20 May 1963
Concert:
Gaumont Cinema, Commercial Road, Southampton, Hampshire
The Beatles pose with Louise Cordet and Gerry and the Pacemakers:
"The winter of 1963 was one of the coldest ever on record and it actually snowed from Christmas through to Easter but it didn't stop me queuing overnight at the Southampton Gaumont Cinema (now the Mayflower) for a ticket to the forthcoming show to be staged on the 20th May. It was billed as the Roy Orbison Show but the early tour dates saw the rise of 'Beatlemania' as the teenage fans were discovering how good these new faces were, so Roy had to step down and close the first half of the show as it was quite clear that nobody could follow the Beatles- even at that early stage. This was also due to the Beatles third hit of 'From Me To You' providing them with their first no.1 and Brian Epstein had the power to shift his boys into the headlining spot. This had also happened on a previous short tour with Helen Shapiro who also had to step down the bill with deference to these new 'upstarts' as their popularity exploded all over the UK.
I can never forget that amazing night as I had a good seat in the front stalls just a few rows back from the stage and facing Paul McCartney on the left of the stage. The rest of the show was terrific with fellow Scousers Gerry and the Pacemakers knocking out their own first no. 1 hit of 'How Do You Do It' which had first been offered to the Beatles! They also featured the follow-up of 'I Like It' which later hit the top spot as did their third release of 'You'll Never Walk Alone' which put them in the record books as the first ever recording act to secure three no. 1s with their first three releases!
Roy Orbison was amazing as usual. Just standing still with his incredible voice soaring all over the auditorium and singing a selection of his many hit records- I was wondering if the Beatles could really top that! Their first LP had just been released and was the most fantastic collection of songs- hard hitting rock n roll mixed with their own early compositions and I knew that this new group were going to change the world of music. The compere had been teasing the audience throughout the show and every mention of 'John, Paul, George, Ringo' etc brought screams and squeals of delight from the girls all over the theatre! When the curtains opened- all hell broke loose with a nonstop scream that lasted throughout their whole performance.
I did buy a programme for this historic show but it went missing some years later. However, a short while ago I put out a call to my Southampton musician colleagues including Dave Ward (ex Earth Angels etc) and he replied with this nice surprise. His e-mail came through on the 12th October- my birthday so quite a treat! Read his own account of that night when the Beatles hit Southampton on their first big tour."
From Dave Ward:
"Hi Dave,
I am about to make your day........ in those unforgettable words of Clint Eastwood. You asked us all if we have any memories of The Beatles concert at The Southampton Gaumont..... I WAS THERE!!!! WOOP WOOP!!!!! Not only was I there, but I also still have the programme. because I knew that in 46 years after the event, someone would ask me about it.
As I recall, Gerry and The Pacemakers were good live, I don't really remember an awful lot about the rest of the support acts to be honest...well it was a long time ago! Roy Orbison, in my opinion was not very visual... he just stood in one place and never moved throughout his act....But Boy could he sing?...He was fantastic!
I don't know if you knew this Dave, but Roy Orbison started the tour as the top of the bill.... It was only when The Beatles had topped the charts with "From Me To You" that Brian Epstein insisted on The Beatles topping the bill.
The Beatles opened up with "Some Other Guy"... a hit for The Big Three...their presence was electric! I was sat in the second row from the front nearest to where John Lennon stood on stage.... The girls were going frantic... I was experiencing Beatlemania LIVE!
...... Then something amazing happened.... something I have never seen before or since... George Harrison approached the microphone and raised his hands to quieten the audience. Then made an announcement... "We are very flattered by the screams... Thank you for that, but we would appreciate it if you could save them for in between the songs because we want you to hear our music"... This was followed by a thunderous applause. And the fans did as George had requested and it was great, you could actually hear the songs.
As I recall they did not do an encore... in fact they seldom did...if ever... remember the concert at Hollywood Bowl and The Shea Stadium?... when they finished their act... they finished!
I hope this has become useful to you and please find attached copies of the original (worn) programme- no it's not for sale!!
