Glasgow • 9pm show

…BUT 65 GIRLS FAINT AS SCOTLAND GOES WILD

The start of the Beatles’ tour in Glasgow on Friday went as smoothly as any of the group’s concerts can.

Manager of the Odeon cinema, Mr. George Chantrey, knows the pattern of the Beatles visits. And the teenage grapevine was working overtime so he would be deluged with applications from girls seeking jobs as usherettes. And he knew that he would have to call assistant managers and commissionaires from more than a hundred miles away to add to his normal staff of 45.

Job applications from the fans were turned down — as a matter of course — and the extra “bouncers” were alerted. Mr. Chantrey told me: “The Nems organisation control the show as soon as they arrive. They secure themselves backstage with the artists and our only contact with them is by intercom.”

Before the group arrived police took over with an escort into the town. More than 200 policemen were drafted into the City Centre to control the 6,000 fans waiting to pack both shows and thousands of ticketless teenagers trying desperately to catch a glimpse of their idols.

Motorised and mounted patrols were used with officers using walkie-talkies for crowd control. The Beatles get the same treatment as an international football match or visiting VIPs.

Ready to deal with hysterical fans outside the cinema were 130 first-aid and ambulance workers. During the first performance 65 girls fainted, five of them were taken to hospital suffering from acute hysteria. There were another 70 at the second performance.

One of the girls who passed out, Sandra Shields (17), of Pollok, said: “I couldn’t bear it any longer. I wanted to rush closer to the stage. I was crying so much that I couldn’t see properly and can only remember staggering up the aisle with one thought in mind—to get closer.”

The Beatles’ show brought an estimated 40 bus loads of teenagers from all over Scotland. Susan Fallon (18), a clerk, from Falkirk, said: “Tickets and seats on the coach were snapped up as soon as word got round that we had organised a trip from a local youth club.”

Top star shows form one of the perks of life as an usherette in the right cinemas. Marjorie McCormish, of Glasgow, has been working at the Odeon for more than a year. She said: “We are the envy of thousands of our friends at a time like this.”

But even the insiders of the organisation cannot penetrate the security without permission from Beatles’ Press Officer, 29-year-old Tony Barrow.

Barrow said: “We make all our own security arrangements. Our overnight stays in top class hotels are left to the discretion of the managers—and they know as well as we do the standard of protection and service we require.”

After clearing hundreds of screaming fans from the doorsteps of the Central Hotel in Glasgow, when the group moved on to the second leg of the tour a hotel management official merely said: “Oh, they are the Beatles. Well, they did stay here overnight, but then we cannot discuss anything connected with their visit.”

From Disc And Music Echo – December 11, 1965

BEATLES BESIEGED IN HOTEL SCENES

HUNDREDS of fans mobbed Glasgow Central Station last night — even before The Beatles’ show had ended. News that the [Beatles] were going to stay overnight at the Central Hotel had spread like wildfire as the Beatles played to their second-show audience.

Railway police set guard rails inside the entrance to Central keeping the screaming fans from the hotel. When The Beatles’ limousine swept from [the street] into the tunnel [to the station], the screams rose to a crescendo. The boys went [straight] to the hotel to a [third-floor] suite of three rooms on Hope Street. At least 300 fans chanted: “We love The Beatles,” and sang: “Why are we waiting?”

At 11.30, about a dozen police started to clear the station courtyard and the fans left quietly. A spokesman for the hotel management said: “The Beatles are spending the night in the hotel and will be leaving at mid-day tomorrow.”

Earlier, 6000 Beatles fans were at the show’s two houses at the Odeon, Glasgow.

AMBULANCES

Outside the theatre an ambulance stood by for fainting cases. A mobile canteen of the St. Andrew’s men and nurses, serving cups of tea, waited in the chill air. SIX girls were taken to the Royal Infirmary semi-conscious and 125 were treated by ambulancemen for hysteria and fainting.

As the second show ended, fans tried to rush on to the stage but 150 attendants kept them back. The Beatles escaped through a side door.

More than 200 extra police were on duty for the group’s visit. A police spokesman said later: “The crowd were very good and there was no serious trouble.”

Beatles publicity man Tony Barrow said later: “The boys loved their Glasgow audience — but they always do. It was a pleasure to be here.”

A Central police spokesman said later: “There have been a number of arrests for breach of the peace.”

