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We don't know, it may be next week, it may be two or three years
but I think we'll be in the business for at least another four years
You can be big-headed and say yeah, we're going to last 10 years
but when you've said it, you think we're lucky if we last three months
Probably the thing that John and I will do
will be write songs, as we've been doing, as a sort of sideline
We'll hope to develop that a bit more
When we go home early in the morning, when we've finished the job
The kids don't know you at home
but if they find out-well, where I live, they'll get the drums out!
It was getting really big - we noticed as we moved around town
and started being noticed in the street
I was grateful that we had a kind of staircase to climb
First it was making it big in Liverpool, then being the best in the county
then the best in England, then we'd go to Scotland and break them in
Then it was well, what's left? Er... radio
We wanted to be on Brian Matthews' Saturday Morning Club, a huge show
The thing I loved would be to wake after a week of school or whatever...
I had a radio by my bed and would lie in until about 11
The most delicious lie in of your life, those teenage lie-ins, Saturday
Lie in, feeling great, turn the radio on
and this programme would be on for another hour
We really wanted to be on that. We knew there was a huge audience
Many tracks for Saturday Club were never put on record
Some good stuff we'd done at the Cavern or Hamburg, well recorded
We come along on Saturday morning, greeting everybody with a smile
Isn't that nice - thank you, dear Beatles
Your goal is always just a few yards ahead rather than right up there
Neil Aspinall Road Manager When we used to tour-do those...
Arthur Howe touring shows with quite a number of people on the bill
Roy Orbison, Tommy Roe, Gerry and the Pacemakers
Helen Shapiro... there'd be a number of people on the bill
and everybody got 12 minutes, 15, 20 minutes, whatever
In that time all anybody could do was plug their hit records
The ones the audience knew
With Helen Shapiro it was really embarrassing
We were happy just to be on the first nationwide tour of the theatres
She was established, she'd been around and had a bunch of hits
We were happy just to be on the tour, but it was embarrassing
because Please Please Me got to number 1 while we were on the road
and all the people coming to the show were waiting for the Beatles
It was embarrassing, because she was very nice
I think it was the tour after that when it was Tommy Roe
and Chris Montez and the Beatles
They moved us to being... actually closing the first half of the show
George Martin Record Producer Let's go back a bit. The first record we issued was Love Me Do
The second was Please Please Me
which was only arrived at after much doubt on my part
that they could ever write a hit song
From that moment they blossomed, they became wonderful songwriters
But before they showed evidence of that, I still had to have an album out
I'd been to the Cavern and seen what they could do
I knew their repertoire, what they were able to perform
I said, let's record every song you've got
We'll whistle through them in a day
We knew those songs, that was the act we did all over the country
Basically this album was just what we did in the clubs
We just kept running through songs: "What about this... or this?"
We'd play and he'd say, "What else have you got?"
And 10.30 that evening, John sang Twist and Shout
His voice was going all day
He knew he could only give it one or two goes and it would just rip it
Which it did - you can hear it on the record
I couldn't sing the damn thing, I was just screaming
I heard they were coming to the Manchester Odeon
Derek Taylor Beatles' Press Officer We theatre critics, so-called
didn't cover one-night stands of pop stars as there was no continuity
Anyway, I bought tickets at û1 each, I think
Gerry and the Pacemakers and Roy Orbison preceded the Beatles
It was hard to keep up with that man, he really put on a show
They all did, but Orbison had that fantastic voice
We'd be on the tour bus and Roy would be at the back
He wrote something like Pretty Woman and played it to us-great song
So a bit of competition came in - we had to write one as good
So we were just trying to improve all the time
We listened to other songs and tried to beat them
By the time we got to From Me To You... it was nice
I was very pleased with the chord in the middle, which was different...
That minor chord was something we hadn't done before
We'd always know when we were going to be on the radio
Brian would say "Hello boys, it's going to be on at 7.20"
We'd all be in the car and we'd stop so we could listen to it
The Beatles and From Me to You, their third single release
which is this week sitting at the top of the hit parade
Every time it moved in the charts, we'd have a celebratory dinner
If you look at the Beatles, from their first 18 months, they went...
because we were eating all this food
That's where I discovered smoked salmon
I'd only ever had tinned salmon until I was 22!
