Beatles - Bournemouth to the USA

If anyone had been in any doubt after their summer season at the Gaumont in August, The Beatles' shows at the Winter Gardens in Bournemouth on 16 November 1963 at the height of what the Daily Mirror had dubbed Beatlemania just a fortnight before, confirmed their popularity as a cultural phenomenon the like of which Britain had never seen before.

Shortly before the autumn tour Brian Epstein had flown to the United States and secured a deal that would see The Beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan Show the following February. When the US news networks CBS, ABC and NBC got wind of it they dispatched reporters to find out what all the fuss was about - after all, The Beatles hadn't had even a hint of a hit Stateside at this point.

With the presence of camera crews from all three networks whose footage would introduce them to America, it was a high-pressure date for The Beatles who were further prevented from getting to the sanctuary of their dressing room ahead of the first show by five stowaway fans who had to be removed.

The actual concerts were standard Beatles’ shows of the era. The 13th date of their autumn tour of Britain and Ireland, they played the same ten-song set throughout. 

Opening with I Saw Her Standing There, the first track on their debut album; they followed with hit single From Me To You; All My Loving; versions of The Miracles’ You Really Got A Hold On Me and Chuck Berry’s Roll Over Beethoven, which were all to appear on With The Beatles, their second album which came out on 22 November. 

Two more covers – The Shirelles’ Boys with Ringo on lead vocals; and Meredith Wilson’s Til There Was You from the musical The Music Man – followed, before they played their smash hit She Loves You and ended with two classic R&B belters, Barrett Strong’s Money (That’s What I Want) and, of course, the Isley Brothers’ Twist and Shout.

Here's NBC host Jack Paar talking about The Beatles coverage he broadcast on 3 January 1964.

:: You can see the CBS morning show story broadcast on 7 December 1963 - the first time US television audiences ever saw The Beatles - at this earlier blog post. 

:: The full story of The Beatles' first appearance on American television can be read in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth, available to order at a special price here.

Beatles' meal deal

The Beatles on stage at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth

The Beatles’ date at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth on 16 November 1963 was a pivotal moment in their conquest of America with film crews from the three major US TV networks on hand to film them. Broadcast on 22 November, CBS footage from the Winter Gardens introduced The Beatles to American television and set in motion a chain of events that ensured I Want To Hold Your Hand was top of the USA charts when they landed in New York on 7 February 1964 ahead of their landmark appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Barely a fortnight before the Winter Gardens shows the Daily Mirror had coined the term Beatlemania to describe the fevered reception The Beatles enjoyed wherever they went. They were the biggest band in the land and the Bournemouth audience was just as wild as any they encountered at that time. For their own safety they were delivered to the venue in a police van, which also took them away at the end of the night.

It had previously been thought they returned immediately to the Branksome Towers Hotel overlooking Branksome Chine where they stayed the night, but freelance journalist Roger Guttridge recently uncovered a fascinating footnote to the Winter Gardens episode. Writing in the Blackmore Vale Magazine, he reports The Beatles went in search of a late-night meal after leaving the Winter Gardens and found themselves at a restaurant in Exeter Road, Bournemouth where they had eaten the previous August during their week-long residency across town at the Gaumont.

But the doorman initially turned them away as the restaurant was closed for a private party hosted by Javier Revuelta Pineiro and his new wife Joan who were celebrating with friends and family who had been unable to attend their wedding on 26 October.

The host, known to his friends as Rev, recalls: “Ringo came over and said, ‘We’ve eaten here before after the show. Can we join the party?’”

Rev offered to cook for them himself and asked what they would like.

“Ringo said they’d like eggs, bacon, sausage and chips and I cooked them their meal. They were smashing lads and one of them asked how they could repay us. I said I didn’t want anything so they offered to go out and get their stuff and play for my guests.

“They played and mucked about for an hour. Twenty or 30 girls also turned up and the party went on till 2 o’clock in the morning. John Lennon gave me his personal number and the Cavern Club number and said they would repay me.”

: Photos of The Beatles at the Branksome Towers Hotel and from the Winter Gardens shows on 16 November 1963 can be seen at the Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth exhibition at Lighthouse, Poole until 10 March.

The book, Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth is available now at www.beatlesandbournemouth.com