Beatle Brainiacs

A married couple delves into 'The Beatles Book," a monthly magazine from the 60s devoted to the Fab Four!

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Issue Number 37

We are officially into issue 37 of the Beatles Book, which was released in August of 1966. The issue featured Ringo, lookin positively smashing, on the cover!

In his editorial, Johnny Dean briefly discussed the band’s earlier summer tours of Germany and Asia. He mentioned some unpleasantness in Manila in the Philippines, but we will get into that later in Neil’s Column.

Dean also mentioned the name of the new LP, “Revolver,” which was Paul’s idea. The magazine did have a contest for fans to come up with the name, but Paul won out.

Dean ended his editorial by mentioning the Beatles would be leaving for another American tour on August 11th.

Paul and George looking (mildly) goofy!

Next, the magazine had an article called “Triumphant Return” about the lads’ tour in Germany. This was the first time they’d been back to play shows since their very early days playing in Hamburg when Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best were still in the band.

They started off by flying into Munich on June 23rd of 1966. They stayed at the Bayerische Hotel there and played two very well-attended shows at the Circus Krone. 

While in Hamburg they also debated possible names for their new LP, including “Music Circle,” “Four Sides to the Circle” and “Beatles on Safari.” We can’t lie...all those names are terrible. We’re very happy they went with Paul’s “Revolver!”

The above shots are from the band’s triumphant return to Hamburg!

After Munich, the mop tops boarded a train to Essen Germany where they played two raucous shows to a crowd of about 5,000 people. Ringo got the warmest welcome from the crowd, while John went a bit manic, dropping to his news and screaming “Meine Kinde” at the crowd (they probably meant to write “Meine Kinder,” German for “my children.”).

They also had several press conferences where reporters apparently asked them inane question after inane question...not very surprising!

Finally, the lads arrived in Hamburg at 6:00 in the morning the day after the Essen shows. They were greeted there by fans and old friends including Astrid Kircherr (Stu Sutcliffe’s girlfriend before he passed away) and an old girlfriend of Paul’s.

They played two very exhausting shows and rounded out the trip with another inane press conference in Hamburg before heading off again!

Here the Beatles are during one of the aforementioned “inane press conferences.”

The next column in the magazine was “Their First Visit to Hamburg,” written by Iain Hines of a band called The Jets, who was friendly with the Beatles during their time in Hamburg in 1960.

Hines described seeing the Beatles perform during their time at the Indra Club (the Jets, meanwhile had a long-term gig at the Top Ten Club in town). 

They would all hang out together, going out to eat and walking around the Reeperbahn (yes, the city’s Red Light District and a center of nightlife entertainment).

Paul and Iain were particularly close. They would hang out after shows at the apartment of a woman named Liane who would make hamburgers for them (on the nose), while they listened to Elvis and Everly Brothers’ albums together.

Aside from eating hamburgers, Hines reported that the lads did love their cornflakes back then (a tradition that would continue well into their stardom!).

The Beatles ended up taking over The Jets’ spot at the Top Ten Club when The Jets finished their run there.

Great shot of George!

And a great shot of Paul looking somewhat Dr. Strangelove-esque in those dark glasses!

Next up in the magazine, we’re looking at the “Beatles Talk” section.

This time around, all four lads were on the record, describing how they passed the time on long flights.

They would, of course, enjoy in flight films. Ringo had his own habit of recording everything on mini tape recorders and keeping a sort of road diary.

Aside from that, the fab four’s favorite way to pass the time was by playing games.

Often they would play different card games with Mal, but they particularly enjoyed a game called “Dictionary.”

You’ve likely heard some form of this game before. It’s where one person picks a random word out of the dictionary and all they other players have to write down guesses as to the word’s meaning. Players who get the meaning correct score points and anyone whose wrong answer is chosen by another player also scores a point.

We think this game alone is a great example of how intelligent the band members really were/are.

We just love George’s toothy grin here!

And here’s Paul, mid phone call!

Now, for “Letters from Beatle People,” we’ve chosen this short missive from Chris and Lindy of Shepherds Bush, London.

The two write in saying they’d recently bought a foreign pop magazine while on holiday and that the magazine mentioned a Beatles song they’d never heard of called “I’m in Love.” They wanted to find out if such a song existed!

George wrote back explaining that John and Paul had written the song some two years previous for a band called the Fourmost.

We’re big fans of this particular shot for Ringo’s jacket and for Paul, looking like he’s casting a spell on John.

Now we’re into “Behind the Spotlight.”

Editor Johnny Dean took readers back to August of 1964. Ringo made an appearance as a “juror” on a tv show called “Jukebox Jury,” where he had to critique songs by other artists.

George also appeared on the episode to do a solo performance, but Ringo was under the spotlight without the rest of the band. Ringo was apparently so nervous, his tummy was very upset and he had to drink several glasses of milk to calm down before going on stage (goodness, that is so cute!).

His appearance went over without a hitch though and he charmed audiences, of course. Ringo also got the opportunity to talk glowingly about a song by close friend of the band, Cilla Black.

Closeup of John, all eyelashes and pensive thought!

Dean also talked about the Beatles’ living arrangements during August of 1964. George had just bought a home for 20,000 pounds. John was also living in a home, while Paul and Ringo were renting flats in London.

Dean mentioned that the Beatles were all very smart about handling their money right from the beginning of their fame. They were not quick to make any purchases without thinking them through very carefully.

August of 1964 was a restful time for the band as they continued to enjoy the success of their first American tour much earlier in the year.

The above shot is a throwback to an interview at the London Airport in 1964. The below shot shows George and his beloved E-type Jaguar outside E.M.I. studios with Mal and Neil.

And finally, we’ve arrived at “Neil’s Column.”

We’re back in 1966, with Neil Aspinall describing The Beatles’ tour of Asia.

There was some nastiness in the news about the tour because of an incident in Manila. Apparently, The Beatles were accused of snubbing the first lady of The Philippines, Imelda Marcos. Marcos had scheduled a luncheon honoring the band, but (allegedly) neither The Beatles, nor their handlers, knew anything about it. 

The mix up led to the people of the Philippines getting very upset with the fab four. The hotel refused to do things like bring them room service and, at the airport, there was no one there to guard or assist them on their way out of Manila. They were forced to carry all their bags and equipment alone!

According to Neil, however, aside from that unpleasantness, the trip was great.

They played five wonderful shows at the Nippon Budo Kan in Tokyo, which was a beautiful venue.

The lads also did a lot of shopping, picking up fantastic souvenirs like silk kimono, photo equipment and painting sets. 

The band even used the painting sets to create a beautiful painting on a huge sheet of paper for the president of the Japan fan club in Tokyo.

The Beatles also made a (sort of) secret, one day stop in New Delhi between flights from Manila to London (all at George’s request...no surprise!)

And with that, we finish off the blog on issue 37 of the Beatles Book! We do want to let you all know that we’ll be taking a brief, couple months’ hiatus as we’re dealing with new jobs and moving. So, we’ll be very busy! Never fear, we will be back this summer with more issues! 

See you then!

[beatlebrainiacs-blog]

Issue Number 36, Part 2

Hello and thank you for joining us for another week! We are delving into the second half of issue 36 of the Beatles Book.

Let’s start with these throwback shots of the fab four during their 1964 trip to Australia and New Zealand. (If you’ll recall, this issue of the magazine came out in July of 1966.)

The first section we’re getting into is the “Letters from Beatle People.” 

This time around we’ve chosen a letter from Margaret Redfern of Morecambe and Heysham.

Margaret asked the band’s road manager, Neil Aspinall if the Beatles minded fans asking for their autographs when they were out and about with their wives and friends.

Neil responded that the band members preferred to enjoy their nights out like regular people, because once someone asked for an autograph then a swarm of people would follow!