We never stopped anywhere
If we were in Elgin on a Thursday
and we needed to be in Portsmouth on Friday, we'd just drive
We didn't know how to stop this van
Neil would drive and there'd be the passenger seat
and three of us would sit on the bench seat-whichever three
We'd sit on this bench seat, which was pretty miserable
We'd go everywhere in the van. We'd kip on the amps
Some nights were so foggy, you'd be doing one mile an hour
and you'd still just keep going
We were like homing pigeons. You have to keep getting home
We got Mal when Neil couldn't come because he was sick
We had to go down to do a radio show in London
We knew this guy Mal. He worked for the GPO
and he used to be a part-time bouncer at the Cavern
We got to know him and somebody suggested he drive for us
He drove us a couple of times when Neil couldn't make it
Then there was so much happening, we employed him full-time
Once, on the motorway
the windscreen got knocked out by a pebble
Mal Evans Beatles' Roadie So Mal put his hat on backwards, punched the windscreen out and drove
This was winter in Britain and it was freezing and foggy
We had to look for the kerb all the way to Liverpool, 200 miles
We were very, very cold
I remember we lay on each other
With a bottle of whisky
When the one on top was so cold, hypothermia was setting in
it was his turn to get on the bottom
We would warm each other up that way and keep swigging the whisky
It was quite an image
People think stardom, and it's glamorous
and there's us freezing, lying literally on top of each other
Oh yeah, we were tight
That was one thing to be said about us, we were really tight as friends
We could argue a lot amongst ourselves but we were very close
In the early days, we'd make a record in about 12 hours
A single every 3 months meant we'd have to write in the hotel or in a van
The demand on us was tremendous
I remember sitting on a pair of twin beds in a hotel bedroom
We had a day off so we were going to write a song
Our early songs, Please Please ME, From ME to YOU, P.S. I Love YOU
They were always very personal - Thank YOU girl
And we hit on the idea of doing a kind of reported conversation
"I saw her yesterday, she told me what to say, she said SHE loves YOU"
It gave us another little dimension, just meant that the song
was something different from what we and others had written before
Half a million advance orders have been made
for the Beatles' latest single, She Loves You
It looks likely to be three number ones in a row for the Liverpool boys
We were the first working class singers
that stayed working class and pronounced it
Didn't try and change our accents which in England were looked down upon
Cathy - A Fan from the Cavern Club The Beatles are Liverpudlians. They belong to us and to the Cavern
Yes, let the rest of the country have them and enjoy them
but please let them come back to us, at least once
just to be the same as they used to be
It would be fantastic
It was impossible to go home
If you're in our business, you go to London
The recordings are there, the places to be seen are there
Where it's happening is there, it's just a natural move
George and I shared an apartment off Park Lane, û45 a week, a fortune
We'd go to the Saddle Rooms. It used to be a club
They used to have this horse and coach outside
Two little drunken Beatles in the back were being taken home
This is two shit kickers from Liverpool and this is far out news
"Oh, let's take the carriage"
It was great, we were kings and were all just at the prime
We used to go round London in our cars and meet each other
and talk about music with The Animals and Eric
and we were very close to The Stones
This song we're going to play, I Wanna Be Your Man
We virtually finished it in front of them because they needed a record
They'd put out Come On by Chuck Berry and needed a quick follow-up
They did it first - we did it with Ringo after
We were always nervous before each step we went up the ladder
but we always had that comfort of being four together
Not like Elvis, you know
I always felt sorry later for Elvis because he was on his own
There was only one Elvis - nobody else knew what he felt like
But for us, we all shared the experience
The Beatles, The Beatles... no, it couldn't catch on
Big Night Out TV Show Hey, Bern! Is the tea ready yet?
Good evening and welcome to Big Night Out
The Morecambe And Wise Show It's the Kay Sisters! Fabulous!
The Kay Sisters? This is the Beatles!
Hello, Beatle... where is he?
There he is. Hello, Bongo!
That's Ringo! - Is he there as well? Oh great!
As you can gather, this is Eric. Say hello to Eric
I remember you, you're the one with short, fat, hairy legs
No, he's the one with short, fat, hairy legs
We're the ones with the big, fat, hairy heads
Get out of that!
What's it like, being famous? - It's not like in your day, you know
That's an insult, that is. What do you mean, not like in my day?
My dad used to tell me about you - In the old days
You've only got a little dad, have you?
All right, Bonzo?!
It's Ringo! - Yeah, him as well
Get 'em off, they've done enough. I'm getting insulted
Let's do a number with the boys - One their dad will remember
You go and get changed
What should we do, boys? Something suitable for Eric's age?
