Originally published in Uncut Take 303 (August 2022)…
Welcome to 1962: the first annus mirabilis of many in the extraordinary life of The Beatles. Here, we relive the key events in this fast-moving, transformative year. Familiar faces appear here for the first time, old friends depart, the tempo is set for the rest of their career – and by the end of the year, John, Paul, George and Ringo are poised to release their first No. 1 single. The future is born here.
January
What next from Mersey Beat’s Best Band Of 1961? “We were terrible…”
Shortly after midnight on January 1, The Beatles took to their beds at the Royal Hotel on Woburn Place. It had been a long day; the first of many in a hectic, transitional year. They’d spent December 31, 1961 travelling from Liverpool to London in Neil Aspinall’s hired van – a gruelling 10-hour trip as Neil had yet to familiarise himself with the route. When they arrived, they found the capital gripped by the coldest winter since 1887 – a chilling minus 16 degrees celsius. But the end of one year came wrapped in a beginning: on January 1, at 11am, they were booked to audition for Decca Records.
The setting for this auspicious event was Studio 2 at 165 Broadhurst Gardens in West Hampstead the same room where Lonnie Donegan had invented skiffle with “Rock Island Line”. Those expecting similar magic on this occasion may have been disappointed. The Beatles recorded 15 songs – a representative mix of originals, rockers and standards. But the vibe? While Decca’s engineers were critical of Pete’s drumming, Paul also suffered from nerves that affected his delivery. “We were terrible… we were terrified, nervous,” recalled Lennon later. Among the set were three McCartney-Lennon originals “Like Dreamers Do”, “Love Of The Loved” and “Hello Little Girl” – songs that would soon prove to be pivotal. The Beatles returned to Liverpool in time for the January 4 edition of Mersey Beat, which named them the Best Band of 1961. Or were they? “I fiddled that,” admits Mersey Beat editor Bill Harry. “The group with the most votes was Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, with Ringo on drums. But it was obvious to me The Beatles were the best.”
The following day brought the UK release of their debut single, “My Bonnie”. Although credited to Tony Sheridan and The Beatles, the group could now legitimately describe themselves as recording artists. Brian added the single and the Mersey Beat accolade to a growing list of accomplishments he liked to recite when booking gigs. This was all part of an increased professionalism he brought to the operation. The band were banned from smoking or swearing on stage, briefed on the importance of punctuality and politeness, and fitted for suits by tailor Walter Smith at Beno Dorn’s shop, 9a Grange Road West, Birkenhead. These were sold at a discounted fee of 23 guineas because, Brian assured the sceptical tailor, the group would soon be so famous that everybody would want a Beatles suit.
As the band performed lunchtime and evening shows at the Cavern, Epstein wrote to the BBC to request a radio audition. He also composed a press release, complete with photos, for despatch to regional newspapers ahead of shows. The band were moving beyond Liverpool into the wider North-West. Further afield, they were offered a more lucrative residency in Hamburg for April. The band weren’t eager to return to Germany, but at least they would see Stu again. Then, on January 24, Brian met the band at Pete’s parents’ house on Hayman’s Green brandishing an official management contract. It was not legally binding, though, since Paul, Pete and George were underage, while Brian himself didn’t sign it. This, he later explained, was because he wanted to give the band a way out if he couldn’t get them a record contract, an article of faith that said so much. The pressure was on, for everybody.
“every label had turned them down” – Bill Harry
February
Decca passes, a chance meeting in a hotel bar proves fortuitous, “Bernard Epstein”, bad times at the YMCA in Hoylake…
Decca said no. In the first week of February, Epstein rushed down to London to try and change their minds. But the label decided to go with a local group, Brian Poole & The Tremeloes, as the Sound of ’62. Instead, Decca’s Dick Rowe offered Epstein a compromise. If The Beatles paid to make their own records with producer Tony Meehan, Decca would release them. But Epstein officially declined on February 10. Decca, however, gave him the audition tape – two reels of professionally recorded music that Brian could take round to labels. The band were distraught by the Decca news. At least John, Paul and George were; nobody bothered telling Pete. Then, fortune struck.
