Bearded Beatles in Bournemouth!

Long before they sprouted facial hair in public, it seems The Beatles at least toyed with the idea of beards as far back as August 1963, as they trod the boards in Bournemouth during their summer season at the Gaumont.

Jim Cregan, photo by Rankin

Jim Cregan, who’s best known for co-writing and producing a string of hits with Rod Stewart including Forever Young, Tonight I’m Yours and Blondes (Have More Fun), grew up in Poole and was at one of the Bournemouth Gaumont shows that summer.

“I was one row back from the front of the balcony,” he remembers. 

“One of them wore a huge false beard for the first song – it might have been George. My friend, who saw an earlier show, said it was worn by someone different.

“They played for half an hour and it was almost impossible to hear them for the screaming.

“It was the only time I saw them although I got to meet them all at different times. More recently I played with Ringo at a benefit. 

"What a life!”

A couple of years after the Gaumont shows Jim moved to London where he established himself as one of the foremost guitarists of his generation, playing with The Ingoes, Blossom Toes, Julie Driscoll, Stud, Family and Linda Lewis before joining Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel in 1975, for whom he created the instantly recognisable guitar solo on Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) – in Studio 3 at Abbey Road.

“I’d only just joined the band so it was pretty exciting just recording in there. I remember there was cupboard under the stairs in the studio full of all these toys The Beatles had played around with.”

He joined the original Rod Stewart Group in 1976 and was musical director until an amicable split in 1995. More recently he played on the first two Katie Melua albums and now fronts his own band Cregan & Co with former X-Factor singer Ben Mills, playing the songs he wrote and performed with Rod Stewart.

:: Christmas is coming and Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth is available to order from www.beatlesandbournemouth.com as is a selection of art prints of photos featured in the book.

Beatles Blog Carnival feature

Roll up, roll up... 
The Beatles Blog Carnival is featuring The Beatles & Bournemouth blogspot this month alongside such major players in the field as thebeatles.com, The Beatles Bible and our old friends In the Life of... The Beatles. 

Exalted company indeed.
The Beatles Blog Carnival is a lively, informative monthly round up of Beatles-related blogs and websites. To tempt further subscribers to the Carnival the first 25 each month can swap their postal address for a generous helping of Beatles memorabilia. 
Last month the Carnival sent out original 1964 Topps collectors' cards, like these, from the third of the three series issued that year. Very nice.

A lad in ZANI...

Ever wondered what happened to Alan McGee, the man who signed Oasis, Primal Scream, Jesus & Mary Chain and Kevin Rowland, as well as his own dad (and Nick Heyward!)?
Well, the former Creation Records boss has recently invested in the really-rather-good e-zine, ZANI. Covering music, film and telly, sport and culture in general, the site's editor Matteo Sedazarri recently demonstrated his good taste by reproducing the This England magazine article about Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth.
You can see the coverage right here. While you're there, take a good look around the site as it's packed with good stuff.

Paul hat 'mystery' solved

A few weeks ago this photo was shared on Facebook with a suggestion it had been taken in the lounge bar at the Palace Court Hotel in Bournemouth during the week in August 1963 that The Beatles stayed at the hotel while appearing at the Gaumont Theatre next door.
Thanks to eagle-eyed Beatles fan John Cherry we're happy to confirm the photo was taken at the Palace Court by 60s celebrity snapper Fiona Adams who took the famous Beatles Jumping shot that appeared on the Twist and Shout EP cover, as well as countless other iconic images of the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Marc Bolan, David Bowie and Michael Caine.
It seems Adams was on assignment for Boyfriend magazine and took several shots including these, copies of which can be ordered from her website, www.fionaadamsphotography.com:

Photos © Fiona Adams

Fiona remembers: "Maureen O'Grady of Boyfriend and I travelled to Bournemouth where The Beatles were staying in a hotel, the name of which escapes me. This photo (above left) was taken of John in the hotel lounge."
She also took a shot of Paul in the lounge of the Palace Court, before the hat came into play.
"From somewhere this bowler hat appeared and Paul started fooling about with it."
:: There are just four days left to catch Richard Latto's fine documentary for BBC Radio Solent, The Fab Four Down South, on the iPlayer here.

And if all this media attention has prompted you to think early about the impending Christmas festivities, it's worth remembering copies of Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth are available from www.beatlesandbournemouth.com as is a selection of art prints of photos from the book.

More Bournemouth, Beatles & the Beeb

As BBC local radio remembers 50 years since the release of The Beatles' Love Me Do on Friday, the Beeb's regional evening magazine show South Today has been running a series of films exploring the links between the Fabs and the south, specifically Bournemouth.
The content of Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth is heavily featured, as is author Nick Churchill and interviewees including Jon Kremer and Howie Casey, reprising his riff from Wings' Jet.
Viewers also see the town's few remaining locations such as the Gaumont Theatre (now Odeon) and Palace Court Hotel (now Premier Inn) on Westover Road, as well as the Pavilion Theatre in front of which crowds gathered to watch the Gaumont and Palace Court opposite. There's also a section of maplewood stage from the Winter Gardens theatre on show at the Beacon Hotel and an interview conducted within sight of where Mimi's home stood at Sandbanks.
You can see Monday's film here.
Then click here to see Tuesday's and here to see Howie Casey in Wednesday's film.
The Fab Four Down South is broadcast on BBC Radio Solent at 7pm on Friday, presented by the legendary Tony Blackburn.
Listen here on the iPlayer.
Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth can be ordered here, as can a selection of art prints of some of the rare and previously unpublished photos from the book.

Bournemouth, Beatles & the Beeb

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of Love Me Do on 5 October, BBC regional radio producers have been making a series of documentaries about the Fab Four and their links to the various local areas.

Radio Solent has signed up none other than British broadcasting legend Tony Blackburn, born in Poole and a mainstay of Bournemouth’s beat group scene in the early 1960s before he became the first DJ to play a record on Radio 1 in 1967, to present an hour-long documentary, The Beatles in the South.

Bournemouth features prominently in that story and several of the interviewees featured in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth, as well as author Nick Churchill, have contributed to the programme.

BBC South Today presenter Alex Dyke also spoke to Nick and several others for a series of films to be broadcast on BBC One over four days leading up to the Radio Solent documentary on Friday, October 5.

The whole project sounds fascinating and it would be good to think the BBC will somehow make a compilation of programmes available – these are predominately fans’ stories and previously untold anecdotes from people whose paths happened to cross the unstoppable force of Beatlemania in the early 1960s.

One of the stories to feature in the first of the South Today films is the episode in which The Beatles were accidentally trapped outside the Gaumont Theatre, Bournemouth on 2 August 1964 as captured in this photo from the Evening Echo.

‘Earlier in the day the Echo photographer had caught the group escaping from a crush of fans after being locked out of the Gaumont. The confusion arose as a result of the management’s attempt to throw fans off the scent by posting most of the police guard outside the main emergency exit in Hinton Road, leaving the lower emergency exit clear to admit The Beatles. The scheme would have worked, but nobody had told the doorman inside so while the message to unlock the door was relayed, the star attractions were trapped outside.’

Extract from Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth. Available to order from www.beatlesandbournemouth.com. 

Vintage Beatles

Bournemouthvintage.com, a stunning new website dedicated to celebrating all that's cool, retro and a bit different about sunny Bournemouth has done a fine job of featuring Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth.
Beneath a carefully constructed montage of photographic highlights from the book interviewer Joseph Kent has made the most of a chat with Nick Churchill about the connections that link The Beatles and Bournemouth.
As the season changes and thoughts turn to Christmas and that all-important list for Santa there's plenty of time to order up a signed copy of the book from www.beatlesandbournemouth.com as well as view the selection of photos from the book available as art prints.