Fact #92982
When:
Short story:
While The Beatles are rehearsing for the BBC-organised Swinging Sound 63, a trad jazz/beat music package at The Royal Albert Hall, London, England, UK, Paul McCartney meets actress Jane
Asher, soon to become his girlfriend. She will inspire songs including All My Loving, And I Love Her, I'm Looking Through You, You Won't See Me, We Can Work It Out, Here, There and Everywhere, and For No One. For the record, the Royal Albert Hall show also features Del Shannon, The Springfields, Rolf Harris, Shane Fenton, Kenny Lynch, The Vernons Girls and Lance Percival, and is compered by jazz veteran George Melly. The Rolling Stones also go along to hang out with The Beatles.
Full article:
Giorgio Gomelsky (rock entrepreneur) : The BBC every year had this concert the light entertainment music department was putting on. The Beatles were just hitting at the time. We [Gomelsky and members of The Rolling Stones] went there and met them.
Tony Aspler : I was working as an assistant editor for the BBC program journal Radio Times in the early 1960s. The fact that I was the youngest member of staff meant that I had to cover the pop scene. There was a big concert held at The Royal Albert Hall in London in April 1963 which was recorded by the BBC Light Programme for future broadcast. All the upcoming groups were booked - among which were Gerry And The Pacemakers, Dave Clark Five and this new group fresh down from Liverpool called The Beatles.
I didn't have much experience of pop music so I decided to invite along someone who could give me their impressions of the music. At that time on BBC Television they had a show hosted by David Jacobs which voted new music a 'Hit' or a 'Miss'. One of the panelists was a teenaged actress named Jane Asher . Coincidentally, her family lived around the corner from me (her father was a psychiatrist; her brother was Peter - of Peter And Gordon). Jane agreed to come with me to the concert and as we listened to the various groups she gave me her comments.
George Harrison (guitarist, The Beatles] : Tom Springfield (of The Springfields] had a big 12-string guitar which he'd had made for him – in Liverpool, strangely enough. I asked if I could have a go, and borrowed it, and sat in the dressing room all the afternoon, playing it. What a sound on it!
Tony Aspler : When The Beatles did their first number she was immediately impressed and said she would like to meet them.
After a few minutes Jane (Jane Asher ) turned to me; 'It's weird how the sound fills the entire hall, seeing the singers at such a distance. It gives you a funny feeling.' Or as The Vernons Girls put it vocally, 'Funny All Over.' Jane studied the faces around her: 'It seems only the girls are enjoying themselves. It really is a girl's show.' The Beatles bounded on stage and the noise of their reception reached the threshold of pain. 'Now these I could scream for,' said Jane - with a little prompting from our photographer she did, and felt better for it. (Listen tonight for the response to Gerry And The Pacemakers.) 'Isn't that fantastic (Rolf Harris's wobble board) - it sounds like bath water running out.' And as the bath water ran out, the Sun Arose. Of the show in general, Jane said: 'It ran very smoothly. It's fabulous to see all those singers together.' And in a word? 'Noisy.' Which all goes to prove that the sentiments of a square equal the sum of the sentiments of the non-square on my left.
Paul McCartney : We knew her (Jane Asher ) as the rather attractive, nice, well-spoken chick that we'd seen that year on Juke Box Jury. We all thought she was blonde, because we'd only ever seen her in black and white on television, and we went mad for blondes.
Tony Aspler : In the interval, we went down into the dressing room, which looked like a men's locker room with rows of dark green lockers and benches, and there they were.
I introduced Jane to The Beatles and Ringo immediately said, "Would you like to go to a party?" Jane said she would and asked me if I would join her. I had to get up early next morning for work and said 'No.' As a result of that meeting Jane started going out with Paul.
Paul McCartney : Then she came backstage afterwards and so we all immediately tried to pull her. At the end of all that, I ended up with Jane. Maybe I'd made the strongest play, or maybe she fancied me, I don't know.
Del Shannon : I told John that I was going to cover From Me To You. He said, 'That'll be all right.' But then, just as he was going on stage at The Royal Albert Hall, he turned to me and said, 'Don't do that.' Brian Epstein had told him that he didn't want Americans covering their songs. The Beatles were going to invade America by themselves.
George Melly : I went on to introduce The Beatles but I never got any further than 'Ladies and gentlemen…' An enormous wall of pre-pubescent screaming arose from The Royal Albert Hall and I had to mouth 'The Beatles' and get out. That night, I was absolutely sure that our days as popular musicians, in the broadest sense, were over. In fact, they were already over and it was to be Beatles all the way.
Giorgio Gomelsky : At the end of the evening, Brian Jones (of The Rolling Stones] and me are helping Neal and Malcolm, The Beatles' roadies, great guys, to carry equipment out of the artists' entrance, and there's this bunch of girls. They start grabbing Brian Jones, 'Oh can I have an autograph? Can I have an autograph?' And Brian was like, 'But I'm not a Beatle!' The girls hadn't been inside, so they didn't know. He had the long hair, looked like a pop star. I told him to sign anyway, and he did.
As we're walking down the steps of the Albert Hall to go to my apartment not far from there, Brian looks at me and says – 'Giorgio, Giorgio, that'th what I want. That'th what I want!' And I said, 'Brian, you're going to have it. Don't worry about it. But when you get it you might not want it.' But I was wrong – he never got enough of it...
Cynthia Lennon (wife of John Lennon] : Paul fell like a ton of bricks for Jane. The first time I was introduced to her was at her home and she was sitting on Paul's knee. My first impression of Jane was how beautiful and finely featured she was. Her mass of Titian-coloured hair cascaded around her face and shoulders, her pale complexion contrasting strongly with dark clothes and shining hair. Paul was obviously as proud as a peacock with his new lady. For Paul, Jane Asher was a great prize.
