Luton

From Rolling Stone, August 4, 2021:

The second setlist, also written by McCartney, comes from an April 17th, 1963 show at the Majestic Ballroom in Luton, England. It’s written on the back of a Parlophone Records publicity postcard and is signed by all four Beatles. Beatlemania was spreading across England at this point and they’d already scored hits with “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me,” but the setlist still includes covers like Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally” and Arthur Alexander’s “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues.” It also features their new originals “I Saw Her Standing There,” “From Me to You,” and “Thank You Girl.”

“This setlist shows them as a working band that understands their role as entertainers,” Kramer says. “This is just one set of two played that night but we can see that they are still balancing their own developing work with songs from other artists and diverse sources.”

From Bonhams : The Beatles An important handwritten set list by Paul McCartney and Beatles signed promotional postcard, 1963:

This set list, and that in the preceding lot, is one of only eight Beatles set lists written by a band member known to be in existence. Six further Beatles set lists are known to exist but they are in the hands of either Road Manager Neil Aspinall or Roadie Mal Evans. Only two other Beatles set lists are accompanied by autographs from the band: one with a complete set of autographs and another signed by Ringo Starr and John Lennon on the reverse. These autographs are signed to “Lorraine,” whose father drove the Beatles in Luton on the evening of April 17, 1963.

This set list dates from nearly three years after that in the previous lot. Much had changed for the band in those intervening years. They had spent two periods of time in Hamburg honing their craft in front of a live audience, and, more importantly, after signing a management contract with Brian Epstein in January, 1962, Epstein had successfully negotiated the band a recording contract with E.M.I. in June, 1962. Two months later, they had a new drummer in the form of Ringo Starr and the band was ready for their first tour in Scotland in January, 1963.

At the time of this performance in Luton, the Beatles were growing in popularity and stature in their native Great Britain. The evening before, their BBC television debut on The 625 Show was broadcast and the following weekend they performed at the Royal Albert Hall for the first time. The third Beatles single, “From Me to You” / “Thank You Girl” had just been released and on May 4 it became their first Number One hit single. Still, the performance at the Majestic was a standard two-sets-a-night ballroom gig.

Four of the tracks on this set list [“I Saw Her Standing There,” “Anna,” “Do You Want To Know A Secret” and “From Me To You”] were included on The Beatles’ debut LP Please Please Me, released only three weeks prior to this Luton gig. “(A Shot of) Rhythm And Blues” was a staple of the Beatles live set but their version wasn’t released until Live At The BBC in 1994. “Beautiful Dreamer” was a song written by Stephen Foster in the Nineteenth Century and had been recorded by dozens of artists from Bing Crosby to the Ink Spots and fellow Liverpudlian Kenn Dodd. The Chuck Berry track, “Sweet Little 16” is also included and a Beatles favorite, the Little Richard track, “Long Tall Sally”. “(If You Gotta Make a) Fool of Somebody,” originally recorded by American R&B singer James Ray, would have sustaining impact on George Harrison as he made his version of that record’s B-side, “Got My Mind Set On You,” a solo hit in 1987.

By Fall of 1963, Beatlemania was a full-blown cultural event in the U.K. and gigs like the one in Luton would fade into the past. Within a year, The Beatles became the biggest act in the world.

Majestic Ballroom

This was the 1st and only concert played at Majestic Ballroom.

Setlist for the concert

1. I Saw Her Standing There

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

2. A Shot of Rhythm And Blues

   Written by Terry Thompson

3. Do You Want to Know a Secret

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

4. Beautiful Dreamer

   Written by Stephen Foster

5. Anna (Go to Him)

   Written by Arthur Alexander

6. Thank You Girl

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

7. Fool of Somebody

8. Sweet Little Sixteen

   Written by Chuck Berry

9. From Me To You

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

10. Long Tall Sally

    Written by Richard Penniman / Little Richard, Enotris Johnson, Robert Blackwell

See song statistics for “Spring 1963 UK Tour”