VARA-TV The Beatles in Holland

The Beatles (John, Paul, George and Jimmy) arrived at Hillegom’s Café-Restaurant Treslong, situated at Vosselaan 15, at around 4pm, June 5th, 1964. From 5.30pm they rehearsed for their appearance on VARA-TV, and recording began at 8pm. In the first part of the programme they answered questions from the 150-strong audience. The Beatles were seated in the bar with Berend Boudewijn, who translated their answers and relayed them to Herman Stok, who was seated with the audience. For the second part they mimed to the studio versions of Twist And Shout, All My Loving, Roll Over Beethoven, Long Tall Sally, She Loves You and Can’t Buy Me Love. As their microphones were left on, the group occasionally sang along to the songs. During Long Tall Sally, members of the audience, mostly male, got onto the stage to dance with the group. Their numbers increased during She Loves You, and by Can’t Buy Me Love the group was surrounded by members of the public. Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall and Derek Taylor tried in vain to clear the stage, but eventually The Beatles were forced to leave instead. As the group had been miming, the music carried on playing without them. Only Jimmy Nicol remained on stage, resolutely continuing without the others. The performance was combined with footage from The Beatles’ visit to Amsterdam the following day, and screened as The Beatles In Nederland on the Nederland 1 channel on Monday 8 June 1964 at 8.30pm. This version is just the songs, taken from a TV special on the Beatles in Holland from 1989, celebrating the 25th anniversary for the original visit.