Happy New Year (of 1963) from The Beatles! On the final day of 1962, The Beatles rocked in the New Year at the Star-Club in Hamburg. ...and what a year 1963 would be, for them and us!
With Ringo Starr now on board, the band was complete. 1963 would be the year The Beatles began to show the world they were here to stay.
8 January 1963 - While on a short tour of Scotland, The Beatles appeared on a children's magazine program Roundup, live and locally only for the Glasgow, Lanarkshire audience. Here they mimed to their forthcoming single, "Please Please Me".
As with much of the Television work they did that year, nothing of it seems to exist today, but I found what might be a photo from that day, apparently from a book I do not know of, taken from this website link, MultiPlusBooks.com which also includes a nice little story.
At the Cavern Club ca. 1963
Indeed their 'ship' did come in!
13 January 1963 - The Beatles appear on Thank Your Lucky Stars by ABC Television although at the bottom of a seven-act bill, miming to "Please Please Me" and broadcast on January 19, 1963. It was Dick James, the music publisher, who secured them this spot, which was their most important appearance to date as the show was almost fully networked. Most of Britain's teens would have seen this program. Dick James, in turn, would make an immense fortune by winning The Beatle's future song copyrights from "Please Please Me" onward.
Added December 6, 2024:
Many thanks to videoarchives.fandom.com for what is presumed to be a snapshot from this day.
Once more, nothing else seems seems to have survived.
While shuffling between studios with first rehearsals and then live studio recordings, The Beatles finished off at the Playhouse Theatre, also in Manchester, on Teenagers Turn: Here We Go singing and performing "Chains", "Please Please Me" and "Ask Me Why". They also sang "Three Cool Cats" but that was edited out of the transmission tape, which was broadcast January 25, 1963.
For the longest time, I never saw anything from this day surface, but it appears that "Chains" does survive, in fragments, "Please Please Me" is slightly incomplete and "Ask Me Why" does seem to be pretty complete, although all three numbers are not in the best of audio shape.
This photograph was reputed to be taken earlier that day, at EMI House, by photographer Angus McBean, the man who would soon take the photos for the cover of the group's first LP, which would also be photographed at EMI House.
Some of this show, including Beatles' performances, was also transmitted via short-wave frequencies to Australasia, Africa, the Far East, the Middle East, southeast Asia and the Mediterranean area by the then BBC General Overseas Service.
So while they were in the middle of their first British Nationwide Tour, although at the bottom of a six-act bill headed by 16 year old Londoner Helen Shapiro, The Beatles headed to EMI Studios on the 11th of February to record 10 new tracks which would be supplemented by their first 2 singles to fill out a 14 track record, marking their brilliant début album, which would be titled like the single, "Please Please Me".
Remarkably, all 10 takes of "There's A Place" have become available to Beatles' Fans through various resources, including the official/unoffical(?) Beatles' "Bootleg Recordings 1963" that was released at the end of 2013. (It may have been made available through iTunes, but there was absolutely no promotion done for this 'release' leading people to believe it was only put out to extend copyright privileges.)
*Post taken from the book "A Hard Day's Write" by Steve Turner.
*Post taken from the book "A Hard Day's Write" by Steve Turner.
Once more as fortune would have it, all 9 takes of "I Saw Her Standing There" can be found for Beatles' fans.
The afternoon session for the "Please Please Me" LP went from 2:30-6:00pm. Records show during the lunchtime break that while George Martin and the engineers Norman Smith and Richard Langham took their lunch, The Beatles stayed on in the studio to continue rehearsals for the next recording session.
Richard Langham was quoted, "We couldn't believe it. We had never seen a group work right through their lunch break before."
The afternoon session started off with five takes of "A Taste Of Honey". Then it was onwards with another original track, "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" with eight takes made. Take 8 was actually a superimposition of vocal harmony and two drum sticks tapped together onto take 6 and then labeled the best version of the song.
*Post taken from the book "A Hard Day's Write" by Steve Turner.
After finishing "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" The Beatles went back to "A Taste Of Honey" and after doing another couple of takes, there was a superimposition of Take 7 onto Take 5 for a 'more fuller sound'.
The Beatles also went back to "There's A Place" [Takes 11-13] overdubbing harmonica onto take 10.
Some takes from these three tracks can be found here: "Please Please Me" - Afternoon Session
Wrapping up the afternoon session at EMI, The Beatles taped in 11 takes another original song, "Misery". The funny/strange guitar 'solo' was used as a marker where piano could be superimposed at a later date. To make it easier for this dubbing "Misery" was recorded on tape at a speed twice that of normal.
