50th Blog

Playhouse Theatre, London

The Astoria dates comprised the last ten nights of  "The Beatles Christimas Show", which had opened on December 24, 1963.

George and Ringo made an unusual radio recording for broadcast in the "Light Programme" magazine series The Public Ear on Sunday, January 12th. It took the form of a letter they had written, recorded onto tape and played in the program's regular "Air Mail" slot. In the letter, the two Beatles referred to a previous edition of the series (December 29th) in which friend Hall had encouraged listeners to appreciate the music that the Beatles themselves preferred, principally American R&B.

The new contribution from George and Ringo echoed Hall's sentiments, and requested a song to be be played (Miracles, "I've been good to you" was chosen).

On January 7th, the Beatles, as a group, made a more conventional BBC radio recording, a music session for Saturday Club. Then went to Finsbury Park for their two evening "Christmas Show" performances.

The Beatles - Green Street, London

A clip of The Beatles was shown on the Jack Parr Show.

The Beatles appeared at the Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London on these dates.

Astoria Cinema, Seven Sisters Rd.

Finsbury Park, London

This stage production, "The Beatles Christmas Show", conceived and presented by Brian Epstein, and typical of the man, encompassed comedy, pantomime and music. It settled in at the Astoria for a 16 night run, two "houses" each except for December 24th and 31st, when there was only one. (There were no shows at all on December 25th and December 29th as well as January 5th, and the season ended on Saturday, January 11, 1964.) One hundred thousand tickets for the 30 shows went on sale on October 21st. By November 16th, they were all sold.

The Beatles music repertoire for the season comprised "Roll Over Beethoven", "All My Loving", "This Boy", "I Wanna Be Your Man", "She Loves You", "Till There Was You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Money (That's What I Want)" and "Twist And Shout". They also participated in a number of sketches and routines which proved extremely popular with the audiences.

The Beatles and other northern-based members of the large cast, most of whom were managed by Brian Epstein's NEMS Enterprises, flew home to Liverpool late on December 24th to spend Christmas with their families, returning to London during Boxing Day morning.

The Beatles had today off....

Empire Theatre, Liverpool

The 2nd concert form only presentation of "The Beatles Christmas Show".

Gaumont Cinema, Bradford

The first of two special northern previews of "The Beatles Christmas Show", although in concert form only, without the elaborate costumes and inelaborate comedy sketches, and the almost extravagant stage sets, still being assembled in London.

The Beatles had another day off today.

The Beatles enjoyed today off.