Beatles A Day in the Life Blog posts of '1964' 'December'

 Hammersmith Odeon Theatre on New Year's Eve

The Christmas tour continues.........

Still the #1 song in the US on December 30, 1964

I Feel Fine - The Beatles

GOOD BYE 1964!

 Hammersmith Odeon Theatre

The Christmas tour continues.........

The #1 song in the US on December 30, 1964

I Feel Fine - The Beatles

 Hammersmith Odeon Theatre

The Christmas tour continues.........

Hammersmith Odeon, London, England

Tour: Another Beatles Christmas Show

The #1 song on the UK Singles Chart on December 27, 1964

I Feel Fine - The Beatles

Hammersmith Odeon Theatre

• 1. Twist and Shout
     (The Top Notes cover)
  2. I'm a Loser
  3. Baby's in Black
  4. Everybody's Tryin' to Be My Baby
     (Carl Perkins cover)
  5. Can't Buy Me Love
  6. Honey Don't
     (Carl Perkins cover)
  7. I Feel Fine
  8. She's a Woman
  9. A Hard Day's Night
  10. Rock and Roll Music
      (Chuck Berry cover)
  11. Long Tall Sally
      (Little Richard cover)

The Beatles spent Christmas Day 1964 in a number of different ways. John and Cynthia Lennon were at home with their son Julian; Paul McCartney was with Jane Asher at her family's London home; while George Harrison and Ringo Starr remained in their home at flat 7, Whaddon House in London.

Odeon Cinema, Hammersmith, London

Following the previous year's seasonal extravaganza, Brian Epstein now presented "Another Beatles Christmas Show" at the Hammersmith Odeon, across town from Finsbury Park. The venue may have changed but the formula was much the same: music, pantomime, comedy and, of course, a constant barrage of screaming from the youthful audience. The Beatles appeared in two sketches, one with Freddie Garrity (of the Dreamers) and another with disc-jockey Jimmy Savile, and sang 11 songs, "Twist And Shout", "I'm A Loser", Baby's In Black", "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby", "Can't Buy Me Love", "Honey Don't", "I Feel Fine", "She's A Woman", "A Hard Day's Night", "Rock And Roll Music" and "Long Tall Sally".

Rehearsals began on December 21st and the show ran for 20 nights, two "houses" each, until January 16, 1965, except for December 24th and 29th, where there was only one - a total of 38 performances. (There were no performances at all on December 25th and 27th and January 10th)

At some point during this first week (the precise date was not documented), radio broadcaster/DJ Chris Denning visited the Beatles in their dressing-room at the Odeon and interviewed them, unfortunately while they were eating dinner, for a new series on Radio Luxembourg. Called The Beatles, it was broadcast for 42 weeks every Sunday night (8:45-9:00 pm) from January 7th to October 17th, 1965. The Beatles did not record music sessions for this series. In fact they had little to do with it at all, Radio Luxembourg having to spread thinly what scant interview material the group gave Denning - taped on this date and on March 20th, April 29th and June 20, 1965. Most of each week's 15 minutes was given over to news items and listener's record requests.

The Beatles also read out listeners' letters during these interviews and dedicated songs to family and friends. This was especially revealing, and showed the group keen to maintain contact with their Liverpool past. In this first interview John dedicated records to Pete Shotton and to Nigel Whalley, Paul to Ivan Vaughan (Shotton, Walley and Vaughn were ex-Quarry Men) and to the boys at his former school the Liverpool Institute and girls at Blackburne House (across the road from the Institute), George dedicated records to school friends Arthur Kelly and Tony Workman, and Ringo to friend Roy Trafford and also to Ermie, Vi and Art Caldwell (Al Caldwell being Rory Storm, Ernie and Vi his parents).

Christmas recordings, with Christmas songs and messages from individual Beatles, were sent to fan club members in the U.K and U.S.

Although two previously-taped mimed music performances were already slotted into the program, Johnnie Stewart, the producer of Top Of The Pops '64 - the special year-end edition of the weekly show set for transmission between 7:25 and 8:25 pm on December 24th - was keen to feature something altogether new by the group. When he learned that one of the four hosts of his program, Jimmy Savile, would be appearing in the forthcoming "Another Beatles Christmas Show" production, he dispatched cameras to the nearby Hammersmith Odeon to film a brief interview during a rehearsal break on this day. Brief was the word - Savile and the Beatles were seen chatting for all of 1 minute, 23 seconds, the interview coming up into view after a few bars of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and fading out again near to the end of the song, neatly obscuring the fact that the Beatles had never filmed/taped this song for the BBC's cameras.

The Complete Beatles Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn