Tim
Nov 14, 2002, 04:59 AM
http://www.lam-online.com/entertainment/music/features/story.jsp?story=351857
Highbury fields forever?
By Adam Scott
14 November 2002
ADAM SCOTT gets back to the places that The Beatles once belonged
The Beatles are, of course, synonymous with Liverpool. Hamburg has a claim on them, too. New York can pull rank as John Lennon's second home. There's even a corner of Mull that will be forever Fab Macca. But London was the city where the Beatles spent their prime.
From 1963 and the first of 17 No.1's, to the acrimonious dissolution in the High Court in 1970, the freak show that was The Beatles made its operatic progress through the capital. ("It was like living in a Fellini film," Lennon was later to say.) Sure, Liverpool made them. But London was the three-ring circus where they worked and played. We hope you will enjoy the show...
The Beatles first sortie to London on New Year's Eve, 1962 was to Decca Studios, 165 Broadhurst Gds, NW6, with Pete Best still behind the kit. They were rejected by A&R man Mike Smith on the grounds that: "Groups with guitars are on the way out." He signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead. Legend has it that, years later, when someone said to Lennon that: "The guy at Decca must be kicking himself now," Lennon is reported to have come back with the one-liner "I hope he kicks himself to death." The year it all began was 1963. They recorded their first album, Please Please Me, in one day (11th February) at Abbey Road Studios, St John's Wood, NW8 and posed on the stairwell at EMI House, Manchester Sq, W1 for Angus McBean's sleeve shot.
Back in 1963, Rock'n'Roll was still considered to be the youth branch of showbiz. Being the biggest stars in the firmament, the band were invited to play the Royal Variety Performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Coventry St, W1. The Beatles were seventh on a bill that included Max Bygraves, Flanders and Swann, Pinky and Perky and Marlene Dietrich. This was the night when John famously extolled those not in the cheap seats to "Rattle their jewellery," in time to Twist and Shout. Thus the establishment were duly converted to the phenomena the Daily Mirror gave name to in their front page headline the next day: Beatlemania.
The next showbiz rung was a cash-in movie (see Elvis and Cliff). Dick Lester's Hard Day's Night, however, like the Beatles' music, set a new benchmark in 'youth market' filmmaking. Numerous London locations were used, including Newman's Passage, W1 (down which the Fabs are chased in the opening 'Beatlemania' section), Lancaster Road, Notting Hill, W11. Ringo drew the greatest critical praise for his solo 'Lonely Man' segment filmed by the Thames near Kew Bridge, by the Turk's Head pub, St. Margarets. Ringo filmed the scenes severely 'hungover' (ahem) after a night on the tiles at the Ad Lib Club, Leicester St, WC2 (above the Prince Charles Cinema). Legend has it that this is also where John and George first tripped after dropping acid for the first time. I wonder how they'll word the blue plaque for that one?
These days, McCartney is perceived as the straight Beatle, the square. Yet in 1964, as the others married themselves off and sloped away to live in the affluent (but hardly swinging) 'stockbroker belt', only Fab Macca stayed behind in what was the hippest city on the planet. By 1964, he was firmly ensconced in the attic of Jane Asher's family home in 57 Wimpole St, W1. (Paul and Jane were gossip column favourites * imagine a cool version of Posh 'n' Becks and you're almost there.) It was here that he wrote Yesterday and, in the Ashers' basement music room (trés posh) I Want To Hold Your Hand (with John), the record that was to break the Beatles in America.
In a story that no writer of fiction would have dared to make up, the Buckingham Palace 'incident' seems no more out of place in their Bacchanalian tale (the women! the drugs!) than many another incident. But did they really smoke a spliff in the Palace bogs before receiving their MBE's in 1965? The Beatles themselves are coy about the whole matter (see the Anthology, volume 4), knowing the value of a great story that was, at the time, the ultimate two-fingered salute to the establishment.
