Beatles A Day in the Life Blog posts of '1963' 'October'

Today, the Beatles were "Off".

Narren-teatern, Grona Lund, Stockholm, Sweden

Abbey Road activity this day saw the production of another stereo mix for "Money (That's what I want), overseen by George Martin in a 2:30-5:30 pm session. To avoid any further generational loss caused by more tape-to-tape copying, two separate two-track mono mixes were used for the stereo album, one for each channel.

This was the final item of preparation for "With the Beatles", and the album was issued on Friday, November 22, 1963, eight months before "Please Please Me", to astonishing British advance orders of 300,000. Domestic sales swiftly passed the half-million mark and in 1965 topped one million. The album even earned a brief placing in the singles actively few in number in the early 1960's - was calculated at that time on sales of any record, irrespective of diameter.

Meanwhile, in Sweden, the evening before flying home to England and their first "airport reception", the Beatles returned to Stockholm to tape an appearance on the Sveriges Television pop show "Drop In", broadcast from 7:00 to 7:30 pm on Sunday, November 3rd.

The recording was made before a live audience at Narrenteatern, a small theatre within the Stockholm amusement park Grona Lund, and it began at 7:00 pm, following afternoon rehearsals. Although intending to perform only two songs, "She loves you", and "Twist and Shout", presenter Klas Burling persuaded the Beatles to extend their repertoire to four, these two in the same order plus "I saw her standing there", and "Long tall Sally". Very clearly enjoying themselves, although they had not eaten all day, the Beatles also joined in with handclapping during the program's closing theme tune, named appropriately enough "Drop In".

On October 31, the group took the morning flight back to London Airport.

Sporthallen, Hamngatan, Eskilstuna, Sweden

A few hours before the Beatles concluded their concert tour of Sweden, with one final performance, George Martin - back at EMI Abbey Road was overseeing the entire set of stereo mixes, edits and banding for their second album, all done in a single three hour session, 10:00am to 1:00pm. The tracks were worked on in the order that George had devised for the finished disc: "It won't be long", "All I've got to do", "All my loving", "Don't bother me", "Little Child", "Till there was you", "Please Mister Postman", "Roll over Beethoven", "Hold me tight", "You really got a hold on me", "I wanna be your man", "(There's a) Devil in her heart", "Not a second time", and "Money (That's what I want)". Only this 14th and final track would require more, later attention.

Borashallen, Bockasjogatan, Boras, Sweden

The Beatles had one performance at 7:30 pm, preceded by a half-hour spot during the mid-afternoon signing records at the Waidele record shop in Boras.

Cirkus, Lorensbergsparken, Goteborg, Sweden

The Beatles gave three shows at 3:00, 5:00 and 8:00 pm, here in the city known to the English as Gothenburg.

Kungliga Tennishallen, Lidingovagen, Stockholm, Sweden

Two shows, at 5:00 and 8:00 pm, in which - theoretically at least, because the audience clearly demanded otherwise - the Beatles were second on the bill to Joey Dee and the Starliters.

Nya Aulan, Sundsta Laroverk, Sundstavagen, Karlstad, Sweden

Not seven months after their concert at Stowe, it was very much "back to school" for the Beatles as they kicked-off their £140-a-night Swedish concert tour in the unlikely setting of the new hall of a secondary school in the tiny town of Karlstad.

The Beatles repertoire for the two "houses" here, at 7:00 and 9:00 pm, and for the remainder of the short tour, comprised "Long Tall Sally", "Please Please Me", "I Saw Her Standing There", "From Me To You", "A Taste Of Honey", "Chains", "Boys", "She Loves You" and "Twist And Shout".

Despite a wildly enthusiastic reception from screaming Swedish Beatlemanics, one man not so impressed was "Johnny", the pop reviewer from local Karlstad newspaper "Nya Wermlands Tidning". He thought the Beatles terrible, their music corny and their playing out of rhythm, adding that the group should have been grateful the fan's screams helped drown out their awful performance, and then he concluded by stating that the Beatles were of no musical importance whatsover and that their local support group, the Phantoms, decidedly outshone them.

Karlaplansstudion, Karlaplan, Stockholm, Sweden

The Beatles first stint in Sweden was to record a radio appearance at the Karlaplansstudion, situated in the center of Stockholm. The title of the program was "The Beatles pupgrupp fran Liverpool pa besok i Stockholm", which transalated means, "The Beatles pop group from Liverpool visiting Stockholm", a neatly descriptive title.

Clearly exuberated at playing before the Swedish audience, perhaps pleased at having to work harder to win them over (The British teenage public having long lapsed into adoration), the Beatles put in a terrific performance, playing live an exciting set of seven songs, "I Saw Her Standing There", "From Me To You", "Money (That's what I Want)", "Roll Over Beethoven", "You Really Got A Hold On Me", "She Loves You", and "Twist And Shout". Between "Money" and "Roll OVer Beethoven", the Beatles took a break while local group Hasse Rosen and the Norsmen played three numbers.

Produced by Klas Burling, who had called Brian Epstein and booked the Beatles by phone for this appearance, the session was recorded from 5:00 pm (without prior rehearsal) and broadcast on channel one of Sveriges Radio (Swedish National Radio) on Monday, November 11th, 10:05 to 10:30 pm.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

The Beatles' final input to their second album, recording the 16th take of "I Wanna Be Your Man" and then watching as George Martin and Norman Smith mixed this, "Little Child" and "Hold Me Tight" into mono, all done between 10:00 am and 1:00 pm.

After lunch, the group flew to Sweden for their first foreign tour.

The Beatles had a day off.