History
In December of 1961, Sam Leach tried to get The Beatles a show in London. The results were disastrous. Meanwhile, Brian Epstein was setting up an official photo session for December 17 arranging an audition for The Beatles with Decca Records for January 1. We talk about it all in this week’s Beatles60 podcast, Calling London. Merseyside promoter Sam Leach wasn’t having much luck. He thought that it was about time for The Beatles to start playing shows in London, so he booked them to play at The Palais Ballroom in Aldershot, about 40 miles southwest of the city, on December 9, 1961. Everything went wrong. Their flyers had been torn down, a newspaper ad didn’t appear in the paper, and no one showed up, not even Ivor Jay and the Jaywalkers, who were also supposed to play that night. It would be a rough one. Brian Epstein was having a bit more success in planning the career of The Beatles. He would set up the first official photo session for the group on December 17. Now there would be plenty of great promotional materials for him to give to promoters, agents, fans, and record labels. One of those labels, Decca Records, scheduled The Beatles to come to London for an audition on January 1, 1962. Big things were finally on the horizon… Aldershot update https://barmybeatleblog.com/f/aldershot-update Beatles60 links https://beatles60.group/links Contact Andy https://barmybeatleblog.com/ Contact Larry https://beatles60.group/contact Sam Leach interview with Gary James http://www.classicbands.com/SamLeachInterview.html Terry McCann interview with David Bedford https://davidabedford.com/rare-beatles-interview-terry-mccann-and-the-beatles-in-aldershot/ Steve Bradley https://arrivewithouttravelling.com/blog Thorsten Knublauch, The Beatles Mach Schau in Hamburg https://youtu.be/nkOMJuO5thw Screaming Lord Sutch Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screaming_Lord_Sutch Beatles Source page of Dick Matthews Aldershot Photos https://www.beatlesource.com/savage/1961/61.12.09%20aldershot/61.12.09aldershot.html Mersey tunnels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersey_Tunnels Gerry & The Pacemakers - Ferry Cross The Mersey https://youtu.be/08083BNaYcA Lennon mocks Ted Heath https://youtu.be/Q7t2m7yqAx4 The real Mick Jones https://youtu.be/d-1M1vWme3E This podcast on YouTube https://youtu.be/WuPFiTtXjKI --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/beatles60/message