Thursday, December 2, 1965
The Beatles travel from London to Berwick-upon-Tweed
Last updated on November 26, 2025
Thursday, December 2, 1965
Last updated on November 26, 2025
Previous article December 1965 • The Beatles get in touch with Motown
Interview December 1965 • Flip Teen Magazine
Interview December 1965 • The Beatles interview for The Beatles Monthly Book
Article Dec 02, 1965 • The Beatles travel from London to Berwick-upon-Tweed
Article Dec 02, 1965 • "We Can Work It Out" / "Day Tripper" promo films broadcast on Top Of The Pops
On this day, after a day of rehearsals at their roadie Neil Aspinall’s place, The Beatles and their entourage travelled by car from London to Berwick-upon-Tweed, a small town near the Scottish border, in preparation for the opening date of their 1965 UK tour in Glasgow. Mal Evans, who drove the van containing most of the equipment, had departed a day earlier, as the weather forecast for Scotland predicted snow.
While driving up the M1 motorway, their chauffeur, Alf Bicknell, was signalled by a passing lorry driver to pull over — a guitar had fallen from the boot of the car. The instrument turned out to be a Gretsch belonging to George Harrison, fortunately only a spare.
The following day, The Beatles continued their journey from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Glasgow.
I went back to this great big articulated vehicle and the driver said to me, ‘I think you’ve dropped a banjo back down the road.’ I couldn’t believe it. So I went back to my car and Neil [Aspinall] and I just stood there looking, we both couldn’t believe it. We just stood there, staring at the back of my car, noticing that the straps were broken. There were two guitars there, but now there was only one. I remember thinking, ‘I can get a lift home,’ I thought that was it. I said to Neil, ‘You’d better tell them.’ He said, ‘No, you tell ’em.’ So I went round to the car and said, ‘I think we’ve lost a guitar.’ In the darkness, a voice comes out, ‘Well if you can find it, you’ll get a bonus.’ This was John. I was always frightened of John more than anyone else, so I said to him, ‘Well, what’s the bonus then?’ He replied, ‘You can have your job back!’
So anyway, we got back in the car and we got to the end of this 12-mile stretch of motorway to turn round to come back. We are coming back on the other side in the fast lane, and I’m going along as slow as I can, and if anyone came, I had to move over to let them pass, and then go back out into the fast lane. But I couldn’t see a thing, nothing. It was raining and it was dark. I told them, ‘I want to go home now.’ We got right to the other end where we started from and we started to come back, but there was nothing. The roads were clear as anything. Then, we started finding little bits of wood, and then a guitar string. We ended up with a little piece of the guitar each. Anyway, there was no more said about it, and I was quite pleased. But I was very sorry it happened, believe me.
Alf Bicknell – From 2 December 1965: George Harrison’s Gretsch guitar is destroyed | The Beatles Bible
Fourteen of our guitars were strapped to the roof of our Austin Princess and the only one lost was my Gretsch. It fell onto the road and into the path of the oncoming traffic. About thirteen lorries went over it before our chauffeur could get near it. Then, one of the lorries stopped and the driver came up with the dangling remains of it and said, ‘Oi, is this banjo anything to do with you?’ Some people would say I shouldn’t worry because I could buy as many replacement guitars as I wanted, but you know how it is, I kind of got attached to it.
George Harrison – From 2 December 1965: George Harrison’s Gretsch guitar is destroyed | The Beatles Bible
ALAN SMITH goes on tour with THE BEATLES!
LIKE something from the world of James Bond and international intrigue, a sleek Austin Princess with black tinted windows headed out of London in the bleak early hours of last Thursday morning, streaking with 007 speed in the direction of the English-Scottish border.
INSIDE the car it was a different story. Slumped cosily in the comfort of four specially fitted armchairs were those most un-Bond-like characters, the Beatles — eating fish and chips from newspaper! This was breakfast and lunch rolled into one for them. […]
It was late on Thursday night that the Beatles’ Austin Princess arrived at Berwick-on-Tweed on the English-Scottish border. High security arrangements had been made for them to stay overnight at a small hotel in the town and they worked so well that only a few people were there to see them off the next morning!
Friday morning’s drive to Glasgow brought almost the only untoward incident of the tour. It seems that fourteen Beatles guitars were strapped to the boot of the Austin Princess, but on a particularly bumpy stretch of road, one of them – a Gretsch belonging to George – fell out and into the path of on-going traffic.
