Thursday 28th April 1966
The meeting was held in a small room in a hotel, there were about thirty shareholders in attendance, and chairing the meeting was Dick James with not a “Beatle” in sight. It lasted a full ten minutes as Dick James read out a few facts and figures and that was it.
A few weeks later I received the Northern Songs report and accounts for the year ended 30th April 1966, and noticed that there were four names on the list of directors and not one of them was a “Beatle”. I remember thinking that considering it was supposed to be the Beatles' own company it was a little odd.
On 1st May 1966, Nigel and I went back to the Empire Pool Wembley to what was now our regular pilgrimage to the New Musical Express Poll Winners Concert, and although we didn't know it at the time, this would to be the last time (apart from the Apple rooftop show) that the Beatles appeared live on stage in Great Britain. They hadn't played a live concert since their short UK of December 1965 and were in the middle of recording their next album, the ground breaking "Revolver".
The Beatles could never do anything wrong in my eyes, but today they were not very good. They sang just five songs "I Feel Fine", "Nowhere Man", "Day Tripper", "If I Needed Someone" and "I'm Down", and from what I could hear, with the diabolical Wembley sound, they seemed under rehearsed, and looked as if they didn't want to be there. In fact they were completely fed up with playing live, and not being able to hear what they were playing above the screaming of the audiences, which never stopped. They were also starting to write and record more complex songs, which were very hard to perform in a live situation given the technology that was available in 1966. They were only three months away from their last ever show at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on Monday 29th August 1966.
We walked away from Wembley feeling a bit deflated at the Beatles performance but in reality it was a transition stage for them. In 1966 they had stopped being "Fab", and moved on to a phase where they would change the way records were made for ever. There was so much more to come, and my all time favourite "Beatles" song was still two years away from being written.
Once again the concert was recorded for television, every act that is except the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, both acts not allowing their performance to be filmed. Subsequently not all of the ITV regions showed the concert, and that included the London area, as it was felt that without the two biggest acts the audience would be limited.
My group The Cortinas were playing one of their regular gigs at the Bees Club which was the social club for Brentford F.C. While we were there a guy was selling copies of Revolver for 25 shillings (£1.25p). Obviously he shouldn't have been doing this and as we were only a few miles from Hayes in Middlesex where they were pressed, they were probably stolen, but couldn't resist being one of the first people to have the latest Beatles Album, so I bought a copy.
The Beatles manager Brian Epstein had leased the Saville theatre in London's Shaftsbury Avenue, and began putting on Sunday Pop concerts. On Sunday 29th January 1967 I went along to the Saville to see the Who topping the bill supported by Jimi Hendrix. As we waited outside the theatre a green Aston Martin sports car screeched to a halt and out leapt Paul McCartney and John Lennon who rushed straight inside before anyone realised what was happening. The Saville was quite a small theatre and I had tickets in the second row of the balcony. To my right Brian Epstein had his own personal box and with him in the box were: John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who by now had all grown moustaches. In the other box to our left, were Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Spencer Davis.
It was the first time I had seen Jimi Hendrix who was just beginning to make an impact and he was amazing. At one point in the act he used a strobe light, which at that time I had never seen before. My abiding memory of the Who is of Roger Daltrey, Pete Townsend, and Keith Moon thrashing around wildly, and a motionless John Entwhistle standing there just moving his fingers. Suddenly a small flashing toy robot appeared from the wings and slowly made its way across the stage. As it passed John Entwhistle he just moved his right leg and kicked it into the audience.
I decided to grow a moustache.
Despite both songs being credited as having been written by Lennon and McCartney it is widely know that “Strawberry Fields Forever” was written by John and “Penny Lane” by Paul. Although they helped each other out with the occasional idea and odd lyric, they had written mainly separately since around the time of “I Want to Hold Your Hand.
I arrived home from work just after 5.00pm and switched on. The DJ, who I believe was Kenny Everett, said the boat carrying the new album was on its way. There was a huge build up as the boat got nearer and eventually the album was on board and played from beginning to the end. I sat recording it with my little Grundig tape recorder trying to take in the complexities of what I was hearing. Even on first hearing I knew it was something special and when it got to the last track "A Day in The Life" and that final chord I was completely blown away.
3
The Pirate Ship, Radio London