By 1966 the Beatles had stopped touring, to take up almost permanent residence in Studio Two at Abbey Road. For three years the mania had raged through the usual stops such as the Astoria Cinema, 232-6 Seven Sisters Road, N4 and the Hammersmith Odeon, Queen Charlotte St, W6. But it also made one or two more (these days) unconventional stops. Much like a black cabbie at night, the Beatles weren't all that big on south London, but they did play the Odeon Loampit Vale, Lewisham, SE13 (29th March 1963) and the Granada Cinema, Mitcham Rd, Tooting SW17 (1st June 1963). So grab your anoraks and pack the camera * only don't ask a cab to take you there after half-past nine.
There have been many roads to Damascus in the history of Rock'n'Roll, but they all lead back to the prosaic surroundings of Euston Station, N1 in August 1967. It is from here that the Beatles left to study transcendental meditation with the Maharishi in, of all places, Bangor. Their trip, however, was cut short with the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, from an overdose.
Epstein had flung himself with vigour at London in the "You've never had it so good" era of 1964. He'd lived in Belgravia at 24 Chapel Street, SW1 (a five-storey house bought for the princely sum of £60,000). In 1967 he bought The Savile Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2 * now the Odeon cinema * where he oversaw a programme of plays subsidised by Sunday night gigs.
In 1969 they recorded Abbey Road, and surely created London's all-time pedestrian death blackspot. Abbey Road Studios, St John's Wood, NW8. On 12th March that year, with tabloid photographers encouraging the assembled crowd of teenage girls that if they wept then they'd get their picture in the paper, Paul married Linda at Marylebone Registry Office, Marylebone Rd, NW1. John was to make an appearance nearby later that year, but he wasn't getting spliced * he'd been getting spliffed. He appeared at Marylebone Magistrates Court, 181 Marylebone Rd, NW1 on 19th October, charged with possession of cannabis. He'd been busted at Ringo's London, er, pad at 34 Montague Sq, W1. Rock folklore has it that the gear wasn't even his, but had been left behind by the previous tenant, one James Marshall Hendrix. And he seemed like such a nice boy, too...
1970 saw the premiere of Let it Be at The London Pavilion, Piccadilly, W1 (where all the Beatles movies were premiered) now the Rock Circus. Much like Eleanor Rigby's funeral, nobody came. The party was over. The last scene in the movie is of the famous rooftop concert at the Apple offices, 3 Savile Row, W1. The Beatles bang through their set of rudimentary rockers in a vain attempt to recapture something that has been lost under a mountain of drug-induced indulgence and in-fighting. McCartney tries to inject some enthusiasm into the proceedings; Ringo's enjoying himself enough; John pays more attention to Yoko. George is sullen. The biggest band in the world now sound strangely small compared to the groups they begat (Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Who, etc).
Assorted brigadier-types in the street below complain indignantly that it's a damned disgrace, these long hairs and their noise... The police are duly called. And as the band reach the coda of Get Back, the slightly bewildered and embarrassed plods arrive with the wet blanket. John Lennon says into the mic: "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and myself and I hope we've passed the audition..." The rest, if not quite silence, is acrimonious courtroom wranglings (Royal Courts of Justice, Fleet St, EC4), writs and barely-veiled attacks on vinyl (see Lennon's 1971 How Do You Sleep? for McCartney).
Their London story comes full circle with the sleeve image for the 1976 retrospective album The Beatles 1967-1970. The picture, originally shot for the album that became Let it Be, sees the bearded Beatles return to the famous stairwell in EMI House, Manchester Sq, W1, again with photographer Angus McBean. Beatles nostalgia began barely three years after the group split up, and has continued ever since...
For information on London Beatle Walks go to www.abbeyroadcafe.co.uk (http://www.abbeyroadcafe.co.uk)
Source: LAM
------------------
Tim
http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/churchill.gif
Tim Brent's Yellow Submarine Page (http://www.geocities.com/timbrent.geo)
The Beatles' Record Advertisements (http://members.tripod.co.uk/seltaeb)
The Beatles' Record Covers Yahoo! Club (http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/beatlesrecordcovers)
The Beatles Video Theatre (http://timbrent.tripod.com)
Highbury fields forever?
