Denmark celebrates The Beatles
Roskilde Bibliotek (Library) hosts an exhibition 2 – 6 June 2014 – to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ concert in the KB Hallen June 4, 1964. Sadly, the concert hall was the victim of a fire which damaged the roof and the interior of the grand hall severely on 28 September, 2011. It is still being discussed if it will be possible to restore it to its former glory.
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| A Beatles festival will also take place in Grenaa 4 – 6 June, 2014 |
The Beatles festival in Grenaa will feature Danish Beatles cover bands “The Repeatles” and “Rubber Band”, as well as performances by local singers and musicians. The streets will have their names changed, Lillegade will become The Long and Winding Road, Storegade will be Abbey Road, Østergade will change to Penny Lane, Nørregade will be known as Strawberry Fields and Søndergade will become Norwegian Wood.
Other bands due: “The Beatles Revival”, “The Blackbirds”, “BJ Beatles Band” and “STAR CLUB – Beat The Meetles.
A Beatles exhibition will open at Museum Østjyllands, a slideshow from the K.B. Hallen and eye witness reports from the Beatles concert are also interesting features of the festival.
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| Ad for the concert, 1964 |
In Denmark, the Beatles were going to finish their set with “Long Tall Sally”, and Paul McCartney was going to announce that the “Long Tall Sally” EP was going to be in the shops the next day. However, warm-up band “The Hitmakers” ended their own set with their rendition of the song, which lead the Beatles to drop playing their own version at the first concert.
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| The set list, in Lennon’s hand. |
As there were two shows, the two bands had a meeting, at which the Beatles made a deal with the Hitmakers for the second show asking the Danish group to not play that song. So in the second show, the Beatles did finish with “Long Tall Sally”, and Paul could announce the availability of their record. Thus, the “Long Tall Sally” EP made it’s debut in Denmark on the 5th of June, 1964 – two weeks before it was released in the UK!
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| The Danish Long Tall Sally EP wasn’t just released earlier than elsewhere, also had a different cover than the UK one. This was also the cover used in Sweden, and the record was also available in Norway. |
Update: Our Danish friend Arno Guzek wrote us to correct this story. The Long Tall Sally EP was NOT released earlier in Denmark, it was released in July. However, the Long Tall Sally single was indeed available the day after the concert.
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| The Danish Long Tall Sally single. |
Wow, another reversed photo cover. I never understood such a carelesness.
The set list used by Jimmie Nicol was given to him by John Lennon before the show. However, it was not written by John Lennon. For my book, The Beatle Who Vanished, about the life of drummer Jimmie Nicol, I interviewed Neil Aspinall (in person) about the set list. Neil confirmed that he handwrote this set list and not John Lennon. This was also confirmed by International Beatles Autograph expert, Frank Caiazzo. thebeatlewhovanished.com Jim Berkenstadt