Beatles60

Decca Records famously rejected The Beatles a few weeks after their January 1, 1962 audition. Dick Rowe, the head of the company, reportedly told Brian Epstein that “groups of guitarists are on their way out.” Rowe would deny that he ever said that, but nevertheless, Decca did not end up signing The Beatles and Epstein had the sad duty of relaying the bad news to the boys.

But was it really all that bad of a thing? Imagine The Beatles being labelmates with Cliff Richard and never working with George Martin! How different would the story have been? Would we even be talking about The Beatles right now if Decca had signed them? We’re talking about all this and more in this episode of The Beatles60 broadcast! We also catch up with Stuart Sutcliffe, who's still living with Astrid Kirchherr and studying with Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. Ringo Starr returns from Hamburg after the flood in early 1962. Today’s episode is called “Beatles Rejected.”

Small scale history such as that of a pop group is inevitably filled with incredible coincidences, randomness, quirks, strangeness and charm. To revisit the lifeworlds of young adults in 1962 as they climbed their way to the toppermost is by nature a kind of hermeneutical study. Sounds fancy? It's just another word for interpretation/understanding.

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We have a HUGE set of links to accompany this episode. Please see the illustrated page. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll wet your pants. Share with friends:

https://beatles60.group/history-links

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Every time we get a new Fab story from 1962, every new single that is released that year, every new 1962 trend, all the tv shows, all the stories we get in comments from people who were at the Cavern or the Top Ten or Star-Club in 1962, it builds our understanding every day. We're not just deducing facts from artifacts, we're making sense of the story’s development, how the people in the daily story experienced their path, their evolution together as a pop cultural phenomenon. A lot of it is as mundane as remembering or reimagining the ordinary lifeworlds of young adults in 1962. You don't need a doctoral degree in philosophy to understand the hermeneutic circle. Just experience our daily info drops and think about how this interpretive dance is what we actually do if we're paying attention. This isn't just for egg heads. It's for everyone who follows daily.

The Beatles first played at the Oasis Club on February 2, 1962. Six days later they were at The Playhouse Theatre to audition for a BBC radio performance. They passed the audition, so on March 7 they were back at the same theatre to record three songs for the BBC radio show, “Teenager’s Turn – Here We Go.” It was the first time they wore suits in front of an audience. The show was aired the next day. What do all of these things have in common? They all took place in Manchester! Note: on a special page we’ve compiled 43 informative and entertaining links that’ll take you on a deep dive into all that’s discussed in this episode. See: https://barmyoldcodger.com/beatles60-podcast The Beatles wisely chose Manchester as their first opening to the nation. In retrospect, it makes good sense to include Manchester among "Beatles cities" that would propel the group to the toppermost (alongside Liverpool, Hamburg, New York and London). Located about 35 miles east of Liverpool, Manchester was in 1962 (and still is) the prime gateway for all media in the North of England. Radio appearances recorded in Manchester and their first television appearance filmed by Manchester’s Granada TV would give The Beatles their first national exposure. It could be said that Manchester wasn’t just a random stop along the way to London. It was the main route that had to be taken. In this episode of the Beatles60 podcast, we have some special guests! Beatles historian Steve Bradley and radio presenter Phil Salter are area natives. They're the voices behind the mics on the Arrive Without Travelling podcast. It’s an information-packed discussion, and our guests make it perfectly clear that the Beatles’ path to nationwide fame would begin in Manchester, the north's media centre. Listen or Share via YouTube: https://youtu.be/K_56fuTuP0o Arrive Without Travelling (radio show & podcast) https://arrivewithouttravelling.com/radio-%26-podcast   Lots of Manchester links! https://www.facebook.com/113527093818469/posts/497399238764584/

January of 1962 was the beginning of Brian Epstein managing The Beatles. He got to work right away. He started by convincing Deutsche Grammophon’s Polydor Records division to release 'My Bonnie,' the song that they had recorded in Hamburg in June of 1961 backing Tony Sheridan, as a single in the UK. That would happen on January 5, 1962. Added bonus, instead of crediting the group as Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers, Epstein convinced them to call them Tony Sheridan and The Beatles. It’s success was minimal to non-existent.

