Live: Palace Theatre Club, Offerton, Stockport, Cheshire
The Palace Theatre Club låg i hörnet av Turncroft Lane och Hall Street. Under åren genomgick stället ett otal namnbyten innan det slutligen stängdes 1995.
Denna torsdag uppträdde The Beatles på två olika ställen som de tidigare inte hade spelat på. Det gav en konsert på varje ställe.
Den första spelningen ägde rum på the Palace Theatre Club på Turncroft Lane i Stockport, Cheshire. Efter konserterna där åkte de 16 km till nästa bokning som var på the Southern Sporting Club i Manchester.
The Beatles spelade i cirka en halvtimme inför 300 mest skrikande fans. Bokningen hade gjorts innan succén med singeln Please Please Me. Uppträdandet låg i samklang med Brian Epsteins tanke om att man ska fullfölja löften, även om de nu denna dag skulle kunna begära ett klart högre gage än vad som man hade kommit överens om när bokningen gjordes.
Så här minns Tony Philbin, tidigare bartender på The Palace Theatre Club
They were superb and the highlight for me was John Lennon singing ’Twist And Shout’. He really belted it out and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
The place was electric and they were so raw – I’d never seen anything like it before. We were used to seeing crooners so it was like a breath of fresh air when The Beatles arrived. It was very exciting because they weren’t polished at all, and it was that sheer energy that made the night so special and memorable.
The place was in chaos with hordes of teenagers, mainly girls, screaming – which was unusual for the Theatre Club as it was a members club and the audience was generally older.
Other staff had difficulty getting in due to the huge crowds milling about outside. The screaming could be heard in the club and every word The Beatles sung could be heard outside for the unfortunate people without tickets.
At their request I took drinks down to their dressing room – a dozen bottles of Coke for which I was thanked. I just wish I had asked for their autographs, but at the time I was used to seeing celebrities and didn’t fully appreciate the impact these four were going to make later – it’s a pity, they’d have been worth a bob or two nowadays.
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Live: Southern Sporting Club, Manchester, Lancashire
Stället var mer känt under namnet The Corona (det var långt, långt innan dagens Coronapandemi slog till!), och omvandlades från biograf till danspalats under 1950-talet. The Southern Sporting Club hade kabaréer, och dansaftnar under hela 1960-talet. Senare fick det namnet The Mayflower Club.
Klubben låg på Birch Street och Hyde Road i Manchester och blev sedermera en klubb för hårdmetallmusik. Lokalen brann dock ner under 1980-talet.