*Post taken from the book "A Hard Day's Write" by Steve Turner.
Some takes from these two tracks can be found here: "Please Please Me" - Afternoon Session 2
A third (evening) session was also booked this day, February 11, 1963, and the most interesting thing I found about that was they did 13 takes of "Hold Me Tight" a version of which would be re-made for their second LP "With The Beatles". I would have loved to have heard this version, but it is thought that no tape of it exists.
The rest of the session went fast as John sang "Anna (Go To Him)" in 3 takes, Ringo did "Boys" in 1 take, "Chains" was done in 4 takes with take 1 selected as best, "Baby It's You" in 3 takes and the final wrap up, "Twist And Shout" with take 1 the best. There was a take 2 but by that time John's voice was gone and it was rejected. Take 1 was so impressive, however, that the next day engineers proudly took the tape of it around to all "the studio copying rooms saying to everyone, 'What the hell you think of this?'"
17 February 1963 - The Beatles return to "Thank Your Lucky Stars" being taped at Teddington Studio Centre southwest of London. During rehearsals, I believe, these photos were taken. They wound up miming "Please Please Me" in the afternoon and the show was transmitted on February 23, 1963.
Billed above The Beatles on that day was Billy Fury, whom they had auditioned for as a backing group in May of 1960.
It appears that only these photographs survive The Beatles' appearance on this edition of "Thank Your Lucky Stars". (Note: It has been said that the early "Beatles" logo on Ringo's drum kit was designed by Paul.)
20 February 1963 - On this day when George Martin was adding piano to "Misery", The Beatles appeared live on the live lunchtime radio show, "Parade Of The Pops" performing "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me". So far it seems no audio has survived from this show.
25 February 1963 - Without The Beatles' participation, George Martin and his engineers created the Monaural version and the Stereo version of the upcoming "Please Please Me" LP. At this time they were using only two-tracks to record with and it is easy to understand why the 'true' form of the record should be considered the mono version.
Nonetheless students of the Beatles' music enjoy studying the separation of vocals from instruments that is very prominent on the 'stereo' version of "Please Please Me" (LP). As George Martin explains, they had what was called a Stereo machine, but he used it in the form of a twin-track to "simply make the mono better, to delay the vital decision of submerging the voices into the background. I certainly didn't separate them for people to hear them separate!"
The first true Beatles' record release in the USA, February 25, 1963. Read how the most successful Black American owned and operated record company before Motown brought The Beatles to America.
2 March 1963 - As The Beatles began to wrap up their package tour with Helen Shapiro, they made a rare TV appearance where they did not perform, on ABC At Large. Along with Brian Epstein they were interviewed by David Hamilton. Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers also made an appearance. (At this time I can not find any photos, video or audio, from this broadcast.)
The session began with "From Me To You" which had only been written 5 days previously. They had it in 7 takes, with an additional 6 takes done as 'edit-pieces' which covered harmonica, a guitar solo and vocal harmony for an introduction.
You can hear most of these takes (1, 2, 4, & 5) and the edit pieces for "From Me To You" from this link: "From Me To You" - Afternoon Session
"Brian Epstein and I worked out a plan," says George Martin, "in which we tried--not always successfully--to release a new Beatles single every three months and two albums a year. I was always saying to the Beatles, 'I want another hit, come on, give me another hit,' and they always responded...from the earliest days they never failed."
Indeed The Beatles never slacked off, even on the 'B' side for a new single. In fact, the two tracks recorded on this day were both considered for the 'A' side with "From Me To You" winning out.
"Thank You Little Girl" which became "Thank You Girl" was initially considered as the top track. It was nailed down in 6 takes with 7 edit pieces for the guitar ending. Take 6 was edited onto take 13 for the completed result.
You can hear takes 1-5 and the edit pieces for "Thank You Girl" from this link: "Thank You Girl" - Afternoon Session
The Beatles were still interested in working on more of their new ideas. For consideration were two additional recordings, one of a song called "One After 909" and the other "What Goes On". They wound up with only enough time for "One After 909" in 4 takes and one edit piece of the guitar solo. Only one take was complete.
The early version of "One After 909" was soon abandoned as incomplete, but George Martin would work with what remained putting together a 'finished' version of the song for release on The Beatles Anthology 1 in 1995.
