Fact #177129
When:
Short story:
When Helen Shapiro opens her British tour at The Gaumont Theatre, Bradford, England, UK, Europe, her supporting act is up and coming pop group The Beatles. Also on the bill are Danny Williams, Kenny Lynch, The Honeys, The Kestrels, Dave Allen and the Red Price Orchestra.
Full article:
Tony Bramwell (assistant road manager, The Beatles] : Beatlemania hadn't really started yet. The only change in their act was that they were doing less numbers in their slot than they'd normally do in a full night's gig, and they bowed at the end of each song, which was something Brian Epstein had suggested.
Ringo Starr : Helen was the star. She had the telly in her dressing room and we didn't have one. We had to ask her if we could watch hers.
Neil Aspinall (Beatles road manager) : The first theatre we got to, the tour manager was a guy called Johnny Clapton. I remember just standing to the side of the stage about three or four in the afternoon when we got there, and Johnny Clapton was saying, 'Who's The Beatles' road manager?' I'd never heard the term before, so I didn't answer. So he ended up saying, 'Is there anybody with The Beatles?' So I said, 'Yeah, I am.' 'OK, you're their road manager.'
And he said, 'Have you got the lighting plot?' 'What lighting plot?' 'Well, you know, for the spotlights and the footlights and the sidelights. The lights change with each number.' I said, 'No.' That was not within my experience. So he said, 'Give me the playlist. I'll do the lights first house, after that you're on your own.' Now, for a 20 year old kid, that was a big deal. Suddenly I had to do all the stage lighting. And I did it, second house, probably very amateurishly. But after that, I got into it. The problem was that every theatre we went to, the colours of the lights depended on what the pantomime had been the previous Christmas.
Kenny Lynch : I remember John and Paul saying they were thinking of running up to the microphone together and shaking their heads and singing 'Whoooo!' I said, 'You can't do that. They'll think you're a bunch of poofs.'
Helen Shapiro : The Beatles were the second act on although, by the end of the tour, they were closing the first half. I had heard Love Me Do before we met them and straightaway I thought, 'Yes, it's good, gutsy, bluesy music and they're bringing it back'. I was pleased that I was going on tour with them and we got on like a house on fire. They were very raw because, although they'd done a fair bit, it had been in clubs and ballrooms rather than theatres and concert halls. I watched them adapt themselves and polish up their act - refining the songs in the set and turning the volume down. Not too much polish though - I was glad that they kept some rawness. As the tour got on, they released Please Please Me, and I could see how they were developing a following of their own.
Neil Aspinall : I wasn't really putting on a light show - it was just having different colours. Reds and oranges, like fire, for an uptempo number, blues and greens for a slow number, then combinations of that in between. Sometimes the hardest part was the people who did the spotlights, because they were normally the guys that operated the movies during the week. Occasionally they'd be on John while Paul was singing or vice versa. I was constantly on the microphone,'Put the light the other way round.' That was all part of the gig.
Kenny Lynch : We were all swapping songs on the coach and The Beatles gave Helen 'Misery'. She didn't like the title, which was fair enough, cause she was only young. I said, 'Oh, I like that song. I'll do it.' They said 'Great,' but Lennon gave me the greatest rucking in the world because I had Bert Weedon on it. He'd been booked for the session and I'd been told that he was very good. I played the record to John in Dick James' office and he said, 'Who's that on guitar? It's crap.' I said 'It's Bert Weedon.' He said, 'Why didn't you tell me? I'd have done it for you.' I said, 'Do you like the record or not?' He didn't pin any medals on me. He wouldn't say anything more than 'I quite like it.' It was the first song that was ever recorded by anyone else from that great catalogue.
Helen Shapiro : I had a huge crush on John Lennon, but I was only sixteen, and he treated me like a little sister. He was the one that looked after me, made sure I didn't get run over and so on. What none of us knew, of course, was that he was already married.
(Source : not known)
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Ringo Starr : Helen was the star. She had the telly in her dressing room and we didn't have one. We had to ask her if we could watch hers.
Neil Aspinall (Beatles road manager) : The first theatre we got to, the tour manager was a guy called Johnny Clapton. I remember just standing to the side of the stage about three or four in the afternoon when we got there, and Johnny Clapton was saying, 'Who's The Beatles' road manager?' I'd never heard the term before, so I didn't answer. So he ended up saying, 'Is there anybody with The Beatles?' So I said, 'Yeah, I am.' 'OK, you're their road manager.'
And he said, 'Have you got the lighting plot?' 'What lighting plot?' 'Well, you know, for the spotlights and the footlights and the sidelights. The lights change with each number.' I said, 'No.' That was not within my experience. So he said, 'Give me the playlist. I'll do the lights first house, after that you're on your own.' Now, for a 20 year old kid, that was a big deal. Suddenly I had to do all the stage lighting. And I did it, second house, probably very amateurishly. But after that, I got into it. The problem was that every theatre we went to, the colours of the lights depended on what the pantomime had been the previous Christmas.
Kenny Lynch : I remember John and Paul saying they were thinking of running up to the microphone together and shaking their heads and singing 'Whoooo!' I said, 'You can't do that. They'll think you're a bunch of poofs.'
Helen Shapiro : The Beatles were the second act on although, by the end of the tour, they were closing the first half. I had heard Love Me Do before we met them and straightaway I thought, 'Yes, it's good, gutsy, bluesy music and they're bringing it back'. I was pleased that I was going on tour with them and we got on like a house on fire. They were very raw because, although they'd done a fair bit, it had been in clubs and ballrooms rather than theatres and concert halls. I watched them adapt themselves and polish up their act - refining the songs in the set and turning the volume down. Not too much polish though - I was glad that they kept some rawness. As the tour got on, they released Please Please Me, and I could see how they were developing a following of their own.
Neil Aspinall : I wasn't really putting on a light show - it was just having different colours. Reds and oranges, like fire, for an uptempo number, blues and greens for a slow number, then combinations of that in between. Sometimes the hardest part was the people who did the spotlights, because they were normally the guys that operated the movies during the week. Occasionally they'd be on John while Paul was singing or vice versa. I was constantly on the microphone,'Put the light the other way round.' That was all part of the gig.
Kenny Lynch : We were all swapping songs on the coach and The Beatles gave Helen 'Misery'. She didn't like the title, which was fair enough, cause she was only young. I said, 'Oh, I like that song. I'll do it.' They said 'Great,' but Lennon gave me the greatest rucking in the world because I had Bert Weedon on it. He'd been booked for the session and I'd been told that he was very good. I played the record to John in Dick James' office and he said, 'Who's that on guitar? It's crap.' I said 'It's Bert Weedon.' He said, 'Why didn't you tell me? I'd have done it for you.' I said, 'Do you like the record or not?' He didn't pin any medals on me. He wouldn't say anything more than 'I quite like it.' It was the first song that was ever recorded by anyone else from that great catalogue.
Helen Shapiro : I had a huge crush on John Lennon, but I was only sixteen, and he treated me like a little sister. He was the one that looked after me, made sure I didn't get run over and so on. What none of us knew, of course, was that he was already married.
(Source : not known)