The Bournemouth tape

Programme for the Bournemouth residency in August 1963.

Back in 1998, a tape containing a concert recording of The Beatles performing a set at the Gaumont Theatre in Bournemouth in August 1963 was auctioned off to what was then reported as “a private collector“.

Poster for the Beatles’ six night residency at the Gaumont Theatre in Bournemouth.

Irene was a teenage girl whose father Tom Mellor was chief technician at the Gaumont Theatre in Westover Road, Bournemouth. The theatre was known for having “acoustics that were second to none”, due to its domed ceiling.

August 1963, at the Bank Holiday weekend, Mr Mellor had worked through the night setting up for the Beatles’ six-night residency at the theatre. The Beatles topped a bill that included Billy J Kramer with the Dakotas, Tommy Quickly, Gary and Lee, The Sons of the Piltdown Men, compere Billy Baxter and light entertainers the Glamorous Lanas and Tommy Wallis & Beryl.

The Beatles and Billy J Kramer backstage at the Gaumont Theatre in Bournemouth, celebrating Billy’s 20th birthday.

Irene went to all the shows, twice nightly, courtesy of her father. She said in an interview with the BBC in 2012 that her father recorded all the groups who played at the theatre onto high-quality tape. During one of the 21 August concerts, her father recorded the band’s 10-song set, capturing the Beatles’ jokey repartee with the audience.

“It’s pre-Beatlemania, you can hear everything,” Irene said. “Paul did a lot of the talking and John was just a clown, he clowned around on stage, he was so funny.”

The tape, as presented at the auction.

Her father took the tape home and it never went back to the theatre. It was put away in a biscuit tin and forgotten about. In 1994 her father found the tape again and played it to Irene over the phone.

Recalling its contents, she said: “Paul introduced their new song, She Loves You. We heard it on the Wednesday and it was released on the Friday.”

After fruitless attempts to make contact with Apple’s Neil Aspinall, the family decided to auction the tape at Christies in London.

“I got a telephone call from Neil Aspinall the day before the auction,” said Irene. “Ringo had seen me being interviewed on Sky TV. I had to explain what I was doing was on my dad’s behalf.”

“Neil said, ‘I’m just going to have to send someone round to the auction room’.”

The tape sold in December 1998 for £25,300 to an anonymous buyer – believed to be Apple.

“From then on my greatest hope and desire was please, please, please… release it,” said Irene to the BBC in 2012. But the precious recording still remains unreleased to this day.

The set list for the August 1963 shows, and likely the songs on the tape:

1. Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry)
2. Thank You Girl (John Lennon & Paul McCartney)
3. Chains (Gerry Goffin & Carole King)
4. From Me To You (John Lennon & Paul McCartney)
5. A Taste of Honey (Bobby Scott & Ric Marlow)
6. I Saw Her Standing There (John Lennon & Paul McCartney)
7. Baby It’s You (Burt Bacharach & Luther Dixon & Mack David)
8. Boys (Luther Dixon & Wes Farrell)
9. She Loves You (John Lennon & Paul McCartney)
10. Twist and Shout (Phil Medley & Bert Berns)

On YouTube there’s a sample and a review of the taped concert. For the sixtieth anniversary coming up, wouldn’t it make sense to release that concert tape of this Beatles concert? Perhaps as bonus tracks in a Deluxe “Please Please Me”/”With The Beatles” package?

The Beatles in Bournemouth

It was during their time in Bournemouth that the “With The Beatles” / “Meet The Beatles” cover photo was taken. It was also where Klas Burling from Swedish Radio interviewed the group and set the ball rolling for what became their first tour abroad, the Sweden tour in October 1963. And The Beatles Monthly Book conducted its first extensive interviews and photo shoots with the band in Bournemouth. Launced that August, the magazine was published monthly throughout the sixties, and was revived in the seventies, continuing monthly publication until 2003. Whilst in Bournemouth, George Harrison composed his first song, “Don’t Bother Me”.

There’s a book about The Beatles in Bournemouth.

The Beatles played more concerts in Bournemouth than anywhere else, outside of London. And there are more connections to the place to warrant Nick Churchill‘s book “Yeah Yeah Yeah The Beatles and Bournemouth”, from 2011 – now a collector’s item.

Sources:

The Beatles’ Bible
BBC News 1998
BBC interview with Irene Draper 2012
Dorset Life – Nick Churchill 2011
Beatlesource about the concert tape
Bournemouth Beat Boom