Thursday, December 9, 1965
Birmingham • 9:15pm show
Concert • By The Beatles • Part of the The Beatles' 1965 UK Tour
Last updated on November 20, 2025
Thursday, December 9, 1965
Concert • By The Beatles • Part of the The Beatles' 1965 UK Tour
Last updated on November 20, 2025
Location: Odeon Cinema • Birmingham • UK
Concert Dec 08, 1965 • UK • Sheffield • 8:50pm show
Concert Dec 09, 1965 • UK • Birmingham • 6:45pm show
Concert Dec 09, 1965 • UK • Birmingham • 9:15pm show
Article Dec 10, 1965 • The Beatles are voted Best British Group and Best World Group by NME
On this day, The Beatles performed two concerts in Birmingham as part of their final UK tour, the first at 6:45 pm and the second at 9:15 pm. Also appearing on the bill were the Moody Blues, the Paramounts, Beryl Marsden, Steve Aldo, the Koobas, and the Marionettes.
The tour continued the following day with two dates at the Hammersmith Odeon in London.
According to Neil Aspinall, The Beatles and their entourage drove from Birmingham to London after the shows so that John Lennon and Ringo Starr could see their wives for the first time since the beginning of the tour. However, in 2011 an autographed visitors’ book from the Grand Hotel in Birmingham was auctioned and sold for £6,300. The book had begun to be used when the hotel reopened on June 24, 1965.
A photo of a double-page spread of the visitors’ book — with the signatures of each Beatles on the left-hand page and the signatures from the Moody Blues on the right-hand page — shows the date “9 Dec 1965.” This suggests that The Beatles may in fact have checked into the Grand Hotel on that date, contrary to Aspinall’s recollection.
It was pretty scary for a 16-year-old to be in the middle of all that – the girls screaming screaming and jumping and waving their arms around. The funny thing is I was more of a Stones fan, but I got a free ticket. One of the two girls next door couldn’t go so I went instead. You couldn’t even make out what they were playing from where we were. The Moody Blues were a local band and I’d probably already seen them by then. They were good. We had got the bus in and it was the second show because I remember them announcing at the end that The Beatles had left so there was no point in hanging around.”
Alan White – 16-year-old at that time – From “Beatlemania! The Real Story of the Beatles UK Tours 1963-1965” by Martin Creasy, 2011
We had all driven down to London from Birmingham the previous night, so John and Ringo could see their wives for the first time in ten days. Ringo was in the process of moving home around that time so he had plenty of things to take care of before coming to Hammersmith.
Neil Aspinall – From Fabulous208 – August 20, 1966
Backstage WITH THE BEATLES
THE other night in Birmingham a bouncing ball of sound and fury burst out of a darkened stage and shot the tingling senses of 5,000 teenagers through a timeless hour.
The Beatles came to the city’s Odeon Cinema. At a little after 8 o’clock they buttoned up their drab, superbly-cut, military-style jackets, filed down a corridor and spilled on to the stage.
Ringo fiddled with the screws holding down his bass-drum. John made faces and pulled his black cap down a notch. Paul grinned and tapped his toe on the boards. George, hollow-cheeked and angular, squinted into a spotlight and scratched his fluffy head.
One of them said “Lizzy” and they were off. Bathed in a coat of bluey-purple light, ducking the flying jelly babies and doing their best to cut through the screams with that famous, compelling, nasal drone.
They looked as if they were enjoying it and I think they probably were. When it was all over they went back to watching their favourite programme, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and drinking coffee.
Up in the manager’s office the ’phone rang and a girl’s voice said: “Can I speak to George Harrison, please?” They told her that George was tired.
From Sunday Mercury – December 12, 1965
Paul McCartney and George Harrison, two of the Beatles, leaving the stage door of the Odeon Theatre, Birmingham, after their show last night, to vanish—apparently into thin air—with Ringo and John. They are watched by Mr. L. Harris, the theatre’s manager.
From The Birmingham Post – December 10, 1965
This was the 2nd concert played at Odeon Cinema.
A total of 5 concerts have been played there • 1964 • Oct 11 • 1965 • Dec 9 6:45pm show • Dec 9 9:15pm show• 1973 • Jul 6 • 1979 • Dec 12
Written by George Harrison
Written by Johnny Russell, Voni Morrison
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Dale Michelsohn • Jan 13, 2026 • 2 weeks ago
Hello, My name is Dale Michelsohn. I was a stage technician at the Birmingham Odeon from 1974 to 1988. I worked on hundreds of gigs there and currently run a Facebook group Birmingham Odeon Memorial. The Visitors book in question belonged to me. It is actually the Odeon's visitors book and not from the Grand Hotel as stated by the auctioneers and BBC. I obtained the book early 1980s when I was given it by the theatre manager after helping clean out stuff from the office cupboards. The book dates from 1965 when the theatre re-opened after a refurbishment. I sold the book in 1988 to a market trader when I needed cash to move house. The BBC stated that Ted Heath autograph was the Prime minister. This is incorrect. It is Ted Heath the band leader. They also stated many autographs that are not actually in the book and said it was bought in 1979. This is untrue. I know the book was sold to a buyer in USA for £6,300 in 2021. Its a pity the buyer has the wrong provenance. I photocopied the pages at the time I sold it and still have them all these years later. For info, the Beatles entered the backstage area via the old Exchange pub back door which was adjacent to the Odeon stage door. There are photos of them coming through the passage. Lennon signed the book 'Wales' as a joke . The Candy Clarke autograph was due to her promoting the 1974 film 'The man who fell to Earth' at the theatre. My old colleague filmed them from the wings with his super 8 camera. I have no idea what happened to the film as he passed away in 2000. I hope this information is some help in shining the light on the books true provenance . Kind regards, Dale
The PaulMcCartney Project • Jan 14, 2026 • 2 weeks ago
Hi Dale, WOW, thanks a lot for all those insider's information ! I will update the page accordingly.