By Adam Scott
14 November 2002
ADAM SCOTT gets back to the places that The Beatles once belonged
The Beatles are, of course, synonymous with Liverpool. Hamburg has a claim on them, too. New York can pull rank as John Lennon's second home. There's even a corner of Mull that will be forever Fab Macca. But London was the city where the Beatles spent their prime.
From 1963 and the first of 17 No.1's, to the acrimonious dissolution in the High Court in 1970, the freak show that was The Beatles made its operatic progress through the capital. ("It was like living in a Fellini film," Lennon was later to say.) Sure, Liverpool made them. But London was the three-ring circus where they worked and played. We hope you will enjoy the show...
The Beatles first sortie to London on New Year's Eve, 1962 was to Decca Studios, 165 Broadhurst Gds, NW6, with Pete Best still behind the kit. They were rejected by A&R man Mike Smith on the grounds that: "Groups with guitars are on the way out." He signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead. Legend has it that, years later, when someone said to Lennon that: "The guy at Decca must be kicking himself now," Lennon is reported to have come back with the one-liner "I hope he kicks himself to death." The year it all began was 1963. They recorded their first album, Please Please Me, in one day (11th February) at Abbey Road Studios, St John's Wood, NW8 and posed on the stairwell at EMI House, Manchester Sq, W1 for Angus McBean's sleeve shot.
Back in 1963, Rock'n'Roll was still considered to be the youth branch of showbiz. Being the biggest stars in the firmament, the band were invited to play the Royal Variety Performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Coventry St, W1. The Beatles were seventh on a bill that included Max Bygraves, Flanders and Swann, Pinky and Perky and Marlene Dietrich. This was the night when John famously extolled those not in the cheap seats to "Rattle their jewellery," in time to Twist and Shout. Thus the establishment were duly converted to the phenomena the Daily Mirror gave name to in their front page headline the next day: Beatlemania.
The next showbiz rung was a cash-in movie (see Elvis and Cliff). Dick Lester's Hard Day's Night, however, like the Beatles' music, set a new benchmark in 'youth market' filmmaking. Numerous London locations were used, including Newman's Passage, W1 (down which the Fabs are chased in the opening 'Beatlemania' section), Lancaster Road, Notting Hill, W11. Ringo drew the greatest critical praise for his solo 'Lonely Man' segment filmed by the Thames near Kew Bridge, by the Turk's Head pub, St. Margarets. Ringo filmed the scenes severely 'hungover' (ahem) after a night on the tiles at the Ad Lib Club, Leicester St, WC2 (above the Prince Charles Cinema). Legend has it that this is also where John and George first tripped after dropping acid for the first time. I wonder how they'll word the blue plaque for that one?
These days, McCartney is perceived as the straight Beatle, the square. Yet in 1964, as the others married themselves off and sloped away to live in the affluent (but hardly swinging) 'stockbroker belt', only Fab Macca stayed behind in what was the hippest city on the planet. By 1964, he was firmly ensconced in the attic of Jane Asher's family home in 57 Wimpole St, W1. (Paul and Jane were gossip column favourites * imagine a cool version of Posh 'n' Becks and you're almost there.) It was here that he wrote Yesterday and, in the Ashers' basement music room (trés posh) I Want To Hold Your Hand (with John), the record that was to break the Beatles in America.
In a story that no writer of fiction would have dared to make up, the Buckingham Palace 'incident' seems no more out of place in their Bacchanalian tale (the women! the drugs!) than many another incident. But did they really smoke a spliff in the Palace bogs before receiving their MBE's in 1965? The Beatles themselves are coy about the whole matter (see the Anthology, volume 4), knowing the value of a great story that was, at the time, the ultimate two-fingered salute to the establishment.
By 1966 the Beatles had stopped touring, to take up almost permanent residence in Studio Two at Abbey Road. For three years the mania had raged through the usual stops such as the Astoria Cinema, 232-6 Seven Sisters Road, N4 and the Hammersmith Odeon, Queen Charlotte St, W6. But it also made one or two more (these days) unconventional stops. Much like a black cabbie at night, the Beatles weren't all that big on south London, but they did play the Odeon Loampit Vale, Lewisham, SE13 (29th March 1963) and the Granada Cinema, Mitcham Rd, Tooting SW17 (1st June 1963). So grab your anoraks and pack the camera * only don't ask a cab to take you there after half-past nine.
There have been many roads to Damascus in the history of Rock'n'Roll, but they all lead back to the prosaic surroundings of Euston Station, N1 in August 1967. It is from here that the Beatles left to study transcendental meditation with the Maharishi in, of all places, Bangor. Their trip, however, was cut short with the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, from an overdose.
Epstein had flung himself with vigour at London in the "You've never had it so good" era of 1964. He'd lived in Belgravia at 24 Chapel Street, SW1 (a five-storey house bought for the princely sum of £60,000). In 1967 he bought The Savile Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2 * now the Odeon cinema * where he oversaw a programme of plays subsidised by Sunday night gigs.
In 1969 they recorded Abbey Road, and surely created London's all-time pedestrian death blackspot. Abbey Road Studios, St John's Wood, NW8. On 12th March that year, with tabloid photographers encouraging the assembled crowd of teenage girls that if they wept then they'd get their picture in the paper, Paul married Linda at Marylebone Registry Office, Marylebone Rd, NW1. John was to make an appearance nearby later that year, but he wasn't getting spliced * he'd been getting spliffed. He appeared at Marylebone Magistrates Court, 181 Marylebone Rd, NW1 on 19th October, charged with possession of cannabis. He'd been busted at Ringo's London, er, pad at 34 Montague Sq, W1. Rock folklore has it that the gear wasn't even his, but had been left behind by the previous tenant, one James Marshall Hendrix. And he seemed like such a nice boy, too...
1970 saw the premiere of Let it Be at The London Pavilion, Piccadilly, W1 (where all the Beatles movies were premiered) now the Rock Circus. Much like Eleanor Rigby's funeral, nobody came. The party was over. The last scene in the movie is of the famous rooftop concert at the Apple offices, 3 Savile Row, W1. The Beatles bang through their set of rudimentary rockers in a vain attempt to recapture something that has been lost under a mountain of drug-induced indulgence and in-fighting. McCartney tries to inject some enthusiasm into the proceedings; Ringo's enjoying himself enough; John pays more attention to Yoko. George is sullen. The biggest band in the world now sound strangely small compared to the groups they begat (Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Who, etc).
Assorted brigadier-types in the street below complain indignantly that it's a damned disgrace, these long hairs and their noise... The police are duly called. And as the band reach the coda of Get Back, the slightly bewildered and embarrassed plods arrive with the wet blanket. John Lennon says into the mic: "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and myself and I hope we've passed the audition..." The rest, if not quite silence, is acrimonious courtroom wranglings (Royal Courts of Justice, Fleet St, EC4), writs and barely-veiled attacks on vinyl (see Lennon's 1971 How Do You Sleep? for McCartney).
Their London story comes full circle with the sleeve image for the 1976 retrospective album The Beatles 1967-1970. The picture, originally shot for the album that became Let it Be, sees the bearded Beatles return to the famous stairwell in EMI House, Manchester Sq, W1, again with photographer Angus McBean. Beatles nostalgia began barely three years after the group split up, and has continued ever since...
For information on London Beatle Walks go to www.abbeyroadcafe.co.uk (http://www.abbeyroadcafe.co.uk)
Source: LAM
------------------
Tim
http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/churchill.gif
Tim Brent's Yellow Submarine Page (http://www.geocities.com/timbrent.geo)
The Beatles' Record Advertisements (http://members.tripod.co.uk/seltaeb)
The Beatles' Record Covers Yahoo! Club (http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/beatlesrecordcovers)
The Beatles Video Theatre (http://timbrent.tripod.com)