All of the available known takes for "One After 909" can be found here: "One After 909" - Evening Session
Other ideas are explored here with these photos. "Those were the sort of dreadful stock ideas every photographer went in for then," recalled George.
6 March 1963 - Returning to the Playhouse in Manchester, The Beatles appeared for the final time on the radio show Here We Go performing before a live audience "I Saw Her Standing There", "Misery", "Do You Want To Know A Secret" and "Please Please Me". All but "I Saw Her Standing There" were broadcast on March 12.
You can find these three performances here: Here We Go - 6 March 1963
7 March 1963 - Of interest on this day is the coming together of Brian Epstein's current 'stable of artists' with The Beatles appearing at the Elizabethan Ballroom in Nottingham. Included were Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Big Three and Billy J Kramer with The Dakotas, yet as this ticket stub shows, there was no mistaking who was headlining the event.
Since this would be the first of six shows which included this line-up, the events would become known as the "Mersey Beat Showcase" Tour.
8 March 1963 - I include this date (not only because I can, but) to illustrate how busy The Beatles were during this time. After concluding their Helen Shapiro package tour on March 3rd, they'd played another show at the Plaza Ballroom in St. Helens on the 4th, attended an EMI recording session on the 5th, performed before a live audience for radio broadcast on the 6th, headlined a Brian Epstein artists extravaganza on the 7th, and continued to perform on this date at The Royal Hall in Harrogate before embarking on another theatre package tour to commence on the 9th!
9 March 1963 - The second theatre package tour The Beatles would be a part of was headlined equally by Tommy Roe and Chris Montez. All indications are, however, that the audience was really in attendance to see The Beatles.
On March 13th, 1963, The Beatles attended an overdubbing session at EMI for "Thank You Girl" with presumably John playing the harmonica. He still could not sing and so when the rest of the group headed for another performance on that night at the Rialto Theatre in York, he did not attend.
Mono and stereo mixing of "Thank You Girl" would be completed on this day and "From Me to You" would be mixed for mono the next day on the 14th. The Beatles would play yet another evening without John on the 14th. (I don't believe "From Me To You" was ever properly mixed for stereo, for when it first appeared in that format in 1966, I understand it was simply a direct copy of the two-track original recording.)
John would finally return to the group on March 15th, 1963.
The EP version of "How Do You Do It?"
14 March 1963 - Meanwhile, Brian Epstein was busy signing new artists to add to what would become an ever growing family of musicians and singers which he would now manage.
The first out of the gate was a group known as Gerry and the Pacemakers, who released their first single on the Columbia label even before The Beatles' first LP would see light to the world.
The single consisted of the Mitch Murray song, "How Do You Do It?" which producer George Martin wanted to be as The Beatles first single before they would eventually replace it with "Love Me Do". George was convinced it was a #1 hit, but to his credit, he let The Beatles prevail and their version was not officially released until 1995 when George compiled tracks for "The Beatles Anthology".
Gerry and the Pacemakers, retaining The Beatles' arrangement for the Murray song, recorded it and saw its release on this day b/w "Away From You" a song written by group members Gerry Marsden and Les Chadwick.
Everyone came out a winner. The Beatles got their way and did not release their version, Gerry and the Pacemakers got the recording break in their careers and George Martin was vindicated because "How Do You Do It?" did go to #1 for three weeks until it was knocked out by The Beatles' next single, "From Me To You".
16 March 1963 - Re-scheduled from the 11th of March, The Beatles would return to radio and Saturday Club but performing (and presumably broadcasting) live from Broadcast House in central London with six songs, "I Saw Her Standing There", "Misery", "Too Much Monkey Business", "I'm Talking About You", "Please Please Me" and "The Hippy Hippy Shake". With this broadcast, besides three Beatles' rarities being performed, fans got to hear two tracks from the upcoming and as yet to be released LP.
All six songs from this broadcast can be found here, and I've never heard them sound better: Saturday Club - 16 March 1963
21 March 1963 - As the Roe/Montez Tour continued, The Beatles made an appearance on the BBC radio program On The Scene which would be broadcast on March 28. The three songs they performed were "Misery", "Do You Want To Know A Secret" and "Please Please Me". This was their first time visiting Piccadilly Studios in central London. (I do not believe anything exists of the audio from this day.)
22 March 1963 - Finally that day arrives and The Beatles' brand new first LP record Please Please Me is released on the Parlaphone label!
The eventual cover for the LP was photographed by Angus McBean, taken as the group looked down over the entrance stairwell inside the Manchester Square building.