Moonlight Bay. OK, you go and get changed
On television for the first time, Morecambe and Wise and the Beatles
presenting that wonderful old fashioned number, Moonlight Bay
OK fellas, that's great, you look marvellous. Are you ready?
Right, we'll take it from the top
Have the Beatles gone? - No, they're here
What are you doing? - It's murder... I can't keep up
I haven't got one... - Take 4!
I can't breathe after all that mouth organ. Can we skip it?
I couldn't hear what chords they were going...
A bit less of George
I feel like I'm singing in a sock... a one, two, three, four...
You've done it again
You made a mistake
Do it slower - No!
Ready - Ringo... keep your bit dead
Ringo! - We're taping
No, the first one a loud attack, the second one not quite so loud
Rhythm and Blues, part nine
Paul forgot to sing - God, I'm sorry
I was just watching George...
What happened? - It's every time you jump like that
Don't slow down for christ sakes...
or I'm giving you no more drugs
Been for a shit I see, Megan?
Take 1- No reply
Stop
I just can't get anywhere near light so he'll have to do it
I'll try to remember, John, and if I don't it's just too bad, in't it?
You daft get!
George, what did the bass sound like? Good? Or utterly crap?
Did it? Well let's see how you like it
Take 13
When I was playing in the living room with Eddie Clayton
my mother's friend Annie McGuire would say:
"See you on the Palladium, son! See your name in lights"
That was the place to get to, the London Palladium!
Nothing bigger in the world than making it to the Palladium
And I said "Yeah, sure, Annie, that's where we're going to go"
So it was one of my things too: "To the Palladium!"
That was as far as I was looking
And I was sick
"Here they are..." - and I spewed up and went on
I was just nervous, craziness, you know, tension
We played the gig and we got on that roundabout and it was dynamite
This was it, you know what I mean
Anyone who knew you was so... fucking hell... hey, look at this!
It was just pretty far out, the Palladium
We like the fans and enjoy reading the publicity about us
but from time to time you don't realise it's actually about yourself
You see your pictures and read articles
about George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul and John
but you don't actually think, "Oh, that's me in the paper"
It's funny, it's just as though it's a different person
It all sounds complaining but we're not, we're just putting the point
It affects your home more than it does yourself
You know what to expect but your parents and family don't
We were treated differently and we had to get used to that
Then you found yourself in a weird land
All these people you've grown up with and lived with -
suddenly it was the one place you didn't want to change
It all changed after that
You were never sure who your friends were unless you had them before
People are so in awe of fame
All you have to do is go on the radio or television once
and people see you in the street and act differently
But the Beatles were in the papers every day for a year or so
Everybody changes, they're so impressed by it
People forget how to act normal
The one absolute, clear vision:
I was at my aunty's, where I'd been a thousand times before
We were having a cup of tea one night
It may have been after one of those shows
Somebody knocked the table and my tea went in my saucer
Suddenly it was "He can't have that, we have to tidy it up"
That would never have happened before
I thought, things are changing. It was like an arrow to the brain
Drop In TV Show Sweden 3rd November 1963
London Airport 31st October 1963
The Beatles return from Sweden to what the press call 'Beatlemania'
We'll see what the Queen Mother thinks of Beatlemania
when the Beatles perform at the Royal Variety Show on November 4th
I was sent to pursue them...
to harass them in September '63
by the News Editor of the Daily Express, who said they'd had it
They'd betray their young fans by appearing on the Royal Variety Show
Go and get them. Get a quote
Get them to condemn themselves by saying:
"We shouldn't be doing it, we're betraying our fans"
We all turned up: the Daily Mail, the Express, the Mirror
They were very defiant. Ringo did the perfect quote:
"I want to play my drums for the Queen Mum"
John, in this Royal Variety Show, you're appearing before royalty
Your language has to be good
and this thing with Ted Heath saying he couldn't understand you
I can't understand Teddy saying that at all really
I'm not going to vote for Ted
Paul, any changes in the act or will it be the usual routine?
No, we'll have to change it. Hey, stop hitting me
We can't do the same thing all the time
We haven't thought about it - Suits with collars, parted hair?
