Fact #132959
When:
Short story:
The Byrds play at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, England, UK, with The Ivy league, Quiet Five, and The Impacts. Later, The Byrds go on to play at Blaises, Knightsbridge, London, where the audience includes John Lennon and George Harrison of The Beatles, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones, Pete Townshend of The Who and others.Full article:
David Crosby : The Byrds first tour in England was a disaster, a raging, grade A, number one disaster. The promoter had billed us as being better than The Beatles.
So, one of the first gigs we did (Blaises), we looked down into the audience and there's about half The Rolling Stones and three-quarters of The Beatles. We were about three years older and had just come from California and we're looking at our idols and we were so scared, man, we couldn't even open our teeth.
Derek Taylor (PR man, The Byrds] : Blaises was a place where people wouldn't mind being seen, but, but it wasn't an ideal gig. The stage was the size of a sofa and The Byrds played extraordinarily loud and appeared both awkward and temperamental. Still, I loved them, and George Harrison and John Lennon were also impressed.
Roger McGuinn : Derek Taylor was with us and he introduced us, and we rented a little hotel room right upstairs. We all went up there and hung out. It was kind of awkward, and we were just sort of standing around looking at each other.
David Crosby : Now, The Beatles were kind fellows. They knew that we weren't better than them, so they were nice to us. They said, 'It's all right lad. I know your amp broke and you broke a bass string, but it's all right. Don't cry.'
Roger McGuinn : John said, 'I want to see your little glasses.' So I gave him my glasses which I used for vision and, since he was very near-sighted himself, he was very curious about that. He always had to take off his glasses, because he didn't want to appear with them on stage. So I had given him a way to wear glasses and still be cool. He thought that was neat.
Then George and David started talking about guitars and stuff. Still, it wasn't a very long meeting, maybe about twenty minutes, and then we all went home.
(Source : not known)
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So, one of the first gigs we did (Blaises), we looked down into the audience and there's about half The Rolling Stones and three-quarters of The Beatles. We were about three years older and had just come from California and we're looking at our idols and we were so scared, man, we couldn't even open our teeth.
Derek Taylor (PR man, The Byrds] : Blaises was a place where people wouldn't mind being seen, but, but it wasn't an ideal gig. The stage was the size of a sofa and The Byrds played extraordinarily loud and appeared both awkward and temperamental. Still, I loved them, and George Harrison and John Lennon were also impressed.
Roger McGuinn : Derek Taylor was with us and he introduced us, and we rented a little hotel room right upstairs. We all went up there and hung out. It was kind of awkward, and we were just sort of standing around looking at each other.
David Crosby : Now, The Beatles were kind fellows. They knew that we weren't better than them, so they were nice to us. They said, 'It's all right lad. I know your amp broke and you broke a bass string, but it's all right. Don't cry.'
Roger McGuinn : John said, 'I want to see your little glasses.' So I gave him my glasses which I used for vision and, since he was very near-sighted himself, he was very curious about that. He always had to take off his glasses, because he didn't want to appear with them on stage. So I had given him a way to wear glasses and still be cool. He thought that was neat.
Then George and David started talking about guitars and stuff. Still, it wasn't a very long meeting, maybe about twenty minutes, and then we all went home.
(Source : not known)