Right from the start The Beatles establish new standards with their recorded product. The covers of their LP records would be unique and interesting, the LPs themselves would contain 14 tracks instead of the usual 12 or 11 other groups were putting out at that time. The Beatles were interested in giving the fans more for their money.
One thing not quite nailed down yet was how the songwriting team's surnames would appear with their songs. Initially, as Paul would recollect, it was up in the air who would come first. (Paul would later try to arrange it so that whomever's song it primarily was, that name could go first. "Yesterday" for example should really be a McCartney-Lennon song.) This protocol would be settled by their next record for John eventually 'won out' and it would become forever Lennon-McCartney between the two of them.
(Note: The LP notes were written by Tony Barrow.)
All six songs from this broadcast can be found here, and I've never heard them sound better: Saturday Club - 16 March 1963
The eventual cover for the LP was photographed by Angus McBean, taken as the group looked down over the entrance stairwell inside the Manchester Square building.
One thing not quite nailed down yet was how the songwriting team's surnames would appear with their songs. Initially, as Paul would recollect, it was up in the air who would come first. (Paul would later try to arrange it so that whomever's song it primarily was, that name could go first. "Yesterday" for example should really be a McCartney-Lennon song.) This protocol would be settled by their next record for John eventually 'won out' and it would become forever Lennon-McCartney between the two of them.
(Note: The LP notes were written by Tony Barrow.)
Out Now, on Parlophone!
On March 25th, 1963 The Beatles spent some time with photographer Dezo Hoffmann who took still shots and 8mm home movie film of the group. I am not certain if all of these photographs are actually from that day but I'm confident at least some of them are.
They would repeat the exercise again with Mr. Hoffman in late July of that year.
D'ya mind? We're busy here!
1 April 1963 - The Beatles tape two radio shows for the BBC entry "Side By Side". Their afternoon contribution included, "I Saw Her Standing There", "Do You Want To Know A Secret", "Baby It's You", "Please Please Me", "From Me To You", "Misery" and the show's theme song, "Side By Side" along with the Karl Denver Trio, the show's resident act.
It appears only fragments remain of the soundtrack to this show and it's pretty difficult to make out what is being said. The show was broadcast on April 22, 1963.
It appears only fragments remain of the soundtrack to this show and it's pretty difficult to make out what is being said. The show was broadcast on April 22, 1963.
The afternoon session saw The Beatles record for the 2nd show, "From Me To You", "Long Tall Sally", "A Taste of Honey", "Chains", "Thank You Girl" and "Boys". It appears the first track is lost but the other 5 still exist and you can download a copy of what remains via the link shown below. This show wasn't transmitted until May 13, 1963!
I prefaced it off with a couple of minutes from "The Beatles At The Beeb" [1982] where Bernie Andrews describes those early days with The Beatles on another BBC radio program, "Saturday Club".
3 April 1963 - The Beatles record several tunes for the radio program "Easy Beat" to be broadcast on April 7, 1963. Of the three songs, "Please Please Me", "Misery" & "From Me To You" only FMTY seems to have survived as recorded in front of a live audience.
Here is the link to download a file that contains FMTY followed by more from "The Beatles at the Beeb" [1982] with Brian Matthews describing the importance of these radio shows for The Beatles.
Gerry Marsden of Gerry and The Pacemakers introduces the song.
4 April 1963 - The day saw The Beatles return to the radio show, "Side By Side" hosted by The Karl Denver Trio [shown above]. L2R: Gerry Cottrell, Karl Denver & Kevin Neill.
I only very recently learned I have a copy of what seems like the entire show. It runs just under 28 minutes. Along with guests, The Beatles, who performed "Too Much Monkey Business", "Love Me Do", "Boys", a Lennon-McCartney original "I'll Be On My Way" & "From Me To You", The Karl Denver Trio also performed 5 of their songs, including their hit "Wimoweh".
I only very recently learned I have a copy of what seems like the entire show. It runs just under 28 minutes. Along with guests, The Beatles, who performed "Too Much Monkey Business", "Love Me Do", "Boys", a Lennon-McCartney original "I'll Be On My Way" & "From Me To You", The Karl Denver Trio also performed 5 of their songs, including their hit "Wimoweh".
Amazingly, this edition of "Side By Side" was not broadcast until June 24, 1963.
You can hear the whole show with the presenter, John Dunn, by downloading the file stored at the link shown here: Side By Side - 4 April 1963.
