18 April 1963
Photo session with Fiona Adams:
Picture Story Publications Limited, 21 Kingly Street, Soho, London
Euston Road, London
"Fiona Adams was the photographer who took the cover photograph of The Beatles Twist and Shout EP.
'I think I've done much better shoots than that, but it worked for that cover and the jumping image worked very well with the record's title,' she said.
On her return from Australia in April 1963, she went to an employment exchange in Soho in search of work. She was directed to Picture Story Publications in Regent Street on a week's contract, but she ended up staying, doing studio and location shoots.
'I would ride around on the top deck of a London bus looking for shooting locations.'
In the same month, The Beatles arrived at the studio and Ms Adams took them in a taxi to a former bomb site at the rear of Euston Station.
"This emerged from one of my first assignments for Boyfriend Magazine. I had met the Beatles (then little-known) the previous week (Sunday April 14th 1963) when they were appearing on the popular 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' Show, hosted that day by Jimmy Saville, at the TV Studios in Teddington. These were very early days and the Beatles readily agreed when I asked them to come in for a shoot."
"Come in they did to our cramped little studio at No. 21, Kingly Street, W.1. The day was April 18th, 1963. I had been keen at that time to break away from the conventional Hollywood-style of stage and studio shot. To this end, I would ride around on the top deck of London buses to search out possible locations. An abandoned area had caught my eye at the crossroads of Euston and Gower Street. This was still a London blitzed in parts and awaiting rebuilding."
"As far as I remember, we all managed to pile into one taxi; the four Beatles, myself and Maureen O'Grady of Boyfriend - plus the camera gear! I climbed down the rubble into a bombed-out cellar, open to the sky, and had a wonderful session with the Beatles lined up on the wall above who couldn't have been more co-operative."
"Taken on this single roll of film was the Jumping Shot, the shot which John Lennon and Tony Barrow chose for the cover of the Beatles EP album 'Twist and Shout'."
"I shot three rolls of film in total, the contact sheets are shown here with a blow up of the jumping shot with my original cropping marks for printing."
"Their career hadn't completely taken off yet, but it did after that," she said. "I remember someone coming out of the building while we were doing it and asking who they were."
She did not know that Dezo Hoffman had photographed the band jumping in Manchester a week before [sic], though his images were not published until later.
In 2004, Ms Adams took the images and contact strips from that shoot to Christie's auctioneers for valuation. They put her in contact with Beatles biographer Mark Lewisohn, who did a day-by-day account of the band over a three-year period, including April 1963.
He said her story helped to confirm what happened on that day.
In April 2006, the Times Saturday supplement revealed the photographer of the "Twist and Shout" photo had been found. Meanwhile, Ms Adams had done a deal with Redferns Music Picture Library to market her pictures.
Through Redferns, Ms Adams' images were displayed in the 2006 "The Beatles on the Balcony" exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, ironically next to Dezo Hoffman's.
"It's lovely and I'm very happy about it," she said. "When Redferns contacted me I thought, Wow! It is a proud moment for me to have my photographs in the National Portrait Gallery."
Source: WogBlog
Concert:
Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London
(rehearsal: 10.45 - 11.30 am, 1.00 - 1.30 pm; first set: 8.00 - 8.50 pm)
Please Please Me
Misery
Radio broadcast (live):
Swinging Sound '63
(second set: BBC Light Programme, 9.10 - 10.15 pm)
Twist And Shout
From Me To You
Arriving at the Royal Albert Hall
The Beatles substituted "Twist And Shout" for "Thank You Girl" between rehearsal and broadcast, without informing the producers. Also on the bill were Del Shannon, Rolf Harris, Kenny Lynch, the Springfields, the Vernons Girls, Lance Percival, Shane Fenton and the Fentones, and George Melly.
Del Shannon recalled:
"'From Me To You' was a big hit here and I told John Lennon that I was going to do it. 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 any Americans covering their songs. The Beatles were going to invade America by themselves."
Source: http://www.spencerleigh.demon.co.uk/Fabs_Americans.htm
Rolling Stones manager Giorgio Gomelsky recalled: "Then they invited us to go to the Royal Albert Hall. The BBC every year had this concert the light entertainment music department was putting on. The Beatles were just hitting at the time. We [Brian, Keith, Mick and Giorgio] went there and met them again, and at the end of the evening, Brian Jones and me are helping Neil 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" - he does the Jones lisp, with fervid intensity - "'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..."
Source: New York Press, 26 April 2000
The Stage and Television Today, 16 May 1963
"TONIGHT the Royal Albert Hall will be filled to capacity for the third and final Light Programme pop concert. And when the last echo of electric guitar has died away twenty-seven soloists, six vocal and instrumental groups, seven bands, and two BBC orchestras will have performed in the series. Frankie Vaughan is the compere for this show and he will be introducing, among others, the bands of Bilk and Ball, and Susan Maughan who have all appeared in previous concerts. Joe Brown and the Bruvvers, Christine Campbell, and Bert Weedon are a few of the new faces.
As a result of my reactions to the first pop concert I was accused of being - horror of horrors! - square and not with it. Just to prove that my heart is in the right place I invited a girl - who is anything but square - to accompany me to the second concert - for her impressions of the show.
Jane Asher, a favourite Juke Box Jury panelist (David Frost, I am told, has to be dragged away from the set when she is on), has very definate views on pp music and speaks her mind with disarming frankness. As we sat in the stalls (a football-pitch length from the stage) I took down her comments - those I could hear above the roar.
After a few minutes Jane 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. TONY ASPLER"
Source: Radio Times, 2 May 1963
Tony Aspler recalls: "Okay, this is how it happened. After graduating from McGill. I went to live in London and 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. When The Beatles did their first number she was immediately impressed and said she would like to meet them. 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."
Source: Ottawa Beatles Site
To wind up this eventful day, The Beatles, Jane Asher, and Shane Fenton headed to the Chelsea flat of Disc/New Musical Express music journalist Chris Hutchins. Paul and Jane ended up together in a bedroom doing nothing more intimate than talking and getting to know each other.
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