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

A New mono mix of "I'll Be Back" was prepared between 10:00 and 11:00 in studio two at Abbey Road this morning - in the Beatle's absence, of course.

The Complete Beatles Chronicle - ML

Princess Theatre, Un Chau St. Kowloon, Hong Kong

Two "houses" at the 1700 seater Princess Theatre in Kowloon. Beatlemania was evident even here in the Orient. Neither performance here was sold out, principally because of the high ticket price, HK $75, set by the local promoter without the knowledge of Brian Epstein. Equivalent to £4 10s (£4.50) at the time, this was the average working man's weekly wage in Hong Kong.

The Beatles had left Amsterdam during the morning of June 7th and flown back to London where they took a connecting flight, conveniently delayed to allow for their switchover, and set out for Hong Kong. The plane made several re-fuelling stops at Zurich, Beirut, Karachi, Calcutta and Bangkok and at each airport terminal, at any time of the day or night, and irrespective of whether one or more of the Beatles actually alighted the plane, Beatlemania erupted. Then, when the plane landed at Kaitak Airport in Hong Kong more than a thousand fans were on hand to greet them.

Back in