George told me later: “About 13 lorries went over it before our chauffeur could get near it. Then one of the lorries stopped and the driver came up with the dangling remains of it and said: “Oy, is this ‘ere banjo anyfink to do wiv you? Some people would say I shouldn’t worry because I could buy as many replacement guitars as I wanted, but you know how it is, I kind of got attached to it. […]
From New Musical Express – December 10, 1965
LIFE WITH THE BEATLES
NEIL ASPINALL, ROAD MANAGER TO THE BEATLES, CONTINUES HIS STORY OF LIFE WITH THE FOUR BOYS WHO ARE THE BIGGEST NEWS IN BUSINESS. BEATLES PEOPLE WANT TO BE WHERE THE BEATLES ARE – THAT’S WHY THEIR TOURS ARE ALWAYS A BIT FANTASTIC….
WHEN THE BEATLES go out on the road for a concert tour, there are always plenty of news reports in the papers and magazine stories about the shows. They can tell you everything there is to know about the actual performances, the wild reaction of the fans, the lines of policemen controlling the crowds outside and so forth. But there’s much more to a tour than that and lots of people ask me to tell them what a typical Beatles tour looks like from the INSIDE.
The most recent time The Beatles toured was at the end of last year (December ’65) when they went out for eighteen concerts all over the U.K. The show opened up in Scotland with two performances in Glasgow. Then, over the next nine days, we worked our way down through England to London and on to Wales for the final shows at Cardiff. Each night—mostly it was early morning!—before I went to sleep, I filled up a diary of the day’s events specially for FABULOUS.
I plan to go back through my tour diary and give you a day-by-day account of just about everything that happened when The Beatles Show took to the road. As I have said, the tour began in Scotland. But our story begins the day before, on:
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2nd
December weather conditions are not in our favour. Up north there is plenty of snow. Many roads between England and Scotland are closed because of heavy drifting. The Beatles could have covered the four hundred miles between London and Glasgow in an hour by air, but they dislike using plane travel unless it is absolutely essential.
We are planning to use the group’s own Austin Princess throughout this tour. It will be driven by Alf Bicknell who joined Mal and me as part of The Beatles’ permanent party a month or two before last August’s American tour.
The Princess has been modified to the boys’ special requirements. It has dark-tinted windows and an extra armchair with headrest has been fitted at the back so that all four Beatles can be as comfortable as possible on long runs.
Mal Evans set off this morning so that he could take it easy with his van. It’s laden with amplifiers and all the other bulky equipment which won’t fit in the boot of the Princess. The tour bus left London this morning with the rest of the cast on board.
The Beatles prefer not to use the bus because it has to wait ages to load up after every show and it sets out early for each new town because the stage director and his helpers need to arrive in good time to set up the lighting and other production details.
Today the boys were up much earlier than usual for a final rehearsal session at my flat. Alf collected John and George from their homes in Surrey, picked up Ringo and Paul from their London flats. My place is in a tiny mews, not far from Baker Street and Marble Arch.
It’s uncanny how quickly the fans find out where they’re likely to see the boys. There has been a steadily increasing crowd of girls in the mews all day.
The boys dressed casually and comfortably. George arrived in his favourite pair of well-faded jeans, a black sweater and side-zipped boots. John, George and I have identical boots but the boys often wear slip-on shoes these days and Ringo has some lace-up pairs as well. John favours suede jackets, sweaters and denim gear. They always wear black socks and (if they’re wearing shirts at all) black ties.
Paul has just bought from Harrods an enormous floral-pattern tie about four times the average size. It must be at least ten or twelve inches wide. The others gagged about it at today’s rehearsal.
“You can use it as an extra blanket if it’s really cold in Scotland,” suggested John.
“Can you get us some car rugs like Paul has got?” cracked George to me.
For this tour, the boys are working out stage routines for numbers they’ve never done in previous concerts.
Paul is going to accompany himself on electric organ for Yesterday; they’re doing Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out — the two sides of the new single — plus Nowhere Man and George’s If I Needed Someone from the new album.
After nearly five hours of practice all four boys felt hungry.
From Fabulous208 – June 4, 1966
THAT BEATLE TOUR
There are no strikes in The Beatle camp, everyone works hard — specially when the boys are starting off on a nationwide tour.
