A Hard (Beatles) Day's Night

A special Beatles Day is to be held at the Bournebeat Hotel, Priory Road, Bournemouth on 25 September to mark the publication of Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth.
The event has been organised with Beatles Days, the company which specialises in Beatles-related news and memorabilia roadshows and record fairs. The Bournebeat's extensive collection of Beatles artefacts will be on show along with some very special items brought in by the Beatles Days crew.
I'll also be on hand to hear stories about The Beatles in Bournemouth and no doubt deface a few books with my signature!
Meanwhile, the proof has been signed off and the book is ready to be printed, which is all very exciting.
Order now at www.beatlesandbournemouth.com

I read the news today...

This week Dorset Life magazine's September issue arrives with a handsome three-page feature all about The Beatles and Bournemouth, complete with a selection of Harry Taylor's unseen photos from 1963 and 1964. Yeah yeah yeah! 


You won't find it online for another month or so, but those souls fortunate enough to be around Dorset for the next four weeks can get good old-fashioned hard copies at newsagents across the county. The rest of the planet can click the link above and read it at the end of the month.


Meanwhile, I thought this is as good a time as any to say thank you to some of our new friends in the cyber world who have been kind enough to carry features and news items about Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth. Heroes, one and all.


So let me introduce to you...

Norwegian Wood
In the Life of... The Beatles
The Cornershop (above)
Beatles Unlimited
The Beatles Rarity
Seeker News
Beatles Magazine (Spanish)


Finally, the book is due back from the printers any day now. Copies can be ordered from the official website.

All Together on the Wireless Machine...

Media interest in the imminent arrival of Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth is picking up and I'll be talking all things Beatles, Bournemouth and books with presenter Alex Dyke on BBC Radio Solent on Monday 22 August from 12-1pm.


Listen to the show streaming on BBC iPlayer here until 29 August.

New website launched

It's nearly here! Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth is available to order now from the official website. High quality art prints of images from the book and other rare photos of The Beatles taken in Bournemouth will also be available.

Don't Bother Me, Palace Court Hotel

This incredible tape of George Harrison working on Don't Bother Me, his first song for The Beatles, was made by their chauffeur Alf Bicknell (on the reel-to-reel recorder given to him by John Lennon) during the group's six-night summer season at the Gaumont in Bournemouth from 19 to 24 August 1963. 
Struck down with a heavy cold (you can hear him coughing and spluttering) and confined to his room at the Palace Court Hotel, George later said he passed the time writing a song as an exercise just to see if he could. 
Bill Harry, founder-editor of the Merseybeat newspaper in Liverpool, says he had been trying to get George to write a song for ages and this was the young Beatle's response to his encouragement. In fact, George had written before - co-writing In Spite Of All The Danger with Paul McCartney in their days in The Quarrymen. It was recorded as a demo in 1958 with a version of Buddy Holly's That'll Be The Day.
Don't Bother Me was released on The Beatles' second album, With The Beatles, which came out on 22 November 1963, just seven days after they had played the Winter Gardens on their second visit to Bournemouth. The released version is posted below.

An exhibition of photos from the book and memorabilia relating to The Beatles in Bournemouth has now been expanded to include new images and can be seen at Lighthouse, Poole until 10 March. The venue is hosting a special screening of A Hard Day's Night on 28 February and the book Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth is now on sale at the Lighthouse ticket shop.

Klas Act: Swedish radio interviews

Klas Burling interviews The Beatles in jubilant mood at the Palace Court Hotel in Bournemouth (not in London as the YouTube description states) on Friday, 23 August 1963 - the day She Loves You was released. As a result of Klas' pursuit of The Beatles, they went on to tour Sweden in October that year and again the following summer.
Two days before The Beatles came back to Bournemouth to play the Gaumont again on 2 August 1964 for a one-off bank holiday weekend date, Klas Burling caught up with a quite serious Paul McCartney in his Stockholm hotel room (see below). Being interviewed by Disc magazine just before they went on stage at the Gaumont they were asked what they were going to play. 'Let's play the Sweden songs,' someone shouted as they streamed out of the dressing room.

Aunt Mimi remembers John

In 1965 John Lennon bought his beloved Aunt Mimi, who had brought him up from the age of five, a waterside bungalow at Sandbanks on the shores of Poole Harbour where she lived until she died in 1991. Their relationship has been the subject of so much scrutiny over the years that the absolute truth has long since been swallowed by history.
The origins of this taped interview are unknown, but in it Mimi reads from one of the many letters John wrote to her and shares some of her thoughts about John's father Alf and John's attitude to her. The tape doesn't capture her at her most charitable. A very different view emerges in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth which includes first-hand accounts of life with Mimi at Sandbanks from two people who spent time with her there, before and after John's death.

The Beatles, Day By Day

Four days before The Beatles played Bournemouth's Winter Gardens on 16 November 1963 they recorded this interview for Southern Television's Day By Day show. The film was shot backstage at Portsmouth Guildhall where they were due to perform that night. 
As the interview progresses you can see Paul getting increasingly uncomfortable and, touchingly, John is obviously concerned. It later transpired that Paul was suffering with stomach flu and the show had to be cancelled. 
But the boys were back on the road the next day, bypassing Bournemouth to drive through Dorset on their way to Plymouth. They stopped to eat just outside Dorchester.
Read more in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth, published on 22 September.