THE BEATLES IN WORCESTER

The Beatles played Worcester’s Gaumont Theatre in 1963.
Terry Phillips, a fan said: “I was fortunate in that I was able to go backstage between the shows.I spent best part of an hour with the Beatles chatting, smoking Embassy and drinking Coke.They were four quite different characters.John was ‘in your face’ doing all sorts of crazy things, George a serious talker with a somewhat dry sense of humour, Paul very outgoing and gregarious and Ringo spent the entire time playing his drumsticks on a an occasional table. It was a memorable encounter!”.

The Beatles played in Worcester twice, both in 1963: on May 28 and September 4.
Kathleen Gardner ,fan, was there on both occasions: “I saw them twice at the Gaumont. Once with Roy Orbison and once with the Rolling Stones.The Stones, who were a new group, were much better than the Beatles. I was never a Beatles fan but did love John Lennon’s later music away from the Beatles.”
Shane Phelps said: “My dad was there. He said they were just one of many that played the same night and so each band only did about four songs.Also there was Freddy and the Dreamers. The people would make a lot of noise when the acts were on, but he said that when Roy Orbison started,the sound of his voice,the power and awe made everyone listen in complete silence.”
David Banks and Maureen Coley were among other to have enjoyed seeing the Fab Four in the flesh.

When they first played the city, they were four, fresh-faced young musicians from Liverpool – international stardom was still to come.
The May setlist comprised seven songs: Some Other Guy (a cover of a Richard Barrett song),Do You Want to Know a Secret, Love Me Do, From Me to You, Please Please Me, I Saw Her Standing There, and Twist and Shout.
The September concert, was the first of four consecutive concerts promoted by John Smith. Brian Epstein granted them as a result of the cancellation of several Mersey Beat Showcase nights earlier in 1963. The Beatles earned £250 for each of the concerts.

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