The first shot above is a still from the film “A Hard Day’s Night” wherein George is mistaken for a male model. The bottom shot shows Paul prepping his pretty self in the mirror!

After the letter section, we get into the “Behind the Spotlight” article. 

Editor Johnny Dean takes us back to July of 1964 (back when the first photos were taken). The fab four made quite a stir “down under,” but not everyone was happy to see them.

A crowd of teenagers in Brisbane stirred us trouble by throwing rotten eggs, old pies and large pieces of wood at the Beatles. 

Luckily for the pranksters, the police caught up with them before the thousands of rabid fans did. The boys said they just wanted to see if the band could handle it. 

Behind the scenes John apparently had some choice words to say about the young people behind the scenes.

After that another group of young men infiltrated the Beatles’ hotel in an attempt to track down the band members and cut off their hair (WAT?!). The would-be perps were caught hiding in a linen closet by a chambermaid. They said they attempted the prank to impress their girlfriends...okay...

Ringo, looking like he got caught in mid-sentence, or mid singing!

After leaving “down under,” the Beatles flew back to Liverpool to attend a charity screening of the “Hard Day’s Night” film at the Odeon.

They then did a sort of “victory tour” across their hometown.

They had a lot to celebrate in July of 1964, as their latest LP was hot, hot, hot, selling 750,000 advance copies for the single. Their movie grossed one million pounds in its first two weeks in theaters in England alone (and it cost under 250,000 pounds to make!). 

At that time, however, the band had to deal with a lot of unpleasant rumors. Chief among those rumors was that one of the members was planning to leave. Ringo was the member people most said was on his way out. Luckily for us, none of it was true!

Finally, Dean relayed that the fab four ended July of 1964 planning a 27-day, 24-city American tour for August! (Tune in next week to learn more about that!)

Oh, Paul. We always love those doe-eyes!

Next up in the magazine, we’ve got Neil’s Column. For those who might not remember, this is a column written by the Beatles’ road manager Neil Aspinall.

This time around Neil wrote out the schedule for a day of shooting the band did for television spots featuring their new songs (we’re back in 1966!) “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.” 

Here is that schedule:

8:00 a.m.: The band left for EMI studios.

9:45 a.m.: The band arrived at EMI studios and went into makeup.

10:20 a.m.: The band rehearsed.

10:40 a.m.: The band played “Rain” for shots.

11:00 a.m.: They watched the playback of the “Rain” shoot.

12:05 p.m.: The band had a belated breakfast of boiled eggs and buttered toast.

12:30 p.m.: A generate broke down, delaying shooting.

1:10: The band played for “Paperback Writer” shots.

2:00: Lunch break.

3:15: The band arrived back at EMI.

3:10-6:15 p.m.: The band performed for black and white shots (the previous were shot in color) of both songs. There was a panic because the final sequence had to be complete by 6:30! They managed to finish by 6:32 p.m.

We absolutely love Ringo in this shot. This is from another promotional shoot the band did for “Paperback Writer” at a fancy, historic home. (Check out last week’s blog for more about that!)

Finally, let’s talk about the “Song of the Month” in issue 36. Surprise, surprise, it was “Paperback Writer!”

The magazine included a photo of the actual words Paul wrote for the song on the back of a photograph.

Alex’s parents bought us a really cool book called “Beatles Lyrics” by Hunter Davies that explains the back story behind the Beatles’ songs and, specifically, the lyrics. 

For “Paperback Writer,” the book explains that Paul came up with the idea for the song while driving to John’s house. Paul thought it would be interesting to write a song in the form of an actual letter. You can see he really did that with the lyrics.

(By the way, the name Ian Iachimoe, is a joke from Paul, as it’s what he said his name sounds like when played backwards.)

According to the book, an author named Peter Royston Ellis thought he was the paperback writer to whom the Beatles were referring.

The book says paperbacks became a phenomenon in Britain following World War II, so it’s likely that had some inspiration for Paul. However, Paul was mostly inspired by putting the rhythm of a letter into a song.

Fun fact: you can hear John and George singing bits of “Frere Jacques” during the song. It was also Paul’s idea to put some of that classic tune into the song!

And we end now with this shot of Ringo on the back cover of issue 36!

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Issue Number 36, Part One

Handsome Paulie graced the over of issue 36 of the Beatles Book, which was released in July of 1966!

The first article was, as always, the letter from editor Johnny Dean.

Dean announced the Beatles got out of the studio and on the road on June 23rd. They were headed to Germany and then on to Japan!

Dean also announced fans were really loving the column from road manager Neil Aspinall.

Finally, Dean announced the winners of the contest to cast the next leading lady in the next Beatles movie.

The top five actresses chosen were:

Susan Hampshire:

Diana Rigg (who Game of Thrones fans might recognize as Olenna Tyrell!):

Julie Christie:

Nyree Dawn Porter:

Geraldine Chaplin (Charlie’s daughter!):

Getting into the magazine, there’s an article called “Their First Visit to Hamburg” by Iain Hines.

Hines takes readers back to the hot, steamy summer of 1960 in Hamburg.

John, Paul, George, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best arrived at the Indra Club in Hamburg, they were met by an old cleaning woman named Rosa.

The lads were completely out of money by the time they arrived at the club, so Rosa gave them some money to go to the café across the street to get some food, which included cornflakes! Cornflakes were a big favorite with the band, especially Paul, who insisted they be on every menu!

(Sidebar, we are LOVING this saga of Ringo attempting to ride a bicycle, very adorable)

The author of the article, saw the Beatles perform at the club in that summer of 1960. At that time, they were sporting shorter, swooped up hair styles and a lot of leather jackets.

They would play six hour shows for the Hamburg audiences (as we know now, they were aided in this endeavor by a LOT of uppers, but this did not come up in the magazine...).

Rosa took care of the boys, often doing their laundry and keeping them fed.

Paul even stayed at her house where he would practice his guitar on her roof to the delight of the old, German dock workers below.

George!

The last article we’ll look at this week is “The Invasion of a Stately Home” by Sue Mautner.

The “stately home” Mautner referred to was the Chiswick House, the former domicile of the Duke of Devonshire in the 16th century.

The Beatles were there shooting scenes for British and American television for the release of the “Paperback Writer” single.

The above photo is a shot from that day, a visiting schoolgirl at the Chiswick House got the surprise of a lifetime!

When Mautner arrived, she found the fab four lounging in one of the private gardens on the grounds.

She described what each of them were wearing in great detail: John: velvet, green trousers, polo-neck sweater, navy jacket; Paul: black jacket & trousers, beige polo-neck and a pink flower in his buttonhole; Ringo: black & navy striped suit; and George: green, cord trousers, beige cashmere sweater.

The band was joined by Bruce Johnson of the Beach Boys, Eleanor Rigby (yes, THAT Eleanor Rigby) and Brian Epstein.

They were on a very tight schedule, trying to wrap up shooting before they lost the light.

These shots show the band miming a performance of “Paperback Writer.”

There was much consternation over getting the boys some lunch. It was decided there would be no time for a proper, sit-down lunch. So, someone ran out to get them some grub!

The band ended up being swamped by a big group of schoolkids!

And we will end this post by wishing George a very happy birthday! He would have been 76-years-old.

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Issue Number 35, Part Two

Welcome back, friends! Let this mildly uncomfortable photo of Paul make your Monday a bit brighter!

As we get back into issue 35 of the Beatles Book, we are looking, first, at the “Letters from Beatle People” section.

Since we’re Americans, we’ve chosen a letter from our homeland from this issue:

This letter came from Audrey Larsen, who billed herself as the President of the Danbury Beatles Fan Club. (She was from Danbury, Connecticut).