But Epstein wasn’t done. He also needed to formalize a management contract with The Beatles. He looked at sample of such contracts and found them lacking, specifically in their treatment of the musical artists. What he wanted was a fair contract, one that would treat The Beatles with the respect they deserved as well as one that the group could get out of if necessary. This episode of the Beatles60 podcast looks into what was going on in The Mind of Brian.

2022 is the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese Zodiac, as was 1962. And that year was a huge one for The Beatles. It started with an audition with Decca Records, on New Year’s Day. Four days later they would technically have their first UK single release, when Germany’s Polydor Records released the version of “My Bonnie” that they had recorded in June of 1961. It would go out under the name Tony Sheridan and The Beatles. Neither of those two events ended up amounting to much, but at least things were getting started.

Starting with EMI and Decca, the rejections from London-based record labels started coming in. Something would have to change. Brian Epstein put The Beatles in suits and the inevitable line-up change would happen in August. A lot has been made about how and why Pete Best was replaced by Ringo Starr, sometimes revolving around the idea that George Martin wasn’t going to let Pete play on their recordings. But it was actually a completely commonplace practice for studio drummers to play on recordings regardless of the live line-up of any group. There must be more to the story…

Guest appearances by Eric Howell and Tim Sommer. Also a secret VIP (known to everyone) contributes his famous voice, briefly. (We signed a "no-promo agreement" with the third guest. It's a low-key but almost unbelievable contribution. Just listen for him. You'll know.)

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… 

The Beatles met with Brian Epstein once or twice around the end of November or beginning of December of 1961. Brian hoped to convince the group that he should become their manager, despite his lack of experience in that type of position. The meetings may have come just in time. The Beatles had become more and more frustrated at playing the same venues around Liverpool over and over again with no prospect of gaining a larger UK audience. They were popular in Hamburg as well, but the prospect of just playing in dive bars forever wasn’t particularly appealing. The prospect of having a real manager was intriguing. Epstein had contacts, knowledge of the music industry, and very importantly, money. In this week’s podcast, we talk about Brian Epstein’s journey to become the manager of The Beatles!

We all have an idea of the importance of George Martin to the history of The Beatles. But he didn’t just come out of nowhere. At age 24, he got a job with EMI. In 1955, at the age of 29, he became the head of Parlophone Records and found a great deal of success, especially with comedy records, featuring Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, and more. His success allowed him the freedom to experiment with film scores, electronic music, and anything else he could think of. But the one thing that he really wanted was a huge, hit-producing pop artist. In this week’s podcast we talk about George Martin’s road to success! 

We’ve heard the story for years. A young Beatles fan named Raymond Jones walked into the record department at Brian Epstein’s store, Nems (North End Music Store). He asked for “My Bonnie” by The Beatles. As the disc was a German release, Nems had no copies. But Epstein had a policy to find any disc a customer asked for, and that was what started the search that would result in Epstein finding The Beatles playing a lunchtime show at The Cavern Club on November 9, 1961. On that date, what many consider the most important manager/client relationship in rock music history began. But did it really happen exactly that way? Alternate stories have surfaced over the years that there really was no Raymond Jones, that it was just a tidy story that sounded good. In addition, there are those who would say that Brian Epstein had actually seen and even talked to The Beatles before that afternoon in November of 1961. Can the truth actually be sorted? Is it even possible to know for sure what happened sixty years ago? This episode of the Beatles60 podcast will looks into these questions and more. In 1965, both Paul McCartney and George Harrison, on being awarded their M.B.E.s by the Queen, said "M.B.E. stands for Mr. Brian Epstein."