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.
