The Beatles Abergavenny concert poster – The Beatles 22 June 1963

The Beatles Abergavenny concert poster – The Beatles 22 June 1963 22nd June 1963 was the date of The Beatles one and only concert in the market town of Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, Wales. The band had been booked on 19 April 1963 by local promoter Eddie Tattersall, who agreed on a fee of £250 with Brian Epstein. The poster isn’t a Beatles poster per se. It is a list of events as ‘Eddie Tattersall presents Your Dances fror June’. The events to be held at the Town Hall Ballroom during May and June in 1963 are listed as 8 May , A Girl of the Month Dance featuring music from Vince White and The Hunters, from Newport. 15th June advertises Music for Dancing and Romancing to music from The Hurricanes from Newport. The date of 22nd June is the interesting one for beatle fans. The poster quite rightly proclaims that ‘The One and Only Beatles are The Attraction of the Year’. It also announces local band The Fabulous Fortunes as the support act for the evening. Ricky Ford and the Crossfires were to ‘Keep Alive With Rock, Twist and Jive” when they played on 29 June 1963. The poster advertises dancing from 8pm to 11.45pm with admission for most of the shows being 3 shillings and sixpence. All except the Beatles and Fortunes show which was priced at 12/6. The Beatles were late onto the stage due to John Lennon’s TV appearance on Juke Box Jury earlier that evening. The show had been recorded at London’s BBC studios with filming ending at 9.15pm. Following filming Lennon was immediately taken to Battersea Helipad, from where he took a chartered helicopter flight to Wales. He landed in Abergavenny’s Penypound football ground at 9.50pm, and was driven straight to the Town Hall. The rest of The Beatles had arrived earlier that day, and had attended a civic reception given by the Mayor and Mayoress, of Abergavenny, Councillor and Mrs J.F. Thurston. The Beatles took to the stage at 10.30pm. Just 600 fans saw them perform, each of whom paid 12/6d for their tickets. After the concert all four Beatles signed autographs which were sold to fans for thrupence each, with proceeds going to the local branch of the Freedom From Hunger Campaign. The Fab Four released their debut album, Please Please Me in March and subsequently topped the charts with their third single From Me To You. Beatlemania was just around the corner and as the Beatles popularity rose, so did the booking fee for their shows. By the time of the Abergavenny show the Beatles were already commanding fees double the amount they were being paid for the Town Hall Ballroom show. There were initial concerns that the show wouldn’t take place at all, partly due to the meteoric rise and success of the band globally, but also when it emerged that John Lennon had been double-booked. But Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who had ensured the band meet all of their contractual agreements that had been signed prior to their stratospheric success, forked £100 out of his own pocket to arrange a helicopter to fly Lennon to Abergavenny in time for the show. Brian Epstein was good to his word and played several shows around this time for the agreed fee rather than trying to hike the price. At £250, the band still did very nicely out of the show. The support act, South Wales local band The Fortunes, were paid just £18.90. Supported by local band The Fabulous Fortunes, The Beatles finally took to the stage around 10:30pm, beginning with Hippy Hippy Shake, before roaring into their early hits and many album tracks from Please, Please Me. Tickets were just 12/6d, a bargain price for the chance to see one of the world’s biggest bands. The group had been scheduled to play two 20-minute sets, but due to Lennon’s late arrival from London condensed their set to one 35-minute performance. Whilst there is no setlist availble for the Welsh musical show and a bootleg recording has never materialised, it is not known exactly which songs weere performed. Typical setlists around the time included the following songs. Some Other Guy, Do You Want To Know A Secret, Love Me Do, From Me To You, Please Please Me, I Saw Her Standing There, and Twist And Shout . That night The Beatles stayed at the nearby Angel Hotel.