She wrote a letter to the band (with a special focus on Ringo) thanking them for deciding to make a return trip to the United States. Audrey was very excited, as she’d already bought her ticket for the notorious Shea Stadium concert.

Audrey asked Ringo to please sing two or more songs during this upcoming concert. She also asked the darling drummer about the record “Woman,” which he wrote under the name Bernard Webb. Audrey complimented the song, but asked why it appeared under B. Webb in England, but A. Smith in the U.S.A.

Ringo wrote back saying he was happy to hear she got her ticket early and answered her question by saying the band’s American company usually does things differently than the British counterparts.

And it just so happens, Ringo’s lovely mug graced the centerfold in this issue!

Moving on, we’re hitting the “Behind the Spotlight” article, which is editor Johnny Dean’s writings that take a look to two years previous to the issue’s release.

So, this time around, Dean was discussing June of 1964 and what was going on for the Beatles then.

(Here we have a lovely shot of George, showing off his razor-sharp cheekbones!)

According to Dean, the fab four were excited in June 1964 as they looked forward to a big tour that would include parts of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

The lads had just returned from holiday, with George, in particular looking tan and healthy after his time water skiing.

Upon return, the band got into the studio immediately to work out some new songs.

Dean took this time to explain that while John and Paul’s songs are all credited to Lennon-McCartney, the two came up with their own songs individually.

(The above shots show the lads during their Australian tour. They apparently did a lot of touring around in open cars while they were there.)

At this point in time, Brian Epstein was doing some work independent of the Beatles, putting on concerts with many different acts at the Prince of Wales Theatre on London’s West End.

Of course, the fab four did a performance there and it was one of the few that sold out completely!

Later on in June of 1964, the band made its first trip to Holland for performances. They had some good and bad times there.

They really enjoyed the lay out of Amsterdam, had a fun time on the canals, etc, but they had serious issues (John, in particular), with what they thought was very rough treatment of fans by the Dutch police. John was very vocal on the subject.

Sadly, poor Ringo missed out on the Dutch trip, because he was having his tonsils removed at the time. Drummer Jim Nichol stood in for Rings and reported being a bit overwhelmed by all the fans and the hype.

(This shot takes us back to the “present” in 1966, showing George, John and Paul during the recording of “Paperback Writer.”)

After their 1964 trip to Holland, the Beatles immediately got on a plane for a 16-hour trip to Hong Kong and then on to Australia. 

John brought his Aunt Mimi along for the ride, as she was keen to visit her sister in Australia.

Poor Ringo was out of the hospital 24 hours before he got on the plane. So, clearly he was a tough guy!

A little fun fact Dean mentioned was that, while they were in Amsterdam, John, Paul and George, fell in love with capes worn by local police officers. So, they bought one and took it to Hong Kong where they had expert tailors create enough for the whole band. They declared it the “new style” at once!

(Another shot from the “Paperback Writer” session. This shows a quick break for toast and jam with tea!)

The final section of the magazine was Neil Asipinall’s “Neil’s Column.”

(So, we’re officially back in 1966!)

Aspinall discussed the trials and tribulations of getting the band ready to go on tour. According to him, the lads had a much easier time of deciding what they DID NOT want to take with them, as opposed to what they did.

Some would say they hated all their old suits and needed to get new ones, then one Beatle would pipe in saying they already had too many suits and didn’t need any new ones.

According to Aspinall, their decision making around which instruments to bring was even more arduous than the wardrobe decisions!

Aspinall also told fans about the momentous first meeting between the Beatles and Bob Dylan. 

(This is a notorious meeting, as it was allegedly the first time the band smoked marijuana. Thanks for the introduction, Bob!).

Aspinall avoided any mention of drugs, but said that the meeting was quite a meeting of the minds. There was a lot of mutual respect between the Beatles and Dylan.

(The Beatles made sure to get good tickets for Dylan’s next show at the Royal Albert Hall, of course!)

Finally, Aspinall took time to congratulate roadie Mal Evans and his wife Lil on the birth of their daughter Julie.

Thanks for joining us this week! We take you out with this shot of John on the back cover of issue 35!

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Issue Number 35, Part One

George looks positively STUNNING on the cover of issue 35 of the Beatles Book, which was released in June of 1966. 

We are loving George’s tiny sunglasses that would look right at home perched atop Kendall Jenner’s or Gigi Hadid’s nose today. And the fabulous eyewear does NOT stop with George. There is more where that came from in this SPECtacular issue (see what we did there??).

Johnny Dean’s editor’s letter starts off talking about the significance of the number 13 for the Beatles. Apparently producer George Martin had been with E.M.I. for 13 years when he met the fab four, the band’s main fan club was housed at number 13 Monmouth and the song “Paperback Writer” was recorded on April 13th.

The main reason for bringing all this up was for Dean to segue into talking about the recording of “Paperback Writer.” He and the magazine’s main photographer got to go behind the scenes during the song’s recording.

Most of the photos in this issue are from that recording session like these two:

(As you can tell we were NOT lying about the excellent eyewear.)

Dean wrote a lengthy article about the “Paperback Writer” recording session for the magazine.

The session went down at E.M.I.’s number 3 studio on April 13th, 1966. When Johnny Dean arrived with the photographer, John and Paul were in the studio, surrounded by massive amounts of musical equipment. They had recorded the basic track of the song the previous day and were now working on the “detailed backing.”

Dean took great delight and care in describing what Paul and John were wearing. Apparently Paul was dressed very casually in black trousers, black moccasins, a white shirt, black vest and orange-tinted glasses. John, meanwhile, was dressed in green, velvet trousers, a blue, buttoned-up, wool vest and black, suede boots.

Paul in his aforementioned “casual” recording lewk.

George Martin and Paul were having a very serious discussion about how to make the track better. Paul was having trouble, saying they’d done as well as they could with four people.

At that point, George (Harrison, of course) made his fashionably late entrance wearing a Mongolian lamb’s fur coat, with a black cap and “oblong specs.” He arrived “bubbling over with enthusiasm” and immediate got to work with Paul and John.

At that point, Paul, John, George and George Martin were all playing around with different instruments (guitars, pianos, organs) to try to get just the right found for the song.

Ringo, meanwhile was engaged in a game of chess with Neil Aspinall, which he eventually won. No description of what he was wearing sadly, but here is a shot of him so you can see for yourself!

George and John had moved on to vocals and were struggling a bit with the high falsetto parts. George said he’d need a cuppa tea to make it.

Eventually, the band broke for tea and toast with strawberry jam, after which Paul had a moment of inspiration. He got up and started playing “Frere Jacques” on the piano, saying he wanted to add parts of the tune into “Paperback Writer.” Upon playback, George Martin agreed it was a genius addition.

Paul then started playing the organ in a way that sounded like bagpipes, which he wanted to incorporate into the song. Although, he had George Martin play that bit.

In the end, it took about 10 hours to record the song and, we would say, the results were certainly worth it!

(A nice shot of John during the recording for you all!)

The last section of the magazine we’ll talk about this week is the “Beatles Talk” article.

Paul and George had a little convo, starting off by wishing a very Happy Birthday to “Saturday Club.” “Saturday Club” was a famous show on BBC radio between 1957 and 1969. It played a lot of Beatles hits and helped them early in their careers. The show featured a lot of skiffle music, which the lads were very much known for early on.

Paul also talked about how George was now part owner (read: shareholder) of “London’s latest swinging discotheque.” The club was called Sibylla’s and was on London’s West End from 1966 to 1968.

Paul and George then started talking about “Paperback Writer” and the rumor (the rumor Ringo started) that the Rolling Stones would retire if the Beatles’ new single hit number one.

Paul joked that he had spoken with Mick Jagger personally about this and that the Rolling Stones planned to retire in 1997 (if only!). So, George said he would record a sitar version of “Paint it Black” and release it in 1998.