I’LL continue with my day-to-day diary: — This is Wednesday, December 1st, 1965, and The Beatles are starting off tomorrow on a tour of the U.K. They’d been rehearsing hard for nearly five hours and they felt hungry. […]
At seven thirty the boys stopped work to watch themselves on television’s Top Of The Pops. It was an insert they’d filmed for the programme a week earlier. During the Day Tripper sequence, Ringo had grabbed a saw and started breaking up the studio scenery. When this bit came on, all four boys fell about with laughter!
“It’s time we got on the road,” I declared as soon as Top Of The Pops finished. “No more chips?” asked John.
“When we get to Scotland,” I replied.
The rehearsal instruments were loaded into the boot of the Princess which wouldn’t close properly because of all the baggage. Just for the record I’ll list all the stuff we’re taking to Scotland — including the equipment which Mal took with him. George has three guitars, including his 12-stringer. John and Paul are taking two each. We’re taking six complete sets of suits with extra pairs of pants. There are six amplifiers and six huge loudspeakers, including spares of each. We’ve got a total of forty shirts, two dozen sets of square drumsticks, Ringo’s drum-kit with complete accessory store which has spare stands, skins, pedals and so on. There’s the special “ching-ring” tambourine fitting which Ringo had made up yesterday — he’ll need that for one number only and that is Day Tripper. For the first time on a British tour we’ve got an electric organ for Paul’s Yesterday. John uses it on I’m Down and We Can Work It Out.
Incidentally, the very first time the boys ever used an organ in concert was at Shea Stadium in New York last August. Because of snow warnings, Alf has got a set of chains for the Princess. Also an assortment of picks, shovels and ropes.
Every time we go on the road I load an electric kettle, a toaster and a hairdryer. We’ve yet to use them, because food is laid on at all the theatres!
We drove straight up England through the night, heading for Berwick-on-Tweed — less than a hundred miles from Glasgow to complete the last lap of the journey tomorrow.
During any long car journey, the boys try to stay awake. They hate falling asleep only to feel worse when they open their eyes again a couple of hours later. Everyone is too tired for deep discussion — it is light small-talk conversation all the way. We keep the radio on until the last of the late-night stations goes off the air. The extra armchair fitted in the back of the Princess isn’t a total success. To make use of the arm rests you need to be a contortionist who likes to ride with one elbow stuck high in the air! In a final attempt to stay awake, they keep a dim light on in the back.
“I wish something exciting would happen,” mutters John.
“Yes, where’s all the snow they told us about?” asks Ringo.
“That would be great. I’d like to see a bit of snow,” agrees John.
“I think we’re missing it,” shouts Alf from behind the steering wheel. “I’ve tried the best route.”
Suddenly a big truck behind us starts flashing his lights like mad. Alf pulls up and gets out to see what’s wrong.
“Didn’t you hear it fall off?” yells the driver.
“What?” says Alf.
“One of them banjo things. It fell off the back of your car a couple of miles back.”
John, Paul and George look at each other.
“Hell!” says George. “I’ll bet it’s my 12-string.”
From Fabulous208 – June 11, 1966
Neil Aspinall, continues his daily diary of The Beatles’ U.K. tour.
THURSDAY, 2nd DEC.
And we’re on our way to Scotland. A lorry driver has just told us that a guitar dropped out of the boot a few miles back. We turn and start searching the road, Alf’s headlights full-up so that we don’t miss anything. Thirty minutes are wasted before we come across the debris of the guitar. Fragments are scattered all over the place.
“It’s not the twelve-string.” Says George, sounding very much relieved.
“It’s not my bass, is it?” asks Paul.
“No. My spare Gretsch,” replies George, holding up a few inches of splintered wood and tangled strings. It could have been worse. The Gretsch was not one of the guitars George needed on stage, although it was one which he was particularly fond of for practising. As it so happened, that fragment which we picked up came in handy. It included the “machine head” of the instrument-the metal screws used to tighten and tune the strings. When part of Paul’s machine head broke during the tour, we were able to replace it with bits taken from George’s broken Gretsch.
From Fabulous208 – June 25, 1966
The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years
With greatly expanded text, this is the most revealing and frank personal 30-year chronicle of the group ever written. Insider Barry Miles covers the Beatles story from childhood to the break-up of the group.
Notice any inaccuracies on this page? Have additional insights or ideas for new content? Or just want to share your thoughts? We value your feedback! Please use the form below to get in touch with us.
