s love notes and they are on display at The Beatles Story museum in Liverpool, which she runs with her husband Mike Byrne, 80.
Bernadette, 76, of Formby, Merseyside, claims it was just a teenage romance.
She adds: “I thought I loved him at the time, but I was only about 16 and he was three years older.”
Another Scouser who remembers Beatlemania well is Roag Best, whose half-brother Pete was the band’s original drummer.
He was replaced by
Ringo in August 1962.
As their first road manager, Roag’s dad Neil
Aspinall went on their second UK tour with the Fab
Four and US artists Tommy Roe and Chris Montez in March 1963. Roag says: “They were in the eye of a hurricane. They had girls climbing up drainpipes and knocking on their hotel windows. Girls were chasing them down the street… even hid in the closets at their hotel rooms.”
And as many as seven years later, fan mania was still out of control.
John Lennon’s butler, Dan Richter, worked for the star at his estate in Berkshire from 1969 to 1973.
Dan, 83, recalls: “My wife Jill and I experienced Beatlemania for the first
time after we moved in with John and Yoko at Tittenhurst Park in 1969. We flew to Toronto Rock and Roll Revival and ended up stuck in a limo trying to get to the stadium.
“The doors wouldn’t open when we arrived and fans surrounded the limo and started rocking it.
“One fan took their shoe off and tried to break the window.
“John and I protected Yoko and Jill until they finally got the doors unlocked and we escaped. It was very scary.
“Nothing compares to Beatlemania… it was insane.”