December 1969
The Beatles Monthly Book magazine ceases publication
Last updated on May 7, 2025
December 1969
Last updated on May 7, 2025
Article December 1969 • The Beatles reject offers to perform live
Article December 1969 • The Beatles Monthly Book magazine ceases publication
Album Dec 01, 1969 • "Kum Back" by The Beatles released globally
Session Dec 02, 1969 • Mixing "Lady Madonna", "Rain", "Octopus's Garden"
Next article December 10- 22?, 1969 • Paul and Linda McCartney on holiday in Antigua
After six influential years and 77 issues, The Beatles Monthly Book ceased publication in December 1969. First launched in August 1963, the magazine had served as an essential link between The Beatles and their fan base, documenting the band’s meteoric rise and the cultural revolution they helped define.
Edited by Sean O’Mahony under the pseudonym Johnny Dean, the magazine consistently portrayed Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in the most positive light. It benefited from insider access, with Beatles roadies Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans regularly contributing articles.
By 1969, however, maintaining the upbeat tone had become increasingly difficult. The Beatles were facing well-publicized tensions within the group, alongside issues related to drug use, making it harder to present the same polished image.
Reflecting on the decision to end the magazine, O’Mahony explained that The Beatles belonged to the Sixties, and it would not make sense to carry the publication into the Seventies.
In May 1976, however, he revived the magazine, reissuing all 77 original editions, each supplemented with eight — later expanded to sixteen — pages of new Beatles news and retrospective articles.
Beatle mag closes
AFTER SIX years, the Beatles Monthly Magazine ceases publication this month — the 77th issue.
Publisher Sean O’Mahony said: “The Beatles Book belonged to the Sixties while the Beatles were in their twenties. Now, as the Beatles approach their thirties, I feel, and I believe they do too, that we can’t do the job in the Seventies. This is the end of the Beatles era. I think I must be one of the few publishers to close a magazine while it is still showing a profit!”
From Record Mirror – December 13, 1969
EDITORIAL
For six and a half years THE BEATLES BOOK has been the official link between the Beatles and hundreds of thousands of people all over the world who have followed their careers ever since they shot into the limelight at the end of 1962. Now the link is about to be broken as this must be the last issue.
The end of any magazine is a sad event, but especially so in the case of THE BEATLES BOOK because it has been the official publication of four individuals who have done a tremendous amount to shape the pattern of the decade which is now ending.
I have always been impressed with the sort of person who is a Beatles fan. Although obviously biased in favour of everything Beatles, most of them still seem to retain a sense of proportion and, most important of all, a sense of humour about the world around them.
It is impossible to say exactly how many letters we have received over the past six and a half years but it must be somewhere around a quarter of a million. I would be telling a lie if I said I read everyone, but a large percentage of the mail was, of course, primarily concerned with routine matters like subscriptions, pen-pals, etc. I have always done my best to read all the others so that the ones that were published were truly representative of the thousands we received for each issue.
Freda Kelly has also written a special news letter for this item which tells all Fan Club members how she will be keeping contact with them in future.
All that remains is for me to say my own personal goodbye. Obviously, I have enjoyed the Beatles’ era tremendously although, at the same time, it has given me many problems. I just hope that you have had as much pleasure out of reading THE BEATLES BOOK as I have had putting it together.
For those who are interested in the background behind the magazine, there is a very full account in this last issue. Billy Shepherd, who has contributed regularly to the magazine, has also written a special piece and, for once, I am printing it just as he wrote it without altering or deleting a word.
Above all else, my very grateful thanks to the Beatles and all our regular readers. If either of them hadn’t existed we couldn’t have either.
Johnny Dean
From The Beatles Monthly Book – December 1969
Editor
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."
We owe a lot to Barry Miles for the creation of those pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - a day to day chronology of what happened to the four Beatles during the Beatles years!
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