Brian Sommerville (Beatles publicist) : There was a considerable difference of opinion over the Jane Asher situation. Brian [The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein] made a terrible fuss about it, saying that it would offend the fans. But, in effect, Paul just told him to mind his own business.
Sources : Tony Aspler quotes, some from Radio Times, and some from http://beatles.ncf.ca/aspler.html
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Tony Aspler : I was working as an assistant editor for the BBC program journal Radio Times in the early 1960s. The fact that I was the youngest member of staff meant that I had to cover the pop scene. There was a big concert held at The Royal Albert Hall in London in April 1963 which was recorded by the BBC Light Programme for future broadcast. All the upcoming groups were booked - among which were Gerry And The Pacemakers, Dave Clark Five and this new group fresh down from Liverpool called The Beatles.
I didn't have much experience of pop music so I decided to invite along someone who could give me their impressions of the music. At that time on BBC Television they had a show hosted by David Jacobs which voted new music a 'Hit' or a 'Miss'. One of the panelists was a teenaged actress named Jane Asher . Coincidentally, her family lived around the corner from me (her father was a psychiatrist; her brother was Peter - of Peter And Gordon). Jane agreed to come with me to the concert and as we listened to the various groups she gave me her comments.
George Harrison (guitarist, The Beatles] : Tom Springfield (of The Springfields] had a big 12-string guitar which he'd had made for him – in Liverpool, strangely enough. I asked if I could have a go, and borrowed it, and sat in the dressing room all the afternoon, playing it. What a sound on it!
Tony Aspler : When The Beatles did their first number she was immediately impressed and said she would like to meet them.
After a few minutes Jane (Jane Asher ) turned to me; 'It's weird how the sound fills the entire hall, seeing the singers at such a distance. It gives you a funny feeling.' Or as The Vernons Girls put it vocally, 'Funny All Over.' Jane studied the faces around her: 'It seems only the girls are enjoying themselves. It really is a girl's show.' The Beatles bounded on stage and the noise of their reception reached the threshold of pain. 'Now these I could scream for,' said Jane - with a little prompting from our photographer she did, and felt better for it. (Listen tonight for the response to Gerry And The Pacemakers.) 'Isn't that fantastic (Rolf Harris's wobble board) - it sounds like bath water running out.' And as the bath water ran out, the Sun Arose. Of the show in general, Jane said: 'It ran very smoothly. It's fabulous to see all those singers together.' And in a word? 'Noisy.' Which all goes to prove that the sentiments of a square equal the sum of the sentiments of the non-square on my left.
Paul McCartney : We knew her (Jane Asher ) as the rather attractive, nice, well-spoken chick that we'd seen that year on Juke Box Jury. We all thought she was blonde, because we'd only ever seen her in black and white on television, and we went mad for blondes.
Tony Aspler : In the interval, we went down into the dressing room, which looked like a men's locker room with rows of dark green lockers and benches, and there they were.
I introduced Jane to The Beatles and Ringo immediately said, "Would you like to go to a party?" Jane said she would and asked me if I would join her. I had to get up early next morning for work and said 'No.' As a result of that meeting Jane started going out with Paul.
Paul McCartney : Then she came backstage afterwards and so we all immediately tried to pull her. At the end of all that, I ended up with Jane. Maybe I'd made the strongest play, or maybe she fancied me, I don't know.
Del Shannon : I told John that I was going to cover From Me To You. He said, 'That'll be all right.' But then, just as he was going on stage at The Royal Albert Hall, he turned to me and said, 'Don't do that.' Brian Epstein had told him that he didn't want Americans covering their songs. The Beatles were going to invade America by themselves.
George Melly : I went on to introduce The Beatles but I never got any further than 'Ladies and gentlemen…' An enormous wall of pre-pubescent screaming arose from The Royal Albert Hall and I had to mouth 'The Beatles' and get out. That night, I was absolutely sure that our days as popular musicians, in the broadest sense, were over. In fact, they were already over and it was to be Beatles all the way.
Giorgio Gomelsky : At the end of the evening, Brian Jones (of The Rolling Stones] and me are helping Neal and Malcolm, The Beatles' roadies, great guys, to carry equipment out of the artists' entrance, and there's this bunch of girls. They start grabbing Brian Jones, 'Oh can I have an autograph? Can I have an autograph?' And Brian was like, 'But I'm not a Beatle!' The girls hadn't been inside, so they didn't know. He had the long hair, looked like a pop star. I told him to sign anyway, and he did.
As we're walking down the steps of the Albert Hall to go to my apartment not far from there, Brian looks at me and says – 'Giorgio, Giorgio, that'th what I want. That'th what I want!' And I said, 'Brian, you're going to have it. Don't worry about it. But when you get it you might not want it.' But I was wrong – he never got enough of it...
Cynthia Lennon (wife of John Lennon] : Paul fell like a ton of bricks for Jane. The first time I was introduced to her was at her home and she was sitting on Paul's knee. My first impression of Jane was how beautiful and finely featured she was. Her mass of Titian-coloured hair cascaded around her face and shoulders, her pale complexion contrasting strongly with dark clothes and shining hair. Paul was obviously as proud as a peacock with his new lady. For Paul, Jane Asher was a great prize.
Brian Sommerville (Beatles publicist) : There was a considerable difference of opinion over the Jane Asher situation. Brian [The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein] made a terrible fuss about it, saying that it would offend the fans. But, in effect, Paul just told him to mind his own business.
Sources : Tony Aspler quotes, some from Radio Times, and some from http://beatles.ncf.ca/aspler.html