“Brian was wondering what to do because every label had turned them down,” recalls Bill Harry. “He was staying at the Green Park Hotel. Paul Murphy, who played in Liverpool bands including Rory Storm, was singing at the Lyceum and his wife was staying at the same hotel as Brian. They happened to meet at the bar and had a chat. Brian said he had these Decca tapes but didn’t know what to do with them. Paul said he needed to put them on vinyl so took him to HMV, where he got his own acetates cut.”
At HMV on Oxford Street, disc cutter Jim Foy noticed the Lennon-McCartney originals. Sensing they had publishing potential, he called Sid Colman, manager of EMI publisher Ardmore and Beechwood. Colman liked what he heard and EMI’s A&R team were informed – among them George Martin, then head of Parlophone. By this roundabout and somewhat serendipitous route, Martin’s diary for February 13 included a meeting with one “Bernard Epstein”. They listened to the acetate, chatted, and Martin said he might be in touch. It was something, but not much of something. Harry says he later saw Epstein in tears, pounding his desk, waiting for Martin to return his calls.
Definitive progress was made elsewhere. The Beatles auditioned for the BBC in Manchester on February 12, playing four songs – including two originals, “Like Dreamers Do” and “Hello Little Girl”. Presenter Peter Philbeam described them as “an unusual group, not as ‘rocky’ as most, more C&W with a tendency to play music”. He invited them to a recording in March. On February 20, the group played their biggest engagement under Epstein so far – the grand, 1,200-capacity Floral Hall in Southport. It wasn’t all plain sailing, though. When the band played the YMCA in Hoylake at the end of the month for £30, they were booed off stage. Bruised, they returned to the smelly comfort of the Cavern to play an all-nighter.
Epstein wanted to ensure situations like the YMCA snub wouldn’t happen again. A childhood friend of George and Paul, Tony Bramwell later worked for Epstein and Apple but in 1962 was lugging gear with Neil Aspinall for 10 bob a week and free entry to shows. “By 1962, they were pretty damned huge in Merseyside but nowhere else except Hamburg,” he says. “When Brian got involved, he looked at why they were playing shithole clubs and dodgy village halls. He talked to the people who booked places like the Majestic Ballroom in Birkenhead. They said artists needed to be professional, smart and accomplished. When he got the suits made, almost immediately you could see a difference. That wouldn’t haven’t happened without Brian. Those guys doing it before him, Alan Williams and Sam Leach, never looked further than the next pub. If Brian hadn’t come along, they’d have worn themselves out playing dives in Merseyside and just jacked it in. But Brian had vision. He said they’d play the Empire – the Palladium of the North – and before the end of 1962, they did.”
March
New suits are much admired, drinks at the New Colony Club prove instructive, a harmonica makes its debut in Stroud…
A genuine breakthrough. Wearing their fancy new suits for the first time, The Beatles recorded their first BBC radio session on March 7 in front of around 250 audience members. They played four songs and at 5 pm the following day, three were broadcast – “Memphis, Tennessee”, Roy Orbison’s “Dream Baby” and “Please Mr Postman”. Among the three million listeners of Teenager’s Turn – Here We Go on the Light Programme were the boys themselves, huddled round the wireless at Pete’s parents.
This performance of “Please Mr Postman” was the first time a Motown song was ever played on the BBC. But the first broadcast of a Lennon-McCartney original had to wait – “Hello Little Girl” was cut. All the same, it was a fabulous debut. The Beatles sounded assured and lively, Pete’s Atom Beat drum slammed on “Memphis, Tennessee”, while the audience even shouted for more at the close of “Please Mr Postman”. Which they would get: The Beatles eventually played 52 sessions for the BBC between 1962 and 1965. An ecstatic Pete jumped around the room with his bandmates: “…we were radio stars!” he wrote.
