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A Novel
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A MYSTERY WITH A BACKBEAT
THE PEOPLE | THE PLACES | THE TIMES | THE TIDES
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DECCA RECORDING STUDIOS | 165 BROADHURST GARDENS | WEST HAMPSTEAD |
JANUARY 1, 1962 | A bitterly cold and snowy New Year’s Day. After a bone-rattling eight-hour plus road journey from Liverpool—and having got lost on the way—The Silver Beatles began their Decca audition late—and ran through some 15 songs in little over an hour. Ten of which were recorded to tape for Dick Rowe, Decca’s senior A&R man, to make judgement on at a later date. Decca ultimately turned down The Beatles, but Brian Epstein refused to take ‘no’ for an answer and travelled down to London to see Dick Rowe at Decca’s Thames-side headquarters. At lunch, in the executive dining suite, he was told that, "Guitar groups are on their way out, Mr Epstein." And strongly advised to stick to what he knew best—selling records.
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HMV RECORD STORE | 363 OXFORD STREET | W1
After yet another frustrating trip to London Brian Epstein walked into the HMV Store on Oxford Street and had the failed Decca sessions tapes transferred onto 78rpm shellac demo discs in the store’s recording studio. The HMV engineer liked the songs he heard and suggested that Brian Epstein pay a visit to Sid Coleman, a music publisher who had offices in the same building.
Coleman liked what he heard—asked if he could publish the original songs—and picked up the phone to recommend Brian Epstein and ‘his boys’ to a business colleague of his, George Martin, head of Parlophone Records, an EMI subsidiary. It was these 78rpm records—and the Paul McCartney song, ‘Like Dreamers Do’, especially—that first opened the door to EMI.
EMI RECORDING STUDIOS | 3 ABBEY ROAD | NW8
Made world famous by The Beatles' Abbey Road album, Brian Epstein was unimpressed when he first set eyes on the place. He thought it more resembled a solicitor's law office. It was where he first met the record producer George Martin, and where The Beatles were given an Artists' Test on 6 June. 1963. They just about passed the audition—as much because of their humour as their musical abilities—and the rest as they say—is history. Over the next seven years, The Beatles recorded all of their subsequent studio albums and singles at Abbey Road.
THE LONDON PALLADIUM | 8 ARGYLL STREET | W1
13 October 1963. The Beatles topped the bill on Sunday Night at the London Palladium—Britain’s most prestigious and popular, nationally broadcast, TV variety show. More than 13 million viewers watched the show. The wildly enthusiastic scenes of the ‘hundreds’ of Beatles’ fans, in the theatre, and it the streets outside—before, during, and after the show—made headlines in the London newspapers the following day. The Daily Mirror christened it—Beatlemania. The NEMS office of Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, was on the 5th floor of Sutherland House, at 5-6 Argyll Street, right next door to the Palladium.
The Beatles played the Palladium three times: 13 October 1963 | 12 January 1964 | 23 July 1964
THE PRINCE OF WALES | HAYMARKET | W1
4 November 1963. | The Beatles appeared at the ‘Royal Command Performance’ in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret. This was the occasion of John Lennon’s famous remark, when he stepped forward to introduce the band’s final number, ‘Twist and Shout’. “For our last number I’d like to ask your help. Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands and the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewellery.” After the show was broadcast to the nation the following Sunday evening, ‘Beatlemania’ engulfed Great Britain.
EUSTON RAILWAY STATION | EUSTON ROAD | NW1
c.1963 The famous towering Euston Arch had not long been dismantled and taken down, when Brian Epstein began making his regular journeys from Lime Street Station, Liverpool, to Euston Station, just north of London's West End. I can only imagine the number of taxi journeys he made, over the endless weeks and months, trying to secure a recording contract for The Beatles from the Big Four: Philips, Decca. Pye, and EMI.
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