Also, on April 4, 1963, The Beatles played a most unusual concert by appearing at Stowe, the boys' public school at the request of one of the students.
According to The Beatles Bible, Stowe School in Buckinghamshire was "a prestigious all-boys school" and the student was David Moores from Liverpool who approached Brian Epstein with the request to have The Beatles appear there.
It came to light in 2023 that an amateur recording of The Beatles playing this date still exists and has since been posted on YouTube.
5 April 1963 - The Beatles attend a presentation ceremony at EMI House, Manchester Square to accept an award honoring their first silver disc for "Please Please Me".
As a gesture of thanks, they gave a private performance of "Please Please Me" along with their new single, "From Me To You".
Someone captured this performance on tape and you can listen to it presently on YouTube.
9 April 1963 - Yet another busy day for The Beatles with them doing a live radio interview, a Television appearance and another live show to end it all off.
The radio show for the BBC was called "Pop Inn" where, along with their interview, the as yet to be released single "From Me To You" was played. Other guests include David Jacobs, Arthur Askey and Winifred Atwell.
Note: This image shown is unrelated to the narrative.
Their Television performance from this day [April 9, 1963] had them miming to their next single, "From Me To You" and "Please Please Me" was played over the credits. No other photos or video from that show, "Tuesday Rendezvous" seem to have survived.
Other guests on the show include puppets Ollie Beak and Fred Barker, Grahame Dangerfield, Fannie and Johnnie Cradock.
Then it was off to do a live show at The Gaumont State Cinema in Kilburn.
11 April 1963 - The Beatles next single, "From Me To You" b/w "Thank You Girl" is released in the UK on the Parlophone label where it quickly becomes their next #1 hit.
"Thank You Girl" would turn up in America in 1964 in stereo, although with heavy reverb added to it whereas I don't believe "From Me To You" was mixed for stereo as any stereo copy out there shows a very separated twin track recording with the instruments on the far left and the vocals on the far right.
In 2023 this was corrected when "From Me To You" finally received a proper stereo mix by Giles Martin for the re-issued and expanded version of the "1962-1966" double-LP [The Red Album].
In 2023 this was corrected when "From Me To You" finally received a proper stereo mix by Giles Martin for the re-issued and expanded version of the "1962-1966" double-LP [The Red Album].
Note: Photo unrelated to the narrative.
13 April 1963 - An important day in Beatles' history as they made their first appearance on Television which was broadcast on the national BBC Network. Their previous 11 guest roles were on Independent TV.
The series was known as "The 625 Show" and when it was broadcast on April 16, 1963 it boasted "up and coming young talent".
The Beatles, promoting their new single, performed "From Me To You", "Thank You Girl" and closed the show with "Please Please Me". This they did supported by the cast of this show: Jimmy Young [composer/singer], Rolf and Tino [singers/guitarists], Bobbi Carrol [singer], Hank Locklin [singer/guitarist], Wout Steenhuis [guitarist], Mickey Greeve and his four-piece orchestra, Johnny Pearson [pianist] and Edwin Braben [musical conductor].
Nothing is known to exist from this broadcast.
That evening [April 13, 1963] The Beatles attended a party hosted by The Shadow's guitarist, Bruce Welch, in his North Harrow Home.
There they met Cliff Richard for the first time.
There they met Cliff Richard for the first time.
14 April 1963 - The Beatles make their 3rd appearance on the TV show "Thank Your Lucky Stars" where they mime to their new single, "From Me To You".
The top act for the show was Del Shannon. The Beatles were billed 3rd and the other acts included The Dave Clark Five, The Vernon Girls and Bert Weedon.
The show would air on April 20, 1963. Nothing of it except for this photo seems to have survived.
Probably more interesting to note from this same day is that after they recorded their portion for the TV show, The Beatles drove to nearby town Richmond-upon-Thames and at the Station Hotel pub, the Crawdaddy Club, where for the first time they saw live and in action, The Rolling Stones.
He would remain, however, connected with the Stones until his death in 1985, serving as road manager and pianist, even playing live with them.
Note: Photo unrelated to the narrative.
16 April 1963 - The Beatles mime before a live audience "From Me To You" for the Television show "Scene at 6.30" which was a news magazine broadcast in the North of England. It succeeded "People and Places".
It happened to be broadcast at the exact same time this day that their previously taped performance on "The 625 Show" was also broadcast on TV. This early in their career, The Beatles were already competing with themselves!
Like so many TV shows The Beatles appeared in at this time, nothing seems to have survived from this one.
