A BBC Radio Wales show that premiered Sunday and will be online for the rest of the week remembers a Beatles gig in that country 50 years ago.
“When Wales Was Fab,” hosted by Adam Walton, recalls when John, Paul, George and Ringo played at the Assembly Hall in the Wales town of Mold on Jan. 24, 1963. The show took place just after the release of the Beatles' single “Please Please Me” just before Beatlemania kicked in in full force.
Two fans who attended the show recalled their memories of the show in the program.
“The anticipation was enormous. I think I went to went to a dance on Christmas Eve and I think they announced it that night, from my memory. And we were told we would need tickets. We normally didn't need tickets, we paid on the door. But it was a ticket-only night and we got our tickets very early,” says one fan named Margaret. “There was great excitement about them coming, yes.”
She also said the way things were set up that night you could get very close to the group. “You could virtually touch them,” she says.
“When they finally came on, excitement had grown. There was high excitement, but not hysteria,” another fan named Lynn recalls. “George Harrison didn't like the fact that some of the girls were trying to touch their feet. So he was not kicking them, but gesturing and shaking them off. He didn't look too pleased. Paul McCartney did sing with his head up to the ceiling, almost. And John Lennon and Ringo Starr were very relaxed.”
She also noted it was very loud, “which was very exciting at the time.”
Also interviewed for the show is Beatles associate Tony Bramwell. The show will be online six more days.
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