Beatles FAQ

John Lennon was very short-sighted but in his teens refused to wear spectacles in public.

 John Lennon was later embarrassed about the source of one of his contributions to the Abbey Road medley. It was based on a newspaper story he read early in 1967.

 

On 29 September, I967, John Lennon worked with George Martin and the Abbey Road sound engineers on a potential new Beatles single.

Reluctant Santas: Beatles Christmas Show at the Cavern 1961 December 1961 brought a packed gigging schedule.  Christmas boiled dow to to a single day off for turkey and flopping on the sofa in paper hats. On December 9th The Beatles signed contracts appointing Brian Epstein as their new manager. Epstein then gave each a pointed Christmas gift — a travel alarm clock. Attached was a business card with the message: ‘My little bit to get you all on time.’ This alluded to their chaotic timekeeping — Paul McCartney had infamously been having a bath during one crucial meeting. But as Lewisohn points out, it offered hope that they would be ‘going places’. Christmas 1961 — Beatles upstaged by BOXING NIGHT On December 27, the coldest night in a decade, The Cavern held a Beatles Christmas Party. It got off to a rocky start when Pete Best phoned in sick. Who could stand in on the sticks? Well, there was their new pal from Hamburg, who happened to have a night off from Hurricane duties. The gig wen

In December 1960 The Beatles returned to Liverpool from Hamburg, where they had built a reputation as a live act.  This earned them a prestigious new date for 27 December 1960 as the headliners at the Litherland Town Hall Ballroom. This was arranged by the influential local DJ, Bob Wooler — months later the victim of an infamous assault by John Lennon. Wooler announced them on stage in typically hyperbolic fashion: Direct from Hamburg — the sensational BEATLES The performers on stage were dressed in black leathers and drainpipe trousers. They had American guitars and amps and seemed from another more exotic world. Some in the crowd were amazed that these strange Germans spoke to the audience in fluent Scouse speakers, . To a roar from the packed hall, Paul launched into Little Richard's Long Tall Sally. 

British album releases generally did not include singles

George in the room above the Bambi Kino cinema George Harrison was seventeen when he first arrived in Hamburg in August 1960. Though legal the age limit for performers was eighteen  club owner Bruno Koschmider was initially unconcerned.  It was when The Beatles jumped ship to work at the bigger Top Ten that Koschmider found his conscience stirred. He then informed the police of his shocking discovery. Those devious Englishmen had an underage performer in their ranks . pen & ink sketch of Hamburg club owner Bruno Koschmider (1926-2000) The police duly deported Harrison on November 21. The guitarist spent his last night teaching John Lennon his parts before reluctantly packing a " crappy suitcase and things in boxes, paper bags with my clothes in, and a guitar." Homeward bound The logistics of getting home proved challenging, as George related in Anthology: Astrid and Stuart dropped me at Hamburg station. It was a long journey on my own on the train to the Hook of Holland.

  Outside Paul's family home in the early 1960s Soon after first seeing them at the Cavern, Brian Epstein invited The Beatles for a formal meeting at his office. This was arranged for the afternoon of Sunday 3rd December 1961 at 4.30. Epstein wanted to manage the band but had doubts about their reliability and professionalism. The Beatles for their part had achieved success in Hamburg and Liverpool but had no record deal or national profile John, George and Pete took the bus to the meeting. They arrived on time - but after forty five minutes there was still no sign of Paul.  A call was made to the McCartney family home. This revealed that  Paul had just got up and was having a bath. Epstein exploded, "How can he be so late for such and important meeting?"     To which Harrison famously replied, "He may be late but he's very clean".  A frosty silence melted into laughter. Why was Paul so  late? On one level Paul's lateness was symptomatic of  what Epstein

"We all play on it, i t’s a genuine Beatles recording .  ” Paul McCartney Is Now and Then  a 'genuine Beatles recording' ? via  Henry Grossman/Wikimedia Commons  and Apple Corps For Paul McCartney the defining component is the presence of all four Beatles in the final mix. This may be stretching a point in that only John Lennon recorded the de facto master tape, namely the demo cassette recorded in his apartment.  It is true that The Beatles recording process was often fragmented. Though they  largely recorded early tracks ‘as live’, improvements in multi-tracking meant that they later relied heavily of recording segments which were later assembled in collaboration with the Abbey Road engineers.  Frequently, two or three band members would work on a particular track. Some recordings, like Yesterday (Paul) and Love You Too (George) had only one of the four on the final recording, while three  contributed to Free as a Bird during the Anthology sessions. Few, however, would