The duo ended their talk by wishing another Happy Birthday to the “Saturday Club!”

Join us again next week for the second half of the mag!

[beatlebrainiacs-blog]

Issue Number 34, Part Two

Hello everyone! We’re getting back into issue 34 of the Beatles Book! 

We are loving the shot above of the four lads looking toward a very bright future!

Getting into the magazine, we’re starting at the “Letters from Beatle People” section. 

The letter we selected is from Miss Junko Nuta of Tokyo, Japan! She wrote asking the Beatles (George in particular) to please come to Japan so she could meet them! 

Junko’s American pen pal met the Rolling Stones, so she wanted to one up him by meeting the Beatles! She also promised to work on her English to be able to speak with them better.

George responded to Junko saying he hoped they would get to meet during their tour of Japan in July (1966).

Gotta love those lads!

The next section of the magazine is Johnny Dean’s “Behind the Spotlight.”

Dean took readers back to May of 1964. The band was earning high praise from fellow musicians at the time. 

Their friend and performer Cilla Black said that John and Paul were the best songwriters in the world.

George Martin had just returned from working with THE Ella Fitzgerald who sang Beatles songs with him and complimented Paul and John’s songwriting abilities too! Ella said she loved the lyrics and the way they would borrow from Jazz and Blues.

Our beloved John was the centerfold in issue 34!

Getting back to May of 1964, the boys were on holiday for most of the month. Reporters from America were constantly trying to track them down, but none of their handlers would give out any info!

The fab four did make time to perform on a TV show called “Around the Beatles,” where they tried to recite lines from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to great comedic effect.

George’s face in that shot is priceless.

In May of 1964, the Beatles were getting excellent reviews from critics. “Love Me Do” was crashing to the top of charts in America and several of their other tunes were rising on the charts there too!

John was excited to play around with a new instrument on the market called a guitar-organ. 

Brian Epstein, meanwhile, was bogged down with the minutiae of deciding what engagements the Beatles should accept and which they should reject. 

Georgie boy!

And finally, perhaps the biggest news from May 1964, was a review of the Beatles from Ed Sullivan himself.

Ed said the Beatles were some of the entire show’s staff’s favorite guests. They were very polite and fun to be around.

Ed also said the lads were the biggest hit his show had seen and that they were a the best shot in the arm the entertainment industry had in about 15 years!

And that is all we’ve got from issue 34, enjoy Paulie on the back cover!

[beatlebrainiacs-blog]

Issue Number 34, Part One

Issue 34 of the Beatles Book came out in May of 1966. 

The cover features a very famous photo of the band, which Alex’s mother says was one of her favorites as a young Beatles fan!

The editor’s letter from magazine editor Johnny Dean discussed what the lads were up to when we last left them.

The band was recording a new single at E.M.I.’s Number 2 studio in John’s Wood, London. This was after rumors were flying about them possibly recording their next hit somewhere in America.

Dean predicted their next single would have a different sound and instantly become the “song of summer.”

He also announced a new contest for readers to cast the leading lady (and love interest) for the next Beatles movie. There were many criteria this lady needed to possess, including: she needed to be a Beatles fan, have a good figure, be a good actress (that this was below “good figure” is...ahem...interesting), have a sense of humor, have long, straight hair, have a beautiful face, have an attractive personality, drink Coca-Cola (hello product placement?) and have a good singing voice. The winner of the contest would be announced in a later issue and win a new wrist watch!

Finally, Dean warned fans that new photos of Paul would show him with a chipped tooth from a recent accident, take a peek:

“Neil’s Column,” from road manager Neil Aspinall was next in the mag.

Neil explained that John and Paul were deep into song writing during the month of April.

He said all the Beatles were busy doing “press work” that month as well. That means doing things like posing for new pictures and doing interviews. They did interviews with reporters from all over the world, including a distinguished Brazilian journalist and a “girl reporter” (his words) from Canada.

The lads also provided some funny interview recordings for a record called “Sounds of the Stars” that was to be sent to people who signed up for a new music newspaper in May of 1966.

George has a bright and big idea!

“Beatles Talk” was up next in the issue. This time around George and Ringo had the spotlight.

They cleared up the rumors about recording in America, saying it was still something they hoped to do some day.

George was particularly keen on the idea of recording in Memphis where greats like Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding recorded.

George also discussed his newfound love for Indian music, saying he had recently bought a load of Indian albums, two sitars and a tamboura (which is a type of four string lute). George said he liked that Indian music allowed for a lot of improvisation, much like jazz. He also said that if Ravi Shankar had a London-based fan club he would sign up immediately!

Ringo didn’t add a ton of substance to the conversation, but he was, obviously adorable. He stated that he and George were only able to do the recording during their tea break (while recording their new single) and that it was time to get back to work!

Please join us next week when we take a look at the second half of issue 34! And until then, enjoy this John photo!

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Issue Number 33

Ringo enjoying a nice cuppa covered issue 33 of the Beatles Book. The issue came out in April of 1966.

Inside, readers were treated to this oh-so-glam shot of George, cigarette in hand, furry coat blowing in the breeze.

We begin, as always, with a look at the letter from editor Johnny Dean, the first section in each magazine.

Dean explained the Beatles were working on their next LP and that they had actually gotten a later start than they had planned. They began work in March 1966.

Dean told fans they were in for a treat with the “Beatles Talk” section of the magazine in this issue, because John and Paul talked about their song writing process.

Finally, Dean told readers to be on the look out for a new Beatles tour that summer, which was supposed to take them to Germany, Japan and back to America.

In the above shot we get a nice, relaxed look at Georgie and Johnny.

A new article called “Neil’s Column,” made an appearance in issue 33. The author was Beatles road manager (and future head of the band’s company Apple Corps), Neil Aspinall.

Aspinall gave readers a glimpse into the lives of the fab four during their time off.

According to Aspinall, the lads would get up around 11:00 a.m., or noon most days. He said Paul was obsessed with tape recording during those off hours. Aspinall explained that Paul would record bits of ambient sound and pieces of electronic music to experiment with in later song writing.

Just a nice, handsome close up of John, for your enjoyment!

According to Aspinall, Paul was the first of the lads to experiment with recording different tracks to combine them later. For example, Paul recorded himself singing, playing bass, playing guitar and playing drums to later add to Ringo’s song “What Goes On.”

The band was always listening to music in their off time, Aspinall wrote, saying they had a particular interest in the popular hits coming out of America.

A relaxed George with cheekbones on full display!

Aspinall told the world that John, George and Ringo would spend a lot of their downtime together, since they all lived very close to one another.

The road manager said Paul, in particular, liked going out at night, always having dinners planned; George loved to entertain, you would often find 10-12 people at his house just hanging out; and Ringo, oddly enough, spent a lot of free time adding to his collection of antique weaponry (...interesting!). Aspinall didn’t say what John enjoyed.

As per usual, issue 33 gave readers some excellent, cute shots of Paulie!

We know you’ve all been waiting for it, issue 33 had Part 4 of the look at the Liverpool Fan Club and the boss lady of the club, Ms. Freda Kelly.

Kelly starts off her section talking about how she got in a bit of trouble with the law for being one of a few hundred people who barricaded themselves inside the Cavern Club to keep it from being closed and torn down. 

They did not succeed, sadly and the club was closed in 1966. A bit of history on the Cavern Club, real quick here...the club opened in 1957. It closed in early 1966, but reopened at a new location just a few months later in July of 1966. That location closed in 1973. Eventually there was an effort to excavate part of the original club and reopen that. Fast forward today, there is a Cavern Club in operation in Liverpool and it is one of the city’s top tourist attractions each and every year.

Here’s another adorable shot of the Walrus!

