A day off in Liverpool and Chester

BEATLE SCENE

Neil Aspinall, road manager to The Beatles, continues his story of the biggest scene stealers of all time, John, Paul, George and Ringo.

ALL the way through The Beatles’ recent tour, I kept a special diary. The first shows were in Glasgow at the beginning of December last year. All told, there were eighteen concerts in towns all over Britain. This tour replaced the usual London stage show which the boys have been in the habit of putting on in London over Christmas and New Year. Now I’ll pick up where I left off – in Liverpool – with the notes I made for:

MONDAY, 6TH DECEMBER

Today is the only free day of the tour. Conveniently, the boys can stay with relatives on Merseyside instead of checking into a hotel.

George is with his parents in their new home, located close to Warrington, about ten miles out of Liverpool.

Pattie Boyd travelled up from London to see last night’s show at the Liverpool Empire. She arrived at the theatre with George’s mother and father and the press photographers spotted them even before fans had recognised the party!

Ringo is staying in Gateacre with his people. Last year John’s Aunt Mimi moved away from Liverpool – she’s living down in Bournemouth – so John is staying with Paul. They are over in the McCartney home on the south side of the Mersey.

If you’d tried to ring John, Paul, George or Ringo around noon today you’d have found all their telephones busy. Each Beatle was talking with the group’s Press Officer, Tony Barrow, who was getting minute-by-minute chart information to the boys.

Even at this stage in their career, the Beatles take a terrific personal interest in record sales and chart placings.

Their new single-We Can Work It Out and Day Tripper-was released last Friday. Today all the musical papers in London do their Top Thirty and Top Fifty charts for the week.

The boys were particularly anxious to know what had happened to their single because nobody had been able to select a definite “A” side. A lot of people thought there might be a bit of vote-splitting between the two titles.

Tony was able to tell them that the new single had gone straight to Number One in most of the charts.

Ringo made it a quiet family day at home. So did George. John and Paul were more active. They got up very early (for them) at around ten.

Straight after breakfast, Paul fetched out his two Moped bicycles and went off for a ride round the picturesque Wirral countryside with John.

The Mopeds-they’re bikes with small motors fitted to them-cost around thirty-five pounds each. Paul has had this pair since last summer. 

One afternoon last July I remember Paul trying out his Moped for the first time with a friend. The two of them decided to spend the warm summer afternoon exploring the countryside near Paul’s father’s new home.

“You’ll be recognised right away,” joked Paul’s dad.

“That’s what you think!” replied Paul. And he put on a shabby old raincoat, a little beret with his hair pulled back beneath it and a false moustache.

From Fabulous208 – July 9, 1966

BEATLE LAND

[…] I’m going on now with that tour and it’s 6th December, 1965. As I have said, John and Paul made the most of their day off. In the afternoon, they piled into a car with Paul’s dad and drove to Chester.

Here Paul and John invaded an antique shop. The visit was completely unplanned and took the owner by surprise. In no time, schoolgirls crowded the street outside and scores of excited Beatle people pressed their noses against the window to watch John and Paul hunting through the shop’s fascinating stock. John bought a sixteenth-century Bible, a beautiful work of art with superb hand lettering. In addition, he bought books on magic and proverbs, plus three volumes of an old shipping line log book.

As soon as they got home, Paul started polishing up an old brass coal scuttle he’d spotted at the back of the shop. John was busy with a cleaning cloth, too. He’d picked up a pair of old glasses covered in green mildew. When all the dirt had been polished off them, they turned out to be solid gold.

“I’ll get some new lenses put in these,” John declared as he inspected the official hallmark on the rim. “They’re worth a bit of money. I think I’ll wear them.” […]

From Fabulous208 – July 16, 1966

Beatles John And Paul Mobbed At Chester

Two hundred screaming schoolchildren surrounded a Chester antique shop yesterday afternoon when the Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, were spotted inside.

Mr. Robert Langley, the owner of the shop, Shipgate House, a Georgian building in Lower Bridge Street, had to lock the doors when the children, who normally pass that way on their way home from school, surged on the windows, breaking a wrought iron rail on the steps and smashing the glass of a picture placed in the doorway.

Traffic was brought to a standstill.

John and Paul spent two hours in the shop and made a few purchases, including books and pictures. When the teenagers outside showed no sign of leaving they made a quick dash through the crowd. They had their hair pulled and their jackets torn but managed to reach their chauffeur-driven car which was waiting outside and drove quickly away.

Mr. Langley said: “They have been here before when they have been appearing in Liverpool but I’ve never had anything like this happen.”

From Liverpool Echo – December 7, 1965