Interview for New Musical Express (NME)

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HOPES, dreams, ambitions… how important they are to the top pop names of 1963 as this week they step into the great unknown of 1964.

Beatlemania—how long can it last ? What is the future of the group boom ? Is there a new trend on its way in the year ahead ? These are the questions facing the stars and fans alike.

Paul McCartney, of the Beatles, puts it this way:

“As far as we’re concerned, we’d be daft to sit back on our laurels. We’ll be facing a lot of big challenges this year and we’re determined to really go ahead and face them.

“I suppose America is our biggest challenge. It would knock us out to go over there and make good.

“We’ve been talking to an American reporter who has been on tour with us, and he says the thing to do is to just be natural. He says the Liverpool accents are the thing : everybody over there thinks of the English as Cockneys or country gentlemen. So we hope to change things !

“Apart from America there’s something else that we’ll be putting our hearts and souls into — our first feature film.

“I can’t tell you just how much we’re interested in it, suggesting things for the story and so on.

“If it all fails ? We’d be miserable, naturally. But it wouldn’t shatter us completely. You have to take things as they come in show business.”