Getting back to Freda Kelly, she described her day to fans. Kelly would get to the fan club office early in the morning and start her work by going through letters. Next, Kelly would work on writing individual responses, answering questions about each Beatle down to the most minute detail.

Kelly had a lot of help from assistants in her endeavors. She trusted one assistant, in particular, a 14-year-old lad by the name of John McCartney. Yes, John was related to the one and only Paul, although the article does not specify how. 

Alright! The McLennon fans out there will be particularly excited about this next section of the magazine...it’s “Beatles Talk” with John and Paul.

The famed twosome described their song writing process to fans. 

It would start on an individual level with Paul and John coming up with ideas on their own. John said it was incredibly important to get something down as soon as an idea came. So, they would write out lyrics and even start recording with bare bones instrumentals. (John was very quick to say Paul was much better at the recording process. Paul would make more sophisticated recordings with multiple tracks, a call back to the fact that he loved recording in his free time!). 

After they got their individual work together, John and Paul would schedule days and times to get together. They would listen to each other’s recordings and start to build the actual songs. After listening, they would grab their instruments and make magic!

The “Letters to Beatle People” section holds one of our favorite letters yet. 

The one we’ve chosen is a poem dedicated to “old” Beatles fans. Eileen D’Angelo of North Haledon in New Jersey (hey! The good, old USA!) write a cute poem encouraging older Beatle fans to express their love for the fab four loud and proud.

The twist, in our opinion, is that Ms. D’Angelo was but a child herself at 19-years-old! Ha! It’s hilarious to think that people in their late teens and early twenties considered themselves old, or that anyone would think they were too old to like the Beatles.

Here’s a great shot of Ringo, looking very suave, rings on full display.

We’ve hit the last article of issue 33, which is the ever popular “Behind the Spotlight.”

Editor Johnny Dean gave readers a look at the Beatles progress two years prior to this issue, back in April of 1964.

According to Dean the band was ecstatic as their singles and LPs hit the top of the British charts and climbed to the top of America’s Billboard Charts.

The Beatles had a top single at the time, followed by singles from the Rolling Stones, the Bachelors, Larry and the Pacemakers, Gene Pitney, Swinging Blue Jeans, Searchers, Dusty Springfield and the Hollies.

George, goofing around with a record and what appears to be a Grammy? Or just a mini gramophone? Oh, those silly lads!

The band was also deep into shooting their first film, “A Hard Day’s Night.” Although, John was anxious to getting back to touring Britain, playing one night gigs.

Here’s a shot of Paul on set of “A Hard Day’s Night” with his co star Willfrid Brambell, who played Paul’s grandfather in the film.

At this stage in the band’s career, they were being sought out by other big stars. Roy Orbison, for one, tracked Ringo down to get his autograph for a young, American fan.

Life was full of excitement and more was to come!

Issue 33 ended with a shot of George on the back cover.

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Issue Number 32, Part 2

We’re kicking off our second look into issue 32 of the Beatles Book with this excellent centerfold shot of George, looking dapper in a pinstripe soup.

Getting into the articles, we start with the ‘Letters from Beatle People’ section.

The letter we’ve chosen was from Pearl Armarto from Sheerness, Kent.

Pearl wrote in to say she had been buying the magazine for more than a year and never saw a ‘thank you’ fan letter printed.

So, Pearl decided to send her own words of thanks for all the great work done by the magazine staff, particularly the photographers who shared the great shots of the lads.

Editor Johnny Dean wrote back saying it was very nice of Pearl to send her thanks, but that their jobs are easy at the magazine, because the Beatles are so photogenic.

(Dean also took time to throw some shade at Pearl’s handwriting!)

This awesome insert with an add for a Beatles medal for a bracelet was included in issue 32.

We will repeat our plea that, if anyone out there has this medal/bracelet, they please give it to us. Please?

The above shot shows the lads signing some autographs.

And we’re diving into the “Behind the Spotlight” section in issue 32.

Johnny Dean gave readers a look back at March of 1964 (exactly two years prior to when this issue of the magazine was released). This was when the Beatles returned from their first trip to and tour of America. 

The fab four was greeted with the screams of hundreds of fans welcoming them back home to England at the London Airport.

(Just sneaking in this cute shot of Rings!)

When the Beatles arrived back in chilly London in March of 1964, they immediately set to work on their first film. That was, of course “A Hard Day’s Night.”

The filming began with with 11 days of shooting and reshooting scenes on a very long train ride. 

Johnny Dean was on set during those early days and relayed producer Walter Shenson’s bemusement with his cast. He releayed concerns about just how energetic the band members were, but did say their colorful personalities would bring real life to the black and white film.

Shenson also predicted that Ringo would be something of a breakout star (STARR?) of the movie, which he was definitely right about!

Dean remembered being impressed with the lads’ professionalism on set, despite their nerves. George said during filming that it was tough to gauge their performances because there was no immediate audience reaction, which is what they were used to. George even told Dean that he wished the crew would boo them or something so they would know how they were doing.

During filming there was a big milestone for John as his first book, ‘John Lennon in His Own Write” was released. He brought in a bunch of copies for the rest of the cast and crew.

More positive news for the fab four at this time was that their next single, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” which was to be released on March 20th, was being predicted to make it huge on the charts.

And the single certainly did, Capitol Records had 1.6 million advance orders of it and the record was delcared gold on the day of its release.

The single was recorded on George’s 21st birthday and he said it was certainly his most memorable birthday to that point.

Finally, the lads addressed some rumors to Dean, one of which was the talk that the band members couldn’t read music.

John, in particular, was annoyed by this. He commented that even if they couldn’t read music, they put just as much art, heart, creativity and musicianship into their songs as anyone who did read music.

As for his own rumors, Paul started dealing with talk that he had secretly married his long time girlfriend Jane Asher as far back at March of 1964.

And we will end this look at issue 32 of the Beatles Book with a look at the back cover, featuring a darling Ringo!

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Issue Number 32, Part 1

Here we have the cover of issue 32 of the Beatles Book! A very studious Paul greets us on the front of the magazine, which was released in March of 1966.

Above we have the timelessly fashionable John enjoying a meal.

Getting into the magazine, we, of course, start with the letter fro editor Johnny Dean.

Dean began his letter talking about the relatively recent release of the “Rubber Soul” album, which came out to somewhat mixed reviews, with some critics saying the songs did not live up to the Beatles’ previous high standards.

The sales and reception from fans and other artists would prove the naysayers wrong. As Dean reported, other musical artists were lining up for their chance to do covers of the songs from the album.

Dean also remarked about the recent marriage of George and Pattie Boyd. Here’s a look from the press reception the couple had after their nuptials:

Finally Dean addressed the fact he had to raise prices for the magazine by 3 pence. The editor blamed the rise in prices for paper, among other things.

Dean also included in this issue requests from fans for the Beatles to perform in 1966. Let’s take a peak at a few of those:

13-year-old Joan asked the lads to visit her school in Carlisle.

Julie from Derbys had a different request for each mop top: she asked John to star in a hit show on the West End, she asked Paul to play the Oboe in the Liverpool Philharmonic, she asked George to record an album of classical guitar songs and she asked Ringo to open a hair salon in Liverpool.

A group of five friends challenged the fab four and Brian Epstein to a basketball game (with the winner buying tea afterward).

Here we have John doing his best Ringo impression.

Moving on in the mag, we’re taking a look at the “Beatles Talk” section. This recorded convo was between John and Ringo.

The two lads talked about how they were away on holiday during George and Pattie’s wedding and so they insisted George throw another party so they could all celebrate.

The two then moved on to talking about their Shea Stadium concert, which was to be shortly shown as a movie on the BBC.

John commented on how great everything looked in color and just how sweaty the band looked right off the bat. John blamed the excess sweat on the fact it’s very hot in New York in August.