At a Press conference before the show George Harrison revealed that one of his 14 guitars had fallen from the boot of the Beatles’ car on the A1 between Berwick and Glasgow. He added: “We stopped the car and went back to look for it. It was in little pieces when we found it. I don’t know how much it was insured for. I don’t even know if it was insured — but it was one of my own guitars and I liked it very much.”

From Daily Record – December 4, 1965

Beatles’ Fans ‘sent’ to hospital

Ambulance workers last night treated 125 causalities — mostly teenage girls– during the Beatles’ opening concert for their British tour in the Odeon Cinema, Glasgow.  Any suggestions that the group’s popularity may be dwindling were shattered by a wildly enthusiastic reception from capacity audiences.

Sighing, sobbing, screaming or simply “sent” the crowd inside the theatre yielding such a steady stream of casualness that the foyer at times resembled a battleground.

During the first house there were 65 cases, five of whom were sent to Glasgow royal Infirmary and in the second house there were 60, one of whom was sent to hospital. 

An official of St. Andrews Ambulance Association said 37 of those treated were fainting cases and 88 were suffering from hysteria.

There were two arrests.

One ambulance worker complained, “Give me a Ranger-Celtic game any day.  This is just too much.”

Stretchers, smelling salts and sponges were overworked by more than 100 ambulance workers throughout both performances.  But the cinema manager, Mr. George Chantry said the Beatles show were “must quieter” than their last visit.

Last night’s performance opened an 18 concert British tour and each night was old out on the first day booking opened.  For the Glasgow shows, more than  £800 in postal orders had to be returned to intending patrons for the 3000 seats. 

George Harrison appeared at last night’s show with a hastily borrowed guitar after his own had been run over by a lorry when it fell from the boot of their car on the A1 near Berwick-on-Tweed.  

“My special favorite – -smashed to bits,” he bemoaned at a news conference before the show where the group faced a battery of 30 photographers and pressmen.  He added that when they found the remains of the guitar it, “looked as if it had been run over by about ten lorries.“

“It’s out of tune now,” quipped John Lennon.

Two solid lines of policemen were on both sides of the road at the Renfield Street-west Regent Street junction to control the crowds after the performance, but six mounted police drafted from Hampden Park earlier were not needed.  Radio “walkie-talkie” equipment was used however. 

The Beatles are due to leave Glasgow this morning by car to appear in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 

From Glasgow Herald – December 4, 1965 – Quoted from Meet the Beatles for Real: Beatles’ fans sent to hospital

A teenage Hampden roar proves they’re still the guvnors!

OUTSIDE the cinema four slightly grotesque yellow-faced Beatles looked down from the foyer canopy over scenes of excitement as fans poured into the Glasgow Odeon on Friday night for the first performance of the Beatles’ new British tour.

Inside the Number One dressing room, the flesh-and-blood originals of the yellow caricatures stand excited but with an excitement laced with anxiety. “It’s always the same at the start of a tour,” said John Lennon as he snipped at his locks, the longest of all the famous Beatles’ locks. “We’ve done it hundreds of times but we are always nervous because once we’re on stage it all goes. It will be the same at Liverpool on Sunday. It’s Liverpool’s home, and they all know us and we’re sort of expected to do well and we get nervous.”

A grin spread across Ringo’s face as he sat leaning against a row of Beatle clothes: “I’m nervous now, sort of worked up inside. I can’t explain it. I’m just nervous inside.”

George examined the head of his guitar — all that remains after it dropped off the back of the limousine into the path of some lorries on the journey from London to Glasgow. “It’s mangled. It’s one of my best guitars too,” he said, tossing the head into pots of make-up on the dressing room table.

Paul sits pensively watching the TV in the corner of the room. “Look, a blind woman’s just failed the Yes/No Inter***,” he said and suddenly switched the conversation to their new single released the same day.

His questions showed the same anxiety that the Beatles have over everything they do. They never take success for granted and Paul adds: “Do you think the single will be another hit? You can never tell you how. There is the Chris A*** news for example. You can just never tell.”

The Beatles took two days to travel to Glasgow for the opening because, John Lennon said, “We don’t like flying. If we can go by road, we’ll do. We’ve done so much touring without really any incidents that the more we do the more we worry. I suppose we think that sooner or later something might happen. Anyway we weren’t in a hurry as long as we got here on time.”

