Beatles News

A RARE Beatles programme emblazoned with no less than three signatures of John Lennon is to go on sale at a South Derbyshire auction house. The commemorative item, from a show in March 1963, has been signed by the late singer on three separate pages. There are also signatures from the other band members.

It will be sold at Hansons, in Etwall in a sale later in the month. Music and memorabilia consultant Clare Howell said: “Our client’s father and friends went along to the concert and were fortunate enough to meet the boys. Having just the one programme between them, they asked John to sign three time, so they could each have an autograph. One lucky fan was left with the programme.” The starting bid for the lot is £1,000. Another lot of cuttings from the concert, in Sheffield, will go for an estimated £250-£350.

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DEMOLITION has started at an iconic pop venue of the 1960s that has been at the heart of Northwich for decades. Northwich Memorial Hall drew crowds in their hundreds in the 1960s and ‘70s when it played host to legendary acts like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Animals, Tom Jones, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Ben E King and Jimmy Ruffin, among many others.

But now the hall is being knocked down to make way for Memorial Court, a new £13.7 million leisure complex planned by Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC). Gwili Lewis, from Castle, was manager at the hall thoughout its 1960s and ‘70s glory years. The 92-year-old was present at the start of demolition on Monday and shared some anecdotes from his career there.

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Source: Northwich Guardian

PIECES of a Wirral stage trodden by The Beatles – before they took the pop world by storm – are being snapped up at extraordinary prices across the globe. A Beatles fan in America has paid $300 for a four-inch square section of the stage, while a UK enthusiast has parted with £250.

The blocks have been auctioned over the years to help finance the present day Birkenhead YMCA. When the old building was demolished in the 1980s, staff had the foresight to salvage sections of the stage ,after recognising their historic value because of the appearance of the Fab Four. Just a handful of the blocks remain, signed by world renowned Beatles biographer Paolo Hewitt.

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Source: Wirral Globe

Sir Paul McCartney still has a ''treasure trove'' of Beatles songs he wants to play live. The 'Paperback Writer' musician plans to continue introducing more ''hidden gems'' from his most famous band's back catalogue into his future solo shows.

He told Rolling Stone magazine: ''What I do is, each tour or each concert we're going to do, I will go back into the catalog and think, 'Wait a minute, we could do that one,' and there are a few little hidden gems. ''I haven't actually decided which ones are which yet, but I know there's so much in there. It's like a little treasure trove, you know? It's really quite a cool feeling, because as I do the songs, I am made very aware that that period when we recorded - the 10 years the Beatles were together - was a particularly rich period for art, anyway, and for us.''

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Tony Palmer was studying moral sciences at Cambridge University in the 1960s when a moderately famous band arrived in town. "I got a call to attend this press conference the Beatles were holding, to cover it for the college paper," he recalls. "They'd had a No 1 single or two by then, so they were very well known – but not yet intergalactic. Afterwards, John Lennon came up and asked me why I hadn't asked them any questions. I told him I found the whole thing pretty silly.

He laughed, and when I told him I was studying moral sciences, he thought me pretty silly, too. He wanted someone to show him around the university – I realised much later that he was very interested in education. So we meet up later and he's in disguise – a dreadful one, with a large fedora hat, long brown raincoat and fake beard.

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Source: The Guardian