The BBC film also had shots of the band exiting their car to the Shea Stadium stage and leaving by helicopter.

John and Ringo remarked that it’s nice the movie would show closeups of them playing, as the crowd had to be so far from the stage at Shea.

Ringo closed out the talk by saying the show was the most exciting for him, personally, because it was the largest live show the band had ever done.

Here we have a lovely shot of George and Paul.

And finally, for this week’s blog we are taking a look at the third installment of the inside look at the Liverpool fan club.

President Freda Kelly gave readers this sneak peak. In the third installment Kelly talked about how she was not supposed to be the president in the beginning. Rather, the club was her friend Bobbie Brown’s idea. However, shortly into the start of the club Brown had to bow out, because she got married.

Kelly, herself, was actually born and raised in Ireland, moving to Liverpool with her family when she was 13.

Kelly told readers she kept a “funny file” of the weird and wild requests she got from fans.

One fan apparently wrote in with specific directions for Paul to meet her for tea one afternoon (Paul never showed).

Another fan sent in a pillowcase asking for Ringo to sleep on it and send it back to her. According to Kelly Ringo actually obliged and sent the pillowcase back with an autograph!

We’ll end here with sneak Paul and invite you back next week for a look at the second half of issue 32!

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Issue Number 31

Issue 31 of the Beatles Book featured a delightful cover photo of George and his fluffy, white kitten.

And, you’re in luck, because those geniuses at the magazine turned the cover shot into a triptych inside with two more photos of Georgie and his feline friend:

The magazine began, as always, with the letter from editor Johnny Dean.

Dean addressed several different subjects in issue 31, which was released in February of 1966.

First, Dean talked about how he AND the Beatles would read all of the fan letters sent into the magazine. Dean also spoke of how difficult it was to pick the featured letters, because they were all so good, so heartfelt!

Dean also addressed complaints from fans that recent issues of the magazine did not include enough photos of George. Dean explained that George just wasn’t on hand in some of those past shoots, but promised there would be plenty of George in the future! (the shots with the kitty were certainly a good start!)

Finally, Dean relayed thanks from George and Patti for all the love fans sent for their recent nuptials. (They were married on January 21, 1966!)

This issue also included a cute little photo sesh with Paul pretending to be a surly, disgruntled stagehand:

“Beatles Talk” made a comeback in issue 31.

This time the recorded chat was between George and Paul. They decided to discuss efforts to put together another Beatles movie (at this point they had released “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!”)

George explained that the band was interested in doing a movie with a storyline that didn’t revolve around them being THE BEATLES, but rather getting a chance to play different kinds of characters. He also said writers were sending them too many ideas that were basically repeats of themes their previous movies used.

Paul and George addressed the fact the band had wanted to make a movie based on the Richard Condon novel “A Talent for Loving.” The story is a Western fantasy about an Aztec curse and two cowboys who compete to win the love of a beautiful girl.

It was decided this story was too convoluted to turn into a movie (although it would be turned into a movie in 1969 by a completely different cast, etc). Paul explained that they would still definitely consider a Western, however.

George also said that the movie would certainly include songs, although it would not be a musical, per se.

Finally, John pops in at the end of the recording to cause trouble and turn off the recorder mid-sentece...of course!

(Side-note: despite talk of movies in the near future, it wouldn’t be until spring 1967 that the Beatles would release their next movie, “Magical Mystery Tour.” Paul came up for the idea, which was loosely based on Ken Kesey’s “Merry Pranksters.” The movie was NOT well-received at the time. It currently has a 62% on rotten tomatoes.)

We love how this shot looks like a family photo.

Moving on in the magazine, we got another glimpse at the Liverpool Fan Club.

President and founder, Freda Kelly told readers that she didn’t mind having fans write to her at home, even encouraging it by including her home address. Kelly explained that the fan club received about 400 letters each day, so they were used to the chaos.

Kelly said that, early on in the fan club’s history, the band members were extremely hands on in the club, taking the time to read and respond to letters personally. She revealed that Ringo, in particular, had great interest in this.

Kelly wrote in the magazine that she would go to great lengths to make fans happy, even calling up Beatles’ family members to ask for souvenirs for fans like old buttons, clothing and school projects. Apparently, they were happy to oblige.

There will be more Freda Kelly in issue 32!

Getting into the “Letters from Beatle People” section of issue 31, we chose this adorable poem about how GHASTLY the lads looked on the cover of their LP “We Can Work It Out”/”Day Tripper.” 

We love the poem, but cannot, for the life of us, figure out which of the covers she is referring to!

(We DO certainly appreciate that a poet is named Annabel Lee, however, as we’re Poe fans as well!)

Lookit Ringo in the centerfold of issue 31!

The last look we’re taking at this issue is the ever-favorite “Behind the Spotlight.” If you’ll recall, this is the article that takes a look at the Beatles two years earlier, before they became world famous.

However, we’re at the precipice of that world famousness!

We last left the fab four in Paris in early winter of 1964. They were less than a month away from their first American tour.

John just loves his hats!

As the band prepared to see if they could make it in America, their publicist was busy fielding hundreds of phone calls each day from reporters and deejays anxious to secure interviews with the moptops.

We also learned from CBS that it had 50,000 requests for seats for the Ed Sullivan Show for the Beatles’ appearances, which was was about twice as many requests as the show received for seats for Elvis’ appearance at the same time in his career!

We are #loving this duo of dynamic duos dueting!

So, picture this: it’s February 7, 1964, 1:40pm at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. A Pan Am jet lands, four little moptops deplane to screaming fans.

It was apparent the Beatles were already an American hit!

After getting off the plane, the band was rushed to the Plaza Hotel, then on to Washington for their first show, then they met with the British ambassador, then the Ed Sullivan appearances and they received a congratulations telegram from Elvis himself on those appearances.

It was certainly a whirlwind (as you can tell)!

Throught it all, poor Georgie had a very bad sore throat and had to be treated by a doctor at the Plaza. Even the doctor got in on Beatlemania, asking for autographs (saying they were for his daughters...).

The above photos show some recording session shots!

It was official: Beatlemania had hit the U.S. in full force!

Critics, however, were quick to say the band was all flash, no substance. Those critics said fans were tricked by the Beatles hairdos and suits, they said the music, itself was run-of-the-mill.

Those critics would certainly eat their words in the future!

The lads were, overall very happy with their American experience, but said their favorite part was performing at Carnegie Hall (twice!), because it’s such an iconic institution.

Dozens of celebrities met with the Beatles during their first visit including Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali, of course). Clay declared himself “The Greatest,” but said the band members were certainly, “The Second Greatest!”

Their worldwide fandom was secured. They were officially a world class powerhouse.

And now, getting back to 1966, we’ll end with the back cover, showing John!

Be sure to check back with us for a blog on issue 32 of the Beatles Book soon!

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Issue Number 30, Part Two

Let’s begin part two of our look into issue 30 of the Beatles book, with this double feature of John and Paul tickling the ivories.

And getting into the articles, themselves, we begin the “Letters from Beatle People” section.

This week we’ve chosen a letter from Miss Lynn Rubin of San Antonio, Texas.

Lynn writes in to thank the fab four (and Brian Epstein) for making a stop in Houston during their American tour in the summer of 1965.

The lads played two shows while they were in town and Lynn attended both, saying they were both just GREAT!!!!!!!!

Lynn was also lucky to have made her way inside the hotel the Beatles were staying at during their 22 hour stop in Houston. She had her parents to thank for getting her inside, as they also happened to be beatles fans. Lynn was lucky enough to see them driving off in their armored car.

In issue 30, John was the centerfold!

And now, we’re moving on to “Behind the Spotlight.”