On Monday, March 26, Pete fell sick. Who to replace him? It happened that Ringo Starr was back in Liverpool and between bands following a stint in Hamburg. The Beatles had two shows that day, lunchtime at the Cavern and then the Kingsway Club in Southport, a pair of engagements that earned Ringo a princely £9, well above the going rate. This was the second time that Ringo sat in – the first was December 1961 – and on both occasions his musical and social compatibility with the others was evident. Drinking between shows at the New Colony Club, George casually asked Ringo if he was interested, theoretically, in joining the group. Theoretically, he said he was, casually.
There were more firsts in this year of firsts. The first time The Beatles wore their suits in Liverpool – March 29 at the Old Spot – followed by their first date in the south under Epstein. Like all shows, the band were carefully briefed about this gig in advance: Epstein gave the band a file showing their expenses for the previous week and engagements for the coming one, with notes on punctuality, presentation and whether a show was particularly important. On March 31, they played in front of almost 500 fans at Stroud’s Subscription Rooms. This new audience would not have been aware of one significant change in the band’s repertoire the introduction of the harmonica, with John adding a bluesy, woozy mouth organ to several tracks. It was a tactic the band borrowed from Bruce Channel’s recent hit “Hey! Baby” and had great impact before the year was done.
“when stuart died, john was out of his mind” – klaus voorman
April
Hello, Star-Club; farewell, Stu…
Stu Sutcliffe had made a flying visit to Liverpool back in February. He’d watched The Beatles at the Cavern, met Brian Epstein and gone tenpin bowling. But he hadn’t seemed quite himself – perhaps because of a fit he’d suffered a few weeks before – so the band were looking forward to hooking up again in Hamburg. Indeed, it was the only part of the trip they were enthusiastic about, despite Brian securing better wages – 425 DM each a week after Brian’s 15 per cent was deducted – with free accommodation and expenses. They were playing a new venue, the Star-Club, which sought to be the biggest venue in St Pauli. They even had a recording session booked for the end of May, producing backing tracks for Tony Sheridan. This was to fulfil an old contract signed with Bert Kaempfert, which Brian, still failing to secure any interest in the UK, was keen to annul. The Beatles recorded tepid versions of “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Swanee River” – the latter has since been lost.
Before they flew out, there was a big night at the Cavern, a farewell performance especially laid on for fan club members on April 5. Playing the opening set wearing leathers, they changed into their suits for the first time in front of their most devoted audience – a move that was much applauded by the home crowd.
Soon after arriving in Hamburg, The Beatles learned that Stuart died of a brain haemorrhage on April 10. “It was devastating,” says Klaus Voormann, who had been friends with The Beatles since their first Hamburg trip. “John was struck hard because Stuart was his best friend. When he died, he was out of his mind, he freaked out.” Bill Harry says Lennon, particularly, struggled to come to terms with Stu’s death. “None of them dealt with it very well,” he says. “I told John off for not contacting Millie, Stu’s mum, so one day I took him round there. She let me and John choose one of Stu’s paintings. John told me he was pleased he went, but he found it very hard to deal with death.”
Struggling to keep their spirits up, The Beatles fulfilled their obligations at the Star-Club. This was a bigger venue, holding around 2,000 and attracting headliners like Gene Vincent, which gave The Beatles the chance to learn about stage presence from a master.
Voormann detected a change in their sound from previous Hamburg engagements. “The Star-Club, when they first played, was strange because before they had always played in small clubs, narrow little clubs with low ceilings,” he says. “Suddenly they were in this cinema with a big ceiling and a really awful yellow curtain. When they played in the Top Ten and Kaiserkeller they had this very basic bass, because Stuart couldn’t do anything else. That made them a very tight rock’n’roll band. As soon as Paul picked up the bass, it wasn’t that rock’n’ roll feeling any more. He played much more melodically, and that changed the music.”
May
With The Beatles!…
For The Beatles, their experiences in Hamburg and Liverpool couldn’t have been more different. Over in Hamburg, The Beatles laboured away on stage every night at the Star-Club – their only day off was Good Friday. In fact, they only had two consecutive days off all year, in October, which Paul spent in London writing “I Saw Her Standing There”. Hamburg was gruelling and repetitive. The band played a couple of hours each night, adding new songs to their set thanks to records Brian was sending over from NEMS. Levity came from extracurricular activities, which on one occasion included John getting peed on mid-coitus by an enraged German minder, as well as the infamous incident when he may or may not have urinated on some nuns.