You never know. We may not wear suits. We've no idea
Prince of Wales Theatre 4th November 1963
Thank you very much indeed
The next song we'd like to sing is a bit slower
This is from the show The Music Man
It's also been recorded
by our favourite American group, Sophie Tucker
For our last number, I'd like to ask your help
Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands
and the rest of you, if you'd just rattle your jewellery
Thank you. We'd like to sing a song called Twist and Shout
We wanted to give people their money's worth with our records
Our policy was to put 14 tracks a side-it was brand new
and never put singles on the albums
Everybody else who had a hit single made an album around it
With the Beatles was a sort of 'first songbook'
They gave me a list of their songs
They were all thinking in terms of singles still
We weren't thinking of an album being an entity by itself
It was a collection of songs
All we did was to record singles
and the ones that weren't too good we'd put on an album
which is what With the Beatles was
Robert Freeman, who took this picture
copied, on request actually, Astrid Kirchherr's photographs
We showed him the pictures Astrid took and said do it like this
With the Beatles has broken the record for advance sales of an LP
It has an advance of a quarter of a million
The previous record was held by Elvis Presley's Blue Hawaii
Brian Epstein could well be right in his prediction
that the Beatles one day will be bigger than Elvis Presley
One of the cheekiest things we ever did was say to Brian Epstein:
"We're not going to America till we've got a number 1 "
We'd seen a lot of people, like Adam Faith, Cliff Richard -
quite big stars in Britain -
go to America and be 3rd or 4th on the bill after Frankie Avalon
or Fabian and people like that who were one hit wonders to us
So we thought, that's the kiss of death to go over to America
Take a downward step in your career. We didn't want to do that
So we told Brian we wouldn't go until we have a number 1 record
We were trying to get into America all the time
I really thought She Loves You would have broken the American market
but if you think of our frustration here
we were being turned down by the company, which EMI actually owned
I was so frustrated, I said if they're not going to put it out -
From Me To You was the first one we offered them -
they can't deny us other people putting them out
I would take the record back and try and get it out with another label
I did negotiations with Swan and with VJ
each of whom, tiny labels in the States, took one or other title
They put those records out in America
Of course, being small labels, they didn't make a great deal of success
That was the way it worked out. We released Please Please Me - Flop
From Me to You - Flop. Changed labels, released She Loves You
In England they'd all been number 1. All of them flops-nothing
By this time the news from England and Europe was overwhelming
that they were a hit group and they had to take them more seriously
Also the Swan and VJ labels were selling by this time
So Capitol were forced to release I Want To Hold Your Hand
It wasn't made for the American market but it was a great record
Le Bourget Airport, Paris 14th January 1964
The funny thing about France was it was boys screaming
I think the girls were heavily chaperoned because it was boys
Yeah oui, OK, you know. Dear me, a funny crowd
We went down kind of medium. We were on the bill with Trini Lopez:
If he had a hammer - if you remember
I didn't know Trini was on that show. I thought it was Sylvie Vartan
It was very strange because suddenly...
we had all these boys chasing us all over Paris
We had visions of all these French girls, ooh la la, and all that
But the opening night audience were tuxedoed elderly French people
Hanging round the stage door, all seemed to be a bunch
of slightly gay looking boys, shouting "Ringo, Ringo"
We didn't go down that well but we built it up over a few days
Eventually it was a bit of a success
But we were used to a little bit more instant success than that
We got a telegram at the hotel after one of the shows
It came from Capitol Records
Congratulations, lads, number 1 in US charts or something
We all hit the roof. I remember riding around on Mal Evans's back
He was happy to bear me. It was just very high hysterics
Brian rang me about half past one in the morning:
"I know you won't mind being woken." I said I wasn't asleep anyway
He said "I've just heard from America. We're number 1!"
Fantastic! He said "Do you want to come round?" Not half!
So we went round and had a great drink up. No bed that night!
It was a great feeling because we were booked to go there
directly after Paris, so it was handy to have a number 1
British pop stars haven't made much impact on the US. How will you fare?
Well, I can't really say, can I?
Is it up to me? No. I just hope we go all right
London Airport 7th February 1964
I know on the plane over I was thinking "Oh, we won't make it"
We knew we would wipe them out
It was like flying into the unknown, we didn't know what to expect
We were going to America
It was the first time for everyone, except George
I remember before landing, it was so exciting
As the plane flew over New York It felt like some sci-fi movie
and a big octopus grabbed the plane and was dragging us down to New York
and it was all so exciting. This was America
Things we'd dreamt about and all the music we'd loved came from here
All the music we'd loved came from there so just to be there was exciting
but because we'd made this condition of being number 1 before we went
it was like going as princes
Millions of kids at the airport, which nobody expected
We heard about it mid-air as I recall
There were journalists on the plane and the pilot radioed ahead
He said tell the boys there's a big crowd waiting for them
We never expected anybody
We didn't expect to sell records here so we were just amazed
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