If you’ll remember, issue 30 of the Beatles Book was released in January 1966, the “Behind the Spotlight” in that issue took readers back to January of 1964.

The mop tops were becoming more and more famous by the day, but they still hadn’t gotten to America just yet.

In Britain, however, they were as big as big could be. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was the song at the top of the charts, on everyone’s list. Their LPs were also topping the charts (those were “With the Beatles” and “Please, Please Me.”).

Another double feature photo fo you from issue 30 featuring the Beatles and a cameo by Brian Epstein.

And while the band still hadn’t done their first American tour yet by January 1964, there were signs their popularity was growing in the states. American bands and musical acts were starting to either cover their songs, or write new songs featuring just the band’s name.

The above photo features George, Paul and George Martin!

Just as the Beatles started growing impatient with their slow progession on the American charts, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” sprang to the top by the end of January of 1964, it became Capitol Records’ hottest selling single to that point, with 10,000 copies being sold per day in New York alone.

For the lads this was a very proud and exciting milestone.

The magazine leaves us at the end of January 1964, with February 1964 just on the horizon. February 7, 1964 is when the band would land in America, marking the beginning of the Beatles’ American Invasion. So, we are certainly looking forward to the next installment of “Behind the Spotlight!”

Paul’s darling face graced the back cover of issue 30.

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Issue Number 30, Part One

Hello, hello, hello! We are getting into issue 30 of the Beatles Book this week! This issue was released in January of 1966 and  featured Ringo, John and Paul making a cup of tea inside Neil Aspinall and Mel Evans’ London apartment!

In this issue’s editorial, Johnny Dean reflected on a big, new year for the Beatles. 

Dean introduced a new constest for fans asking them what they would like to see the band do in the next year (perform a concert in a barn, visit someone’s grandma for tea). Dean said he would give five pounds to the three best answers fans wrote in.

Dean also reflected on the fact that the fab four was wrapping up a new album, “Rubber Soul” (perhaps some of ya’all have heard of it...;-)) and that most of the photos in this issue were from recoding sessions for the album. Many of those shots were taken in Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans’ (Beatle roadies) West End, London apartment as Ringo attempted to make a cup of tea.

Here is the first in that series of tea-making shots now. (Sidebar, how cool does Ringo look? He is always surprising us!)

The next article in issue 30 was about the Liverpool branch of the Beatles fan club. The secretary of the club was Freda Kelly.

Freda was the only person who was actually employeed by the fan club, but she had a volunteer staff that consisted of 2 boys and 5 other girls. 

Freda was responsible for 16,000 individual members of the (at the time) world’s largest fan club. She was very busy. Her official office hours were 10:00am to 5:30pm, but she would often take her work home, sorting through fan mail in bed.

Freda said she also got a lot of help from other Liverpool bands, like the Roadrunners, who would address envelopes and put stamps on letters.

John and Paul join in the tea making fun!

The next section in the magazine was called “Behind the Headlines.” It explored the fab four’s British tour is December 1965.

They played a lot of big shows, one in particular at the Hammersmith Odeon in front of 7,000 fans.

One pitfall of the tour was that one of George’s guitars got smashed on the drive from London to Scotland. The guitar was strapped to the “boot” of the band’s car and fell off en route. Luckily, this was just a rehearsal guitar, so no real harm was done (although the instrument was priced at 300 pounds, which was a pretty good amount at the time!). 

Here’s a double feature shot, for your pleasure, of the tea making!

The breaking of George’s guitar hearkened back, for the magazine writer, to when John’s old Gibson Jumbo was stolen in 1963...likely by some rabid fan of the rapidly growing group!

George’s bad luck continued in Glasgow when his amplifier stopped worker. This also hearkened back (for the writer), to an earlier show where all of the Beatles’ amplifiers gave out thanks to the drummer from a different band putting his bass drum directly on top of the main power source.

We’ll end this first blog with this great shot of Paulie looking cute as a button! See you all next week!

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Issue Number 29, Part Two

We’re kicking off our blog about issue 29 of the Beatles Book with a very handsome shot of George! We must admit, getting into these magazines is giving us a greater and greater appreciation for how lovely George was.

When we left off after last week we were at the “Letters from Beatle People” section of the magazine.

The favorite we chose is a poem, once more.

Pat Farmer of Canning Town, London writes a cute missive about going to see the Beatles at Buckingham Palace when they received their MBEs. Poor Pat missed fab four’s entrance while getting lost and missed their exit by being at the wrong door!

Talking about the MBEs, MBE stands for “Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.” It is a British order of chivarly that is awarded to people who make important contributions to the arts, sciences, charity and public service.

Queen Elizabeth II gave the lads their MBEs on October 26, 1965.

Here’s a photo of them on the big day:

This was a huge honor at the time and signified just how important the Beatles had become to Great Britain.

Of course, John would later return his MBE saying, in a letter, he was doing so in protest of England’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra conflict, England’s support of America in Vietnam and (cheekily) because his song “Cold Turkey” was slipping on the charts. John returned his award on November 25, 1969.

The next section in the magazine, “Behind the Spotlight,” took us back to December of 1963. 

The fab four were looking ahead to their first American trip in February. They were all anxious to see how they would go over with the “yanks.” They knew that, to be a world class band, they would have to make it big in America.

This shot shows the lads, looking like babies in their matching, collar-less jackets back in ‘63. They were apparently considering a new look to stay hipper. They were all contiuing to grow out their notorious hair. George was particularly invested in making sure they had a good look.

Around this time, the band members also started becoming more concerned with safety: that of their fans and their own.

When it came to fans, thousands were turning out to see the Beatles at their British shows. 2,000 packed a theater for their 1963 Christmas show, while hundreds more were part of the line outside to try to get in. The weather was foggy, rainy and cold. Paul was worried fans would catch their death of cold!

John, on the other hand, was worried about fans and their interactions with police. While thousands of fans lined up for these shows, police officers lined the streets to keep the peace. John was concerned that a fan might be hurt during an outburst of violence involving police.

And wen it came to their own health, the Beatles had to plead with their more fanatical fans to stop hurling presents at them on stage. They were getting hurt! At one point, Paul was hit in the eyeball by a flying jelly baby (a candy that is, basically, a baby-shaped gummy bear). Fans were relentlessly throwing jelly babies, becausse Paul mentioned in an interview once that he liked them.

As the band grew its fan base, even people who were annoyed by Beatlemania at first, grew to like the lads. For example, one police officer overseeing their Christmas show expressed annoyance at all the hubbub. But then he got to meet the band and, by the end of the night, he was asking for their autographs.

But at this point, the American fandom was still to come and when it did nothing would be the same again. Issue 29 of the Beatles Book, which came out in 1965, ended with a look back at December 1963.

And we are ending out blog with this shot of George, which graced the back cover of issue 29.

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Issue Number 29, Part One

We are getting into issue 29 of the Beatles Book over the next two weeks. Welcome to part one!

Issue 29 was released in December 1965.

Both Johnny Dean’s editor’s letter and Anne Collingham’s letter from the fan club president addressed the fact that December 1965 was to be a huge month for the Beatles.

A new LP with “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out” was to be released, there was a big television spectacular to run on December 17th honoring John and Paul’s songwriting, the band had 18 concerts planned across the UK during the month and Johnny predicted the lads’ new album “Rubber Soul” would be in everyone’s stocking come Christmas.

Johnny also wrote about how the Beatles were becoming more and more meticulous with their song writing and recording as they became more experienced. He noted that the band abandoned morning recording sessions for all-nighters that started in the late afternoone.

(Can we just note how cool Ringo looks in this shot?)

Issue 29 held the 7th Beatles Book Contest. It asked fans to send in ideas for LP titles for the fab four. 

Senders of the five best titles would win 10 pounds and receive a piece of equipment used by the Beatles.

