Stockholm • Tuesday, July 28, 1964

About

Paul wore a disguise consisting of glasses and a fake moustache, created by Wig Creations, the film cosmetic company used by The Beatles on their film “A Hard Day’s Night.” He reused it for a solo trip to France in November 1966.

We’d arrived in the afternoon and everyone was just settling in. I put on this disguise and picked up a camera and went around and knocked on the guys’ doors. I knocked on George’s and he came to the door, quite grumpy, you know, ‘Yeah?’ and I’d never seen him like that before. I said, ‘Peresi, yea? Peresi?? A made-up foreign language, like someone who couldn’t speak English. And he said, “What d’you want? What d’you want?’ He was quite curt with me, he was getting quite nasty actually, so I just changed the accent, ‘Paresi, George, paresi, can’t you tell, it’s Paul speaking. It’s me!’ and I went into my real accent. And he goes, ‘Fuckin’ hell!’

[Brian Epstein was in the bath with his door open when Paul wandered in]

I had a camera round my neck so I looked like a guy pestering people for photos and I had a little card I was flashing. It was one I’d been given by Wesley Rose of Acuff and Rose, the music publishers, and I was impressed by it because it was see-through red plastic. So I pulled this out and said, ‘Paresi, paresi?’ Brian said, ‘Yes, can I help you?’ I said, ‘Paresi? Mr Epsteini? Photo?’ He said, ‘No, no, no, not now. Look, can’t you see I’m in the —’ ‘No, no, no, Brian, can’t you tell it’s me?’ Freaked him out.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

In 2016, Swedish record store owner Jörgen Johansson developed the theory that the cover photo of The Beatles’ 1967 album “Sgt. Pepper” was inspired by the cover of an obscure EP of Beatles cover, recorded by the student band Mercblecket.

At first look, the 7-inch EP… looks like another… cash in, parodying the ‘Sgt Pepper’ sleeve. But look again – this 7-inch dates from 1964, a full three years before the group’s groundbreaking, era-defining eighth album. What’s going on?…

Enter Mercblecket, a group of students from the Stockholm School of Economics, who specialised in playing antique songs on brass instruments. As can be seen on a Youtube clip of The Beatles’ arrival at the Stockholm Arlanda airport, Mercblecket were part of the welcoming committee and played in close proximity to the band…

A member of the group was Roger Wallis, an English exchange student… who sang and arranged the songs covered on the EP in question…

This curious trail was picked up by Swedish record dealer Jorgen Johansson, who noted the similarity and managed to track down a copy online. ‘As Paul McCartney made the initial ink drawing, I thought that he had somehow seen the Swedish EP’, he says. ‘I phoned Roger Wallis in November 2015 and he confirmed that he personally handed over a copy of the EP to Paul – who wanted a copy – at the hotel The Beatles were staying at. the Forresta Hotel in Liningo, Stockholm. He hadn’t thought about it but when I mentioned it, he agreed on the similarities…

From MOJO – January or February or March 2016

By midnight at room no. 3 at Hotel Foresta four tired boys in company with Neil Aspinall, Derek Taylor and a few more persons summarised the day and the chaotic concerts. John said: “Great! Did you saw the guards? They really looked scared! We always want to turn on the audience and we always do, but there are always troublemakers. They don’t belong there.”

Ringo looked satisfied. He listened to a version of ‘She Loves You’ by the Swedish wind instrument Mercblecket that just had been issued in Sweden. Paul said: “I really like this one. They really got the beat. It’s really great!”

The company orders beef for six persons and sandwiches for the rest.

Later they had a small party in Derek Tailor’s suite. A couple of photographers and journalists and a couple of girls from the Swedish Fan Club talked and drank bear in the late hours. George went straight to bed before the party. Ringo sat in a corner listening to music and kept the beat. John talked to a journalist from the Daily Express. Paul talked with the girls from the Swedish Fan Club. (One of the girls, a dear friend of mine, Barbro (born) Kallbäck, have been of great help by helping me out with this part of the story – There will be more added to it in the future)

It was almost 3 o’clock in the morning before The Beatles went to bed for a 12-hours sleep.

Lassie Bengtsson – From beatlessweden.com

Sgt. Pepper’s album cover was designed by the pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth from an ink drawing by Paul McCartney. The Beatles was in Sweden late July 1964. In the Mercblecket orch. was the English exchange student, Roger Wallis, who came to Sweden 1963. He wrote the arr. to the Beatles covers on the EP which led them to play at the airport when Beatles arrived there July ´64. Talked to Roger Wallis on the phone only a couple of days ago, he still lives here and he confirmed that he personally gave the EP to Paul at their hotel as he wanted a copy, and Roger Wallis hadn’t thought about the resemblance until i mentioned it to him. RW started the great Swe group Science Poption 1965 and became an important figure in Swedish music life later on. The only person who can really confirm this sensational story is Mr McCartney himself (Hey Paul, if you read this get in touch) but with the info above it certainly leads into the direction that he was somehow inspired by this very obscure Swe EP from ´64 when he made that ink drawing to the world´s most famous LP, Sgt Pepper. Look at the Swedish EP and you realize the resemblance. I’m the person who has done the research etc and come up with the above info, everything happened fast ie only 4 days ago i started this “journey”. I think this is a very interesting story linked to Sgt Pepper = World´s most famous LP.

Jörgen Johansson

Last updated on February 7, 2024

Johanneshovs Isstadion

This was the 1st concert played at Johanneshovs Isstadion.

A total of 4 concerts have been played there • 1964 • Jul 28th • Jul 29th • 1989 • Sep 29th • Sep 30th

Setlist for the concert

The setlist for this concert is incomplete, or we have not be able to confirm in an accurate way that this was the setlist. If you have any clue, pls let us know and leave a comment.