Sincerely
Dave Ward"
Another local musician Sid Carter also writes:
"In response to your Beatles mail I was at the Gaumont in 1963. (In fact my first live-music show there was Bill Haley and The Comets)! In 1963 I was 20 years old and in my second band. I had the privilege of a Grammar School education having been one of the first influx of students, at the age of 11, to study at the then Totton Grammar School (now a sixth form college). As stated on your website, my first band was the Bert Turner Quintet which started in 1957. We played conventional dance music but swapped instruments around a bit to perform songs like Presley's 'Let's Have a Party' and Ricky Nelson's 'It's Late'. Presley's Heartbreak Hotel hit No. 1 in the charts on January 27, 1956 - 2 days before my 13th birthday! I, and everyone else, had never heard anything like it! I was hooked! But it wasn't just Rock 'n Roll that got to me - I was into Humphrey Littleton and Chris Barber and by the time the trad boom came around me and my sixth-form mates were hiring buses to go to Trad Nights at Matcham's Park. I moved on to The Malcolm John Five around 1961. I worked 6 months in Southampton Civic Centre. Then followed 6 months working at The Power Propeller company in Totton before heading off to Winchester School of Art and, after a year, moving to Bromley in Kent to study graphic design at Ravensbourne College of Art and Design. (Where I had the pleasure of seeing The Nashville Teens, meeting Peter Frampton and after leaving college seeing Fleetwood Mac, King Crimson, Osibisa and If with Terry Smith on guitar and Dick Morrisey on tenor. I spent some time with Terry Smith and Andy Bown during an 'interesting period' that saw me join The Duke Ellington styled Swing Company . . . but those are other stories!
So the Gaumont concert must have been one of the last things I did before going to college and getting married! I'd already seen Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Tony Sheridan at the Southampton Guildhall a while earlier.
Like anything that was 'of-the-day' we took the Beatles very much for granted. They were the same age as us. They came from working class backgrounds like us. They belonged to us and we belonged to them. What a time it was with Mary Quant, David Hockney, Twiggy, David Bailey the list goes on and on! I bought 'Love Me Do' in 1962 and there was no way I was going to miss their Southampton show. All these years later I remember that Roy Orbison topped the bill and Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Fab Four shared the 'under-card'! The biggest female response of the night was for the slightly chubby-faced bass player . . . with Gerry and the Pacemakers! It was so early in the careers of both bands that neither one was considered the top group. I am horribly critical of musicians (ask my band) and I felt that - instrumentally - Gerry and the boys were pretty superior to the Beatles. But the songs . . . I totally believe that they were, and still are, the best pop songs ever! But . . . the evening wasn't about either band - it was about Roy Orbison! He was magnificent, spellbinding and (his 'limited' guitar playing aside) utterly brilliant. After one of the shows I read in the Echo that Mr. Orbison took 11 curtain calls!
Twenty years or so ago I visited my daughter in Liverpool. We met at her boyfriends bedsit and on the wall was a reproduction of the 1963 Beatles concert poster. The boyfriend was rendered speechless when I casually remarked "I was at that show"!"
Source: http://www.davidstjohn.co.uk/groups11.html
"In the early sixties, the Beatles were playing at the Gaumont Southampton. A friend of mine and I bunked off school, and went to wait with autograph books in sweaty hands at the stage door of the theatre. The tour bus rolled up and the Beatles got off. I approached Lennon and politely asked him for his signature, he pushed me in the chest and told me to f**k off! Nice, eh? And it was this man who later wrote Imagine and All You Need Is Love??? Hypocritical ****!
Incidentally, on that same package show bill, was Roy Orbison. My friend and I were hanging around the Gaumont car park after the Beatles had arrived, and up rolled this huge American car. Roy was behind the wheel. Compared with John Lennon, he was a gentleman. He signed autographs and chatted happily for five minutes or more, before rushing off to practice his high notes. Civility, as they say, costing nothing."
Source: http://www.davidstjohn.co.uk/groups9.html
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