The suggestion is this photo was taken of The Beatles outside Royal Albert Hall on April 18, 1963. I can not substantiate this, however, I like the photo so I'll leave it here.
18 April 1963 - The year the BBC were broadcasting live concerts from the Royal Albert Hall and on this day The Beatles became guests of a show called "Swinging Sound '63". With them were artists, Del Shannon, The Springfields, Lance Percival, Rolf Harris, The Vernon Girls, Kenny Lynch, Shane Fenton and the Fentones and George Melly.
The show went for a little over two hours and had an intermission. The first 50 minutes of the show, unfortunately, was not recorded. It wasn't even broadcast(!). We know The Beatles were the finale for this first part and they sang "Please Please Me" & "Misery".
The second half, which lasted a little over one hour was also carried by the BBC's General Overseas Service but the last 15 minutes were cut off so most of the planet never heard The Beatles.
They did perform as the finale of the second part singing "Twist And Shout" and "From Me To You". Although maybe not the best quality sound of these performances exist, to me, they show an importance in hearing the intensity of the crowd showing how much The Beatles' popularity was catching fire.
It also is a rarity in being able to hear The Beatles perform "From Me To You" in front of an audience so enthusiastic.
I've uploaded these two songs performed by The Beatles and my source also, as an example, includes an advertisement for The BBC Light Programme, which was the National Radio Station that broadcast this show. Since The Beatles practically segue right into the second song I did not put a break in the audio. You can download it from here:
At the end of the evening, all of the acts presented came up on stage together and sang to "Mack The Knife" which kept on for over 3 minutes until The Light Programme broadcast faded the transmission down.
Also of importance this day was the meeting of Paul with then teen TV personality, Jane Asher, who is shown here in a posed photo of her which appeared in "Radio Times" screaming at which most assuredly was for The Beatles. "Radio Times" was the BBC's weekly listings journal.
Jane would eventually become Paul's fiancé leaving George & Ringo as the last two available Beatles, but for only a short time.
Jane would eventually become Paul's fiancé leaving George & Ringo as the last two available Beatles, but for only a short time.
The Beatles and their personal tailor, Dougie Millings, preparing measurements for perhaps those collarless suits!
Mid 1963 - There was a version of the grey collarless suit they also wore that, I think, was a dark blue. Tailor Dougie Millings was so well liked he found his way playing himself in "A Hard Day's Night' making a cameo appearing mainly opposite John.
Dougie Millings' cutting room was located at 63 Old Compton Street in Soho.
The well dressed Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, has taken the 'blame' for dressing The Beatles up in such wardrobe. While it may be true that Brian got [easily, I might add] The Beatles out of their leather gear and 'smartened up' to wearing suits, Beatles biographer Mark Lewisohn states, "Brian Epstein had no part in any of this but criticism that he made The Beatles wear such stage suits [as the collarless style] was leveled against him ever after."
The Beatles friend and maternal-like figure from Hamburg, Astrid Kirchherr had this to say: "We inspired one another. What they gave to me in return was so much. And I still have got it all here, inside.
"But what's it all about, a silly jacket with no collar? I admit they got the idea from the collarless jacket from me. I had one and Stuart [Sutcliffe, Astrid's boyfriend, eventual fiancé and at that time 5th Beatle] wanted it. So I made one for him and when he went to the Top Ten wearing it, John would say, 'Hey, have you got your mum's jacket on?'
"But they were all like little kids. They didn't have any money and soon they'd all be saying, 'I want one of those.'"
The story related from Astrid takes place around March of 1961. When Paul and John were on a trip to Paris in October of that year they saw that Pierre Cardin was showcasing collarless suits and so by 1963 they approached their tailor, Dougie Millings, to make them all suits in this style and he obliged.
Astrid always thought of The Beatles as, "My boys." Since first meeting them in 1960, whenever she would see any of them on stage, she'd say to herself, "That's my boy up there!"
"They were just young boys wanting to have fun, have a drink and chase the girls. I would like people to know that they weren't always The Beatles. They were just four very normal, young, very funny boys."
Astrid passed away just before her 82nd birthday on May 12, 2020 in Hamburg, Germany. She was two years older than the eldest Beatle, Ringo.
I've had this photo [above] but never noticed or 'got it' until I found the 2nd photo [below] showing The Beatles' tailor in a hang man's noose! It looks like it may be his own measuring tape.
Oh, for the love of that *dark* Beatles humor!
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