The group travelled together, staying the night under tight security measures at Berwick hotel, following on to Glasgow on Friday afternoon to arrive for the inevitable press conference.

Their driver, Mal Evans, the genial giant, drove ahead with the instruments — and finished up skidding off icy roads just outside Glasgow to avoid being an addition to an existing pile-up of cars.

No damage to Mal or the instruments. “But I’ve skinned my back lifting the van back on to the road,” he said at the Glasgow hotel later.

Press conferences, whether in Glasgow or Greenland, are a chore which the Beatles perform with good humour and enviable patience. There is the usual flippant questions and rapier wit from the group, but the whole business has a curious flatness about it, as most interest was shoved by the forty-odd pressmen in Paul’s pop-art Arthur English tie.

The conference was brief and the Beatles were soon on their way to the dressing rooms to sit and let the tension build up and the preliminaries of the tour started. They sat around, chatted and watched TV as the screams drifted through from the cinema. “Just look at my hair,” said John. “His hair,” chimed Paul.

“Give us the scissors, Mal,” said John. “I’m going to chop it and prove I’ve got ears on this tour!” He started clipping at the hair around his ears which, at the end, showed about half an inch of the ear on either side. “That’s better,” said John.

“Glad to be back on tour?” I asked Ringo. “I wouldn’t say that,” he replied, deadpan. It’s still hard to know whether Ringo is serious or joking sometimes. “Tours are good for us though I enjoy playing too. I never get to the stage when I don’t, of course.”

John was talking about swearing. “I swear sometimes but I hate to hear women swear or for men to swear in front of women. Cyn has heard me swear when I’m angry, but she wouldn’t like it if anyone started trying to butter her. If they apologised afterwards she would like them for respecting her though but she wouldn’t like the swearing. What I can’t stand are those old show business lesbians who swear all the time for effect. They think they’re embarrassing you by swearing, but you’re really only embarrassed for them.”

George shouted for food: “Can we have some tea and sanies? We haven’t eaten all day. We are having a meal at the hotel later but I can’t wait till then.”

Then they noticed the time and dashed off downstairs to watch the Moodies on stage. Ringo stood on the far side of the stage while Paul and George hid behind the curtains — John stood in the wings.

They watched the act with appreciation and afterwards piled upstairs to change for their own appearance. “There’s some new make-up here,” said Paul. “It covers up the beard but doesn’t make you red faced.” The others agreed and used it in turn.

“Where are our Beatle boots?” asked Ringo. “We’re the only people in the world who don’t wear Beatle boots other than on stage,” said John. “Yes,” said George, “we never wear them now.”

They then slipped into their jackets and stood ready for the call to go on stage. The tension suddenly eased and allowed the Beatles to relax. Another quick dab of make-up for Paul — “Got to get that rosy-cheeked look you know” — and he was down the narrow stairs to the stage.

Everything was ready.

The Beatles ran on stage, struck into the first number, the curtain lifted and a tremendous teenage version of the Hampden Roar leaped across the footlights, confirming Beryl Marsden’s shrewd observation that “They’re still the guvnors”.

GEORGE HAS AMP TROUBLE – BUT FANS SCREAM ON

The Beatles’ first house performance at Glasgow Odeon was not, for mainly technical reasons, their best ever stage performance. But the Glasgow fans went wild proving that there’s still no-one in the world in the same league as the four lads for international popularity. They haven’t toured for over a year which would be death to any other group, but every seat on the tour is sold out and they could sell every seat a hundred times over.

Within seconds of the opening number at Glasgow, George’s amp packed up and no amount of fiddling could put it right. George was obviously worried but he needn’t have been. You couldn’t have heard it for the screams anyway. The Beatles went through many of their favourites, including “Baby’s In Black”, “She’s A Woman”, and Paul’s “Yesterday” before working up to their new double side single “Day Tripper” — on which John forgot the words — and “We Can Work It Out”. Verdict: the Beatles don’t have to worry.

The rest of the show is worth seeing too. The Moody Blues get the screams with a polished act and Beryl Marsden worked out some new numbers backed excellently by the new NEMS group, the Paramounts. And watch out for a new Liverpool group the Koobas. They have a strong commercial sound and a pop art image. The Marionettes are very professional and impressed with their good harmonies more than the up-tempo numbers.

From Melody Maker – December 11, 1965