The winners would be announced in the February issue of the magazine, so be on the lookout for our blog on that one!

Getting into the larger articles of issue 29, there was a write up on the “Spectacular” show that was televised from Grenada Studios, a TV station in Manchester. Again, the show was broadcast on December 17th, 1965.

The show took two full days of shooting and spared no expense. There were 12 different models, six different dancers and a floor to ceiling set. It ran 50 minutes long.

The show featured the Beatles themselves playing some of John and Paul’s songs and several other singers and celebrities doing covers of some of their songs.

Some examples of performances included: Paul doing an impression of American pianist Henry Mancini, the entire band performing “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out,” Paul and Marianne Faithfull singing “Yesterday,” Peter Sellers reciting “A Hard Day’s Night” in a mock Shakespearean style and singing from other performers like Cilla Black, Peter & Gordon and Esther Phillips.

Next week we’ll take a look at articles like “Behind the Spotlight” and “Letters from Beatle People!”

Until then, good bye and enjoy the photos we post on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages! (All under @BeatleBrainiacs!)

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Issue Number 28

Hello, hello and welcome to our full blog post on issue 28 of the Beatles Book! This issue was released in November of 1965 and featured adorable, shutterbug Paul on the cover!

This issue took a look at the life of “Young Ringo.” This is the fourth in the series of articles about the band as youngsters.

(This photo is of Ringo with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, the band he played with before becoming a Beatle)

The magazine interviewed Ringo’s mother and some friends who new him as a teenager.

Ringo’s mother said her son had a rough childhood. He struggled with illness quite a bit and was in and out of the hospital often. This made him unable to take part in normal activities most kids get to enjoy like sports.

Luckily, however, Ringo did get into music early on. In 1957 he started a skiffle group with his friend. (Skiffle is a style of music that started in America using influences of jazz, blues and folk) 

Ringo then went on to play with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, who were quite popular locally and considered moderately famous. The Hurricanes started as a skiffle group, then moved on to rock.

Ringo was always quite popular with the girls who loved the grey streaks in his hair, although Ringo himself disliked them!

Friends of the young drummer said he was given to a sort of moodiness. He was sometimes quite happy, sometimes sullen, depressed. His mood was said to affect whoever he was with, either lightening or darkening the entire room.

Ringo had apparently long admired George, Paul and John and was extremely flattered and excited when he was asked to join them for a recording session. That would, of course, seal his membership as a Beatle.

We do feel we must mention, there is a photo in the magazine of Ringo as a child ready for a “fancy dress” party. He is wearing blackface. We are not including the photo because we do not condone the use of racist imagery.

The next section in the magazine discussed “The Beatles in 1961.” It was written by Kathy Lewis, a Liverpudlian and longtime fan of the band.

Kathy described going to see The Beatles play, when Pete Best was still their drummer, at Pete Best’s mother’s house. She opened a club in er basement called the “Casbah.” 

Kathy remembered an incident when the band’s amplifiers shorted out and caught fire. No one was hurt and there was no major damage. The lads apparently laughed the whole thing off.

Kathy said they had fans waiting in long lines to see them even then.

Issue 28 included a special report from Bernice Young, the President of the Official Beatles Fan Club of the USA.

Bernice wrote about the band’s visit to New York during their American tour in the summer of 1965. She said it was a whirlwind experience full of police escorts, fan visits and interviews upon interviews.

According to Bernice, the only people who remained cool and collected during the visit were the lads themselves and their manager Brian Epstein.

Bernice got to hang out in the lads’ hotel suite and helped wrangle DJs for individual interviews.

She wrote about their preparation for the Ed Sullivan Show, saying they were invested in giving their fans the best sound experience possible.

Bernice got to see their show at Shea Stadium. She said it was unlike any of their concerts she’d seen before. She descirbed it as electrifying and over all too soon.

Finally, Bernice had the pleasure of taking some of the fan club members to meet The Beatles at their hotel. They played a game of Scrabble and watched a cowboy movie. John won Scrabble!

(George = Male Model)

This issue also had the results of the “Song Pop Poll.” Fans were asked to write in with their favorite of the fab four’s songs.

Best LP song went to “Yesterday.” Best song ever went to “Help.”

Here is a shot of the full list:

The letter we chose from “Letters to Beatle People” this week was a delightful little poem by Mavis Price of Eastville, Bristol. Check it out:

And finally, the magazine took us back to October 1963 with “Behind the Spotlight.”

On October 19, 1963, The Beatles made an exciting announcement for their fans. They decided to put together a special Christmas recording that would go out to 50,000 of their fan club members.

It was a mix of singing and joking that highlighted the band’s quirky sense of humor.

The recordings had to be made last second, but were a welcome surprise to fans!

Around this time, as their popularity grew, the lads began to be quite perturbed by random photographers popping out of nowhere, taking their pictures and running off.

Ringo said it wasn’t that they minded the attention, per say, but that many of the photos were low quality. The band did not like the idea of photographers making money off of low quality pictures of them!

November of that year came in with a bang. They were selected to play the “Royal Variety Performance,” with guests like Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother in attendance.

Critics thought the lads would blow it. They did just the opposite. The crowd loved them!

(This was also the show where John made his famous, cheeky comment, saying to the audience, “People in the cheaper seats, clap your hands, the rest of you just rattle your jewelry.)

Ringo graced the back cover.

[beatlebrainiacs-blog]

Issue Number 27, Part 2

Let’s just take a moment at the start of the blog here to appreciate George’s rebellious spirit. He is adorable and, for the Beatle known as the quiet one, always seemed to have quite the wit and appreciation for jokes.

Taking a look at the “Letters from Beatle People” section in issue 27, the letter from Annabella Caumuif caught our eye.

Annabella recently moved to England (London, specifically) two months before writing the letter. She wrote about how moving to a new country, not knowing the language perfectly (although her letter is very well-written, better than a lot of American English speakers we know!) can be a very lonely experience.

Annabella said that the Beatles helped her get through this time, that they became her four close friends, because their songs helped describe how she was feeling. She said the band’s music helped her realized that all human beings, particularly young people, share the same feelings, no matter their particular situation.

George wass featured very heavily in issue 27...not that we’re complaining!

The final section we’re looking is the “Behind the Spotlight” article in the magazine.

We’re back in October of 1963. The band had just returned from a two week holiday at the end of September. Paul and Ringo went to Greece where they took photos of the historic ruins and Ringo complained about the food (too much garlic and onions); John went to Paris, returning with rolls of film too; and George spent time with his sister in America seeing a lot of Broadway shows.

The above photo shows George signing an autograph for a fan!

“Behind the Spotlight” went on to discuss some incidents in October 1963. The lads played the “Sunday Night at the Palladium” show where they were disappointed by the quality of the sound.

However, the appearance was deemed quite the success as fans went absolutely mad for it. The stage-doorman at the Palladium, George Cooper, did an interview with the Beatles Book, saying he’d never seen anything like the spectacle of the Beatles’ performance/visit.

Cooper said fans tried harder to get into the dressing room than fans for any other show. He said he turned several girls away who claimed to be Paul McCartney’s sister. 

This photo shows John’s famous kick (in his famous Beatle Boots) during the bad’s performance at the Palladium.

Behind the Spotlight also relayed a story about the lads getting a lot of criticism from Liverpudlian fans who claimed their hometown boys weren’t making enough appearances back in Liverpool.

It was a critique the band took very seriously. They always took pains to explain themselves and try to get back to Liverpool as often as possible.

The article ends talking about a BBC documentary the Beatles appeared in in October of 1963 called “The Mersey Beat.’ The boys apparently did such a great job in the interviews it sealed the deal for them to get a feature film. (That film would become “A Hard Day’s Night!”)

John’s lovely mug graced the back cover of issue 27.