When Beatlemania hit Scotland: Your memories of the Fab Four
THE recent release of The Beatles documentary, Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years, showed what life was like for the Fab Four at the height of their popularity. Now a new book, The Beatles – I Was There, uncovers the stories of the fans who saw the band live. Author Richard Houghton spoke to more than 400 people lucky enough to see the group between 1957 and 1966 to record their memories. The Beatles made several trips to Scotland during that period and the book features tales of Scots who saw John, Paul, Ringo and George as they went from unknowns to the biggest stars in the world.
Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen, January 6 1963
Bill Cowie, 15 at the time, and his brother Mike turned up early, so knocked on the stage door and were invited in to meet them. “They were tuning their guitars and discussing their playlist,” Bill recalled. He requested Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen, which John later dedicated to the “lads in the front row”. After the first set, Bill and Mike went back to the dressing room and Paul offered them a cup of tea. Afterwards, Kathleen Donald, 15, and her friend Pat Masson knocked on the dressing room door for autographs. “When I got married and left my parents’ home, my mum had a clear-out and threw away the autographs,” Kathleen said. “Can you imagine? When I tackled her about it, she said ‘Oh, it was just a few names on a bit of paper’.”
Carlton Theatre, Kirkcaldy, October 6 1963
The day after the Aberdeen show, Andi Lothian and Albert Bonici turned up unannounced at Brian Epstein’s London office and said they wanted to book the band again, but would only pay them £30 a night rather than £40 like the last time. Epstein said they could have the band, but the fee would be £500 per night. Knowing they were going to be massive, they agreed. By the time the Fab Four arrived in Kirkcaldy, they already had two number ones. Alan Forrester, 14 at the time, can recall his excitement at getting tickets. He said: “I came into school waving these two tickets, saying ‘I’ve got them! I’ve got them! Seven and six!’ “I was in the gods. You could hardly hear the band for the shrieking and you think, ‘We paid that money and we never heard it.’ But we were there!”
By: Murray Scougall
Source: Sunday Post
