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.

Ringo back in Bournemouth

Photo © Richard Lee

On 24 June 2011 Ringo Starr returned to Bournemouth for his first concert in the town since The Beatles' final show at the Gaumont on 30 October 1964. We've already shared some great footage of Ringo's All Starr Band tackling I Want To Be Your Man and a man called Derek was so pleased we'd used his video he tipped us off about his photos from the BIC. Click here to see. 

Ringo Starr, Bournemouth, 24 June 2011

Ringo brought his All Starr Band to Bournemouth International Centre in June for his first show in the town for 47 years. Until then, Paul had been the only ex-Beatle to play Bournemouth since the autumn 1964 tour with Mary Wells when Wings played the Winter Gardens in May 1973.


With previously unseen photos and first-hand accounts from the people who were there, Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth reveals the surprising connection between the greatest group that ever was and a small resort town on the south coast of England.

The Beatles, Winter Gardens, Bournemouth

.

Film crews from all three American television networks were in Bournemouth to cover The Beatles' show at the Winter Gardens on 16 November 1963. The term 'Beatlemania' had only been coined a fortnight before and Britain was readily surrendering to the boys' undoubted charm.

Footage from the Winter Gardens show was broadcast on CBS Morning News on 22 November - the first time The Beatles had been seen on US television. But America would have to wait to fully embrace The Beatles. Later that day, President John F Kennedy was assassinated and the country mourned its lost leader.

No less a luminary than Walter Cronkite revived The Beatles footage on 10 December and the die was cast – Beatlemania was to sweep the USA the following year.

Read the full story of what happened that night at the Winter Gardens in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth, published on 22 September 2011.

Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth

photo by Harry Taylor © Dave Robinson

The definitive account of the connections between the greatest rock ’n’ roll group that ever was and a small town on the south coast of England

- In just 14 months from August 1963 to October 1964 The Beatles played more shows at the Bournemouth Gaumont than any other concert venue in the UK outside London.

- A tape of a full Beatles concert recorded during their first visit to Bournemouth is the earliest known example of their theatre show. Despite the excellent quality of the recording it remains unreleased.

- The iconic cover photograph for the With The Beatles and Meet The Beatles albums was taken in Bournemouth.

- Howie Casey, who played with Wings in the 1970s and has lived in Bournemouth since 1978, has links with The Beatles that go back to their very earliest days. With his band The Seniors, Howie was at the same audition in 1960 when John, Paul and George first performed as the Silver Beatles. The Seniors were the first Liverpool band to go to Hamburg, paving the way for The Beatles.

- The first American TV audiences saw of The Beatles was not the Ed Sullivan show as is widely believed, but film from the band’s appearance at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth two months before.

- George Harrison’s first Beatles song, Don’t Bother Me was written while staying in Bournemouth.

- John Lennon bought his Aunt Mimi a home just outside Bournemouth and until he left the UK in 1971 was a regular visitor to the area.

- The story told in The Ballad of John and Yoko began while John was travelling to Mimi’s house before he ended up “standing in the dock at Southampton”
- Launched in August 1963, Beatles Monthly conducted its first extensive interviews and photo shoots with the band in Bournemouth, forging a relationship that resulted in the magazine being published for almost 30 years.
With previously unseen and rare photographs of The Beatles taken in Bournemouth, photos licensed from Beatles Monthly and unpublished images of Mimi at home, the story is told using first-hand accounts from the people who were there – the fans, reporters, photographers, venue staff and musicians. 
Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth is published on 22 September 2011 by Natula Publications, ISBN 9781897887899.
For more information and pre-orders email sales@natula.co.uk