Beatles 50th Blog

The Beatles at the Olympia Theatre, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris, France

Cinema Cyrano, Rue Rameau, Versailles, France

The Beatles' first night in France was a warm-up show for all of the artists participating in the forthcoming three-week season at the Paris Olympia, performed before 2,000 people.

This night John, Paul, and George (Ringo followed the next day) flew out of the London Airport for Le Bourget, Paris, and a welcome from 60 French teenagers.

A rare day off for the Beatles

London Palladium, London

A return booking for the Beatles on the live Associated TeleVision show Val Parnell's Sunday Night At The London Palladium, following their debut on October 13, 1963. Their fee then was £250, now it was £1000.

The group spent most of the day at the Palladium in rehearsals. The live broadcast went out from 8:25 to 9:25 pm, the Beatles -as billtopping act- appearing in a card carrying skit with compere Bruce Forsyth.

Other artists on the show were  Alma Cogan, (whom the Beatles would enjoy a warm friendship up to her death in 1966) and Irish comedian Dave Allen.

Playhouse Theatre, London

The Astoria dates comprised the last ten nights of  "The Beatles Christimas Show", which had opened on December 24, 1963.

George and Ringo made an unusual radio recording for broadcast in the "Light Programme" magazine series The Public Ear on Sunday, January 12th. It took the form of a letter they had written, recorded onto tape and played in the program's regular "Air Mail" slot. In the letter, the two Beatles referred to a previous edition of the series (December 29th) in which friend Hall had encouraged listeners to appreciate the music that the Beatles themselves preferred, principally American R&B.

The new contribution from George and Ringo echoed Hall's sentiments, and requested a song to be be played (Miracles, "I've been good to you" was chosen).

On January 7th, the Beatles, as a group, made a more conventional BBC radio recording, a music session for Saturday Club. Then went to Finsbury Park for their two evening "Christmas Show" performances.

The Beatles - Green Street, London

A clip of The Beatles was shown on the Jack Parr Show.

The Beatles appeared at the Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London on these dates.

Astoria Cinema, Seven Sisters Rd.

Finsbury Park, London

This stage production, "The Beatles Christmas Show", conceived and presented by Brian Epstein, and typical of the man, encompassed comedy, pantomime and music. It settled in at the Astoria for a 16 night run, two "houses" each except for December 24th and 31st, when there was only one. (There were no shows at all on December 25th and December 29th as well as January 5th, and the season ended on Saturday, January 11, 1964.) One hundred thousand tickets for the 30 shows went on sale on October 21st. By November 16th, they were all sold.

The Beatles music repertoire for the season comprised "Roll Over Beethoven", "All My Loving", "This Boy", "I Wanna Be Your Man", "She Loves You", "Till There Was You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Money (That's What I Want)" and "Twist And Shout". They also participated in a number of sketches and routines which proved extremely popular with the audiences.

The Beatles and other northern-based members of the large cast, most of whom were managed by Brian Epstein's NEMS Enterprises, flew home to Liverpool late on December 24th to spend Christmas with their families, returning to London during Boxing Day morning.