But back in Liverpool, something was happening. On May 9, after three months of silence, Brian was invited to meet George Martin at 11.30am at EMI on Abbey Road. Throughout that time, publisher Sid Colman had kept nagging at EMI chairman Len Wood about those three Lennon-McCartney originals. Martin, who had just left his wife for assistant Judy Lockhart Smith, was in Wood’s bad books; he was effectively ordered to record the group to secure EMI the publishing rights. It was a done deal, before Brian and George even met.
Afterwards, Brian rushed to the post office near St John’s Wood tube station and sent a telegram to Bill Harry’s Mersey Beat: “Have secured contract for Beatles to recorded [sic] for EMI on Parlaphone (sic) label. 1st recording date set for June 6th.” Harry put the news on the front cover with a photo of the most popular Beatle, Pete Best.
Epstein’s telegram to the Star-Club was even briefer: “Congratulations boys EMI request recording sessions please rehearse new material.” On May 18, George Martin began the process of applying within EMI for a recording contract for a band he called the “Beatles”. The agreement was to record six sides, with the contact lasting a year and an option to extend for a further three years. Within a week, this was approved, signed by Martin and sent to Epstein. The paperwork was in place. Another telegram was despatched to Hamburg: “EMI contract signed sealed tremendous importance to all of us wonderful”.
In preparation, The Beatles started writing new material. As well as composing “PS I Love You”, they went back to an old song written several years previously by Paul McCartney called “Love Me Do” that was at early attempt to do a Buddy Holly number. Approaching it as a more mature band, they tidied it up, slowed it down, added a bridge and then came the coup de grace – John added a harmonica line, giving the song a distinctive riff and emphasising the bluesy quality. Otherwise, it was back into the grind of Hamburg: sweaty nights on stage, uppers, alcohol, flirting with barmaids and writing letters home about their boredom.
June
“I don’t like your tie”…
The intensity of Hamburg meant The Beatles were match fit for the EMI session. Flying back to England on June 2, they spent a couple of days rehearsing at the Cavern before compiling a list of their strongest numbers – 33 in all. They drove down to London on June 5, this time staying at the Royal Court Hotel on Sloane Square. The following evening on June 6, they drove to St John’s Wood in Neil’s van for their first Abbey Road session. This time, they hoped, there would be no repeat of the Decca disappointment.
Although George Martin was in charge, he remained a little standoffish about the band, more concerned with finding another song for Bernard Cribbins to follow his hit, “Hole In The Ground”. Martin’s assistant Ron Richards and engineer Norman Smith began the session. Impressed by what he heard, Richards soon sent for Martin. “George Martin’s part at the start was a bit overplayed,” confirms Bramwell. “It was Norman Smith and Ron Richards. George appreciated them, but he wasn’t going to dirty his hands for a while. He let other people do that.”
They recorded four songs, including, thanks to the demands of the publishers, three originals: “Love Me Do”, “PS I Love You” and “Ask Me Why” alongside old favourite “Besame Mucho”. When Martin invited them to the control room for the playback, he gave extended feedback before asking if they had anything to say. There was a silence until George spoke up. “Yeah,” he said. “I don’t like your tie.” Martin, to his credit, got the joke. But despite his fondness for the band’s personalities and growing awareness of their musical strengths, he didn’t think the session produced a viable single. A second recording date was booked for later that year. Martin still hadn’t quite grasped what he had chanced upon.
Other changes were afoot. Before the month was out, Brian wrote to his lawyers to ask how to drop a band member without breaking the contract. The end of the road was coming up fast.
If EMI didn’t think there was a decent Lennon-McCartney original, the BBC were more amenable. When The Beatles returned to Manchester on June 11 to record their second radio session for Teenager’s Turn – Here We Go, they included “Ask Me Why” alongside “Besame Mucho” and “A Picture Of You”. The June 15 broadcast of “Ask Me Why” on the Light Programme became the first Lennon-McCartney song ever played on the radio. Each song was once again greeted with enthusiastic screams from an audience including fan club members bussed in from Liverpool. But The Beatles were now attracting fans outside their home city. “The Manchester girls went berserk,” says Harry, who attended the session. In the crush to get back on the coach, Pete was left behind.
July
Swindon! Rhyl! Denmark Street!…
The band continued to ripple out from the North-West – Swindon beckoned as well as their first show in Wales at a dancehall above a Burton’s in Rhyl. And in Liverpool, Granada TV visited the Cavern after a flood of fan letters persuaded the producers to check out the noise coming from the cellar on Mathew Street. Down in London, things continued to percolate. What happened next is a good way of understanding the old songwriting system. Unimpressed by “Love Me Do” – and with no way of knowing that John had since written “Please Please Me” – George Martin was still looking for the ideal debut single for The Beatles. In those days, that meant doing the rounds of publishers’ offices in Denmark Street, asking if they had anything suitable.
“How Do You Do It” was a perky Adam Faith-inspired number written by young London songwriter Mitch Murray and demoed at Regent Sound, the tiny basement studio at 6 Denmark Street where the Stones later recorded their debut album. “It was a catchy tune and then the words just came together,” recalls Murray, who had only recently taken up songwriting. “Barry Mason did a version, I did a version and I chose to hawk Barry’s round. Barry was crucial with placing the song with Ron Richards at EMI, who played it to Dick James. In those days publishing companies did everything. They had the premises, they had the staff, they’d take your song, pay for the demo, find a singer, finance the recording, fix a record deal and then once it was out there, they would go and promote it. The Beatles changed all that.”
George Martin first heard an acetate of “How Do You Do It” towards the end of July and selected it as a possible single for The Beatles. This provided the first connection – albeit indirect at this point – between The Beatles and their future publisher Dick James. “Mitch had ‘How Do You Do It’ and my dad agreed to get a recording done,” says Stephen James. “George Martin had been my father’s recording manager when my father had been a singer, so he took the song to George and said, ‘Have you got a band who can record this?’ George said to leave it with him. When Brian Epstein brought The Beatles down to London, George didn’t like what they played him, so he asked them to record ‘How Do You Do It’. The Beatles hated it.”
“ringo was a beatle, it was that simple” – tony bramwell
August
A trip to Butlins… Bruno from West Derby is very unhappy… soup, chicken, trifle…
The most frantic month of a frantic year. The key date was August 22, when Granada TV were due to come to the Cavern to film The Beatles for a show called Know The North. With a second recording date in London coming a week or so later, it was necessary to make a tough decision to guarantee their future. Ringo’s continued interest in joining The Beatles had been established by John and Paul during a brief trip to Butlins in Skegness, where the drummer was playing with Rory Storm. On August 14, Brian called the holiday camp; Ringo confirmed he’d be in Liverpool that coming weekend.
The following day, The Beatles played two sets at the Cavern. On Thursday August 16, Pete was sacked. Brian, who did the deed with no other band members present, promised to keep Pete on his current wage and find him another group. Liverpool was shocked. The “mean and moody” Pete may have been adored by fans but he never really gelled with his bandmates. “Pete was very straight,” says Klaus Voormann. “Not a very good drummer but he kept good timing. He had only one fill he could do. Ringo was very different, so loose and so lovely. It allowed the band to change a lot.” Following a couple of shows with Johnny Hutch from The Big Three on drums, Ringo made his debut on August 18 at Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight. The Beatles became The Beatles. “It came as shock to everybody except The Beatles, but you knew immediately it was the right decision,” says Bramwell. “Ringo was a better drummer and he was a good guy who would socialise with them. Ringo was a Beatle. It was that simple.” Not everybody agreed. George Harrison ended up with a black eye after an altercation at the Cavern with a Pete fan called Bruno from West Derby. But in good news for future Beatles, Pete’s best mate Neil Aspinall agreed to remain their roadie.
Still the month was not quite over. On August 22, The Beatles were filmed for TV for the first time, recorded by Granada playing two songs (“Some Other Guy” and “Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey”) at a lunchtime Cavern performance. Framed by the Cavern’s arch, the band looked and sounded great, but while Brian pressed an acetate of “Some Other Guy” – a different live version to the one filmed by Granada – to help with promotion, the clip was shelved for poor quality. It wasn’t broadcast until November 6, 1963 and remains the only known film of the band performing at the Cavern. To compensate, Granada booked the band for the tea-time show People And Places in October.
The day after filming, John, Paul and George had a very different engagement – Mount Pleasant Registry Office for John’s shotgun marriage to a pregnant Cynthia. Brian was best man and covered the 15 shilling cost of the wedding lunch from the set menu at Reece’s Cafeteria – soup, chicken, trifle. Afterwards, they met up with Ringo before John spent his wedding night on stage at the Riverpark Ballroom, Chester.
September
“They messed about with it deliberately”…
Although now complete as the Four, their first EMI session with Ringo, on September 4, did not go as planned. In a long and frustrating session that overran by more than an hour, the band played their own version of “How Do You Do It” along with “Love Me Do”, “PS I Love You” and “Ask Me Why”. They also rehearsed new songs, “Please Please Me” and “Tip Of My Tongue”. George Martin wasn’t happy with the material nor the performance of the new drummer – who, racked with nerves, went wild in a desperate bid to impress, banging and shaking everything in sight “like some weird spastic leper”, as he later put it, rather indelicately. After playbacks of “How Do You Do It” and “Love Me Do”, The Beatles put their collective feet down. They told George Martin they didn’t want Murray’s song to be their debut single. It wasn’t representative of their style, they argued, and they could do better themselves.
In the end, the decision was made for them. Mitch Murray had smartly retained copyright and refused permission to release The Beatles’ version. “They messed about with it deliberately, they later admitted that,” he says. “I heard their recording a couple of days later. I didn’t sign a contract, because I hated what they did to it. I knew it was my best chance of a hit. Dick James and George Martin agreed with me. They said they’d rerecord it with The Beatles, but by that time they’d written ‘Please Please Me’ and things changed. Brian Epstein said it was perfect for his lovely group Gerry & The Pacemakers, who had a singer like a British Bobby Darin. Gerry recorded it and it went to No 1.”
A week later, on September 11, The Beatles were back at EMI for their third – and surely final – attempt to record a debut single. But this time, George Martin was taking no chances and hired session drummer Andy White for £5, 15s. “I was devastated,” said Ringo, who feared his new band had “done a Pete Best” on him. “It blew my brains away.”
The objective was to record a B-side for “Love Me Do”. “PS I Love You” was eventually selected, although they also considered “Please Please Me”. They took another pass at “Love Me Do”, this time with White on drums and Ringo relegated to tambourine, shaking it with all his might. Both versions of “Love Me Do” were eventually released. Ringo’s take from September 4 was pressed as the single before being replaced by Andy White’s – the version that was also released on Please Please Me. But The Beatles had finally their first Parlophone single – a surprisingly gruelling procedure given how effortlessly they would soon adapt to the recording process. “Love Me Do”/”PS I Love You” was scheduled for October 5 release.
With that confirmed, London-based Scouser Tony Barrow was given £20 to write a press release while moonlighting from his day job at… Decca.
Everything was going swimmingly. That was until September 25 – when Brian Epstein received a letter from Fentons, a Liverpool solicitor. Pete Best was threatening to sue.
October
The Tower Ballroom beckons, Little Richard approves, Billy Preston arrives…
After signing a new Beatles contract to include Ringo, Brian put his legal concerns to one side so the band could focus on the impending release of “Love Me Do”. This was the month when the pace picked up, where those exciting one-off radio and TV performances gradually became part of daily life. “Nothing is inevitable but there were so many positive things happenings like the BBC and then Granada TV,” says Bramwell. “That was al very exciting and it all happened quite quickly. There was lots going on, but the big thing was the release of Love Me Do’. We got the acetate. That was so exciting.”
The day after the single’s release, The Beatles had their first record signing at Dawson’s Music Shop in Widnes – ahead of a gig at Port Sunlight promoted by the local horticultural society. On October 8 they recorded a slot for EMI’s show on Radio Luxembourg, The Friday Spectacular. A curious proposition, this involved the band being interviewed at a studio in Manchester Square while both sides of the single were played to a live audience of around 100. It was broadcast on October 12 as the single entered the chart at no 49. That night, the band had one of their biggest engagements to date, playing the Tower Ballroom in New Brighton in a show organised by NEMS and headlined by Little Richard. Another Brian masterstroke, putting The Beatles on the same bill as rock royalty. The band met Billy Preston and got on well with Little Richard, who became a fan. “Man, those Beatles are fabulous,” hesaid, telling the local press exactly what they wanted to hear. “If I hadn’t seen them, I’d never have dreamed they were white. They have a real authentic Negro sound.” Backstage at the Tower Ballroom there was an awkward encounter with Pete Best, there with a new band, Lee Curtis And The All Stars. Fortuitously, his desire for legal satisfaction slowly petered out.
On October 17, The Beatles appeared live on TV for the first time, performing “Some Other Guy” and ” Love Me Do” on Granada. Bill Harry sensed the growing pull of Beatlemania as the band spent hours in the dressing room signing autographs. Just over a week later, on October 26, came their third appearance on the BBC’s Here We Go – and first with Ringo – playing “Love Me Do”, “PSI Love You” and “A Taste Of Honey”. A recording of “Sheila” was not broadcast.
The Beatles ended the month flying to Hamburg for another short engagement at the Star-Club. But first there was time to play the Empire Theatre, the biggest venue in Liverpool, on October 28 – again headlined by Little Richard – before recording “Love Me Do” and “A Taste of Honey” for Granada’s People And Places. By the end of October, “Love Me Do” was No 27 in the NME chart, earning he band their first review in the paper. On the final day of the month, just after The Beatles left or Hamburg, the BBC played the “Love Me Do” single for the first time, broadcasting the hit sound of Liverpool to the five million listeners of Twelve O’Clock Spin.
November
“Gentlemen, you’ve just made your first No 1 record”…
Klaus Voormann detected a different attitude with his old friends from their previous trip to April. The arrival of Ringo made them tighter and more flexible – but the growing success of “Love Me Do” was an even more significant factor. “They were still those Liverpool boys, but now they felt they had made it,” he says. “I remember driving somewhere with Brian. ‘Love Me Do’ was in the hit parade. They were very up and Brian was talking about all the gigs they had coming up. The feeling was that they were only in Hamburg because they were committed, otherwise they wouldn’t have come. But when they were on the stage with an audience, then they were the old Beatles – still that cocky, fresh Liverpool band. Only because Ringo was a completely different drummer, it was even more exciting.”
Another benefit of success was that Brian could ask for more money for the Star-Club residency – 510 DM apiece after the manager’s cut. Headlining the Star-Club this time was Little Richard. Voormann went every night, on one occasion heading backstage to see Richard reading to The Beatles from the Bible. The Beatles left Hamburg after two weeks knowing there would be one more residency still to come, after which that period of their life would be done with forever.
Back in the UK, The Beatles started spending more time in London. On November 16, they had a meeting with George Martin, the originally reticent producer having had a Damascene conversion – the continuing success of “Love Me Do” in the charts obviously helped. As well as discussing an upcoming recording session at Abbey Road, he wanted to record an LP at the Cavern an idea that was eventually ditched when Martin actually visited Mathew Street and deemed it sonically unsuitable and hygienically unbearable. They were back in London on November 23 to audition for the BBC at St James’s Church Hall, Gloucester Terrace in Paddington. The invitation was prompted by Beatles fan David John Smith of Preston, who wrote to the BBC to tell them about the band. They don’t pass the audition but later that month record “Love Me Do”, “PS I Love You” and “Twist And Shout” for a BBC radio session at Paris Studio on Lower Regent Street. Letter-writing fans were well meaning but they didn’t always help – one reason “Love Me Do” didn’t get played much on BBC radio was because producers received so many requests they assumed it was a fit-up.
On November 26, The Beatles returned to Abbey Road for their fourth EMI session of the year, this time intending to record a second single. This session was brisk and instantly successful, with the band cutting two sides – “Please Please Me” and “Ask Me Why” – before going home 15 minutes early. With no session drummer to get in the way, it was the first time The Beatles felt at home in the studio, something that comes through in the good-natured ease of the performance. Harmonica was dubbed over “Please Please Me” to provide a connection to “Love Me Do”, but the song’s infectious energy impressed George Martin. This time there was no mistaking it. “Gentlemen, you’ve just made your first No 1 record,” he told them. “Please Please Me” would be released on January 11, 1963. After the session, Brian Epstein met Dick James at his office on the corner of Charing Cross Road and Denmark Street. Epstein wanted a publisher as he hadn’t been happy with the promotion of “Love Me Do”, and James got the gig by picking up the phone during the meeting to get The Beatles booked into Thank Your Lucky Stars in January. Sid Colman, who did so much behind the scenes, was consigned to history. At the end of the month, The Beatles got their first EMI royalty cheque for “Love Me Do”. The £130 11s 6d earned them £27 15s each after Brian had taken his 15 per cent.
the year ended with a flurry of concerns and tv shows
December
“1962-The Beatles’ Year Of Achievement”…
As the year ended with a flurry of concerts and TV broadcasts, Brian Epstein was already looking ahead to 1963, when The Beatles would have a second single and first national tour. Arranged by Arthur Howes, this earned The Beatles £80 a week and put them fourth on a bill headlined by Helen Shapiro, travelling to hitherto unimaginable destinations in Yorkshire, the Midlands and the North-East. By way of an audition, Arthur Howes asked The Beatles to support of crooner Frank Ifield at the Embassy Cinema in Peterborough on December 2. They played for free. Ifield’s fans hated them, but Howes was impressed.
This minor humiliation was quickly offset by another pair of live TV broadcasts. The first was in Bristol for ITV regional station TWW (Wales And West), where they mimed to “Love Me Do” for the swinging Discs A Gogo. Then it was down to Wembley to mime to “Love Me Do” and “PS I Love You” for Tuesday Rendezvous, appearing on telly in London for the first time in the illustrious company of Bert Weedon and glove puppets Fred Barker and Ollie Beak. There’d be another Granada TV engagement on People And Places before the month was out. All this was in service of “Love Me Do”, which continued its stuttering passage through the UK charts. The single broke the Top 20 on December 15, the same day The Beatles played the Mersey Beat pollwinners party, before peaking at No 17 just after Christmas. By then The Beatles were in Hamburg for their final two-week run at the Star-Club.
This time, their sole day off was Christmas Day, which they spent at the British Mariner’s Mission enjoying a Christmas dinner of what they later found out was horse meat. They liked the mission because the food was cheap, keeping to old habits even though their Hamburg fee was now 750 DM apiece each week before deductions – their overall income tripled over the course of 1962. On their final day in Hamburg, New Year’s Eve 1962, The Beatles’ performance was inadvertently recorded. This was eventually released in 1977 on a label run by Paul Murphy – the man who Bill Harry says took Brian Epstein to HMV with the Decca masters back in February. Towards the end of 1962, a full-page advert appeared in Mersey Beat extolling what had been a transformative year for the biggest band in Liverpool. “Brian had me design this page called ‘1962 – The Beatles’ Year Of Achievement’, says Harry. “It was a list of everything they had done: BBC, Radio Luxembourg, TV appearances, ‘Love Me Do’, recording contracts, supporting Little Richard and Gene Vincent and a list of all the places they performed around the country. That was Brian’s assessment of 1962 and he could see it was so important.”
A dynamic year that began with the disappointment of a failed audition on New Year’s Day ended with The Beatles – that’s John, Paul, George and Ringo to you – as a Top 20 band, with their first No 1 single ready for release. “Not a bad 12 months, was it?” grins Tony Bramwell.