“Total lunacy” began with the Beatles’ first tour, according to the ex-member of…
It was the first sign that pop music was about to undergo a major transformation.
This week sixty years ago, a young Liverpool band embarked on their first tour. In February and March 1963, The Beatles were just one of ten groups who supported teenage vocalist Helen Shapiro, who was playing venues from Doncaster to Taunton.
Considering that their first single, Love Me Do, had peaked at No. 17, their placement was not too awful. However, things began to change when their second single, Please Please Me, was released in January and reached No. 1 on the Melody Maker and NME charts.
“Total pandemonium… that was the beginning of Beatlemania.”
Bernadette was well aware of the band’s distinctive attraction.
After witnessing The Beatles play at Liverpool’s Hambleton Hall in 1961, she soon became into a superfan.
“They got on stage and looked so different,” the speaker claims. They wore cowboy boots and leather coats.
“I was sold the moment I heard the music.”
The hairstylist and her friends would frequently attend the group’s afternoon and late performances at Liverpool’s Cavern Club during their lunch breaks.
Her supervisor used to advise her that she needed to quit returning from work looking like a drowned rat. The Cavern was swelteringly hot. There were walls below earth, and water would slide down them.
It smelled like urinals, coffee, sweat, and smoke. However, the atmosphere was fantastic.
“After the gigs, the boys would talk to us in the coffee bar at the back of the club. We would be about four feet away from the band when they were on stage.”
After Bernadette had gone to the movies with Paul McCartney and returned to the home of Liverpool musician Rory Storm, she met George.
“George was there,” she states. After we started talking, a few weeks later, I found a note asking to speak with him by phone slipping through the door. He made plans for us to visit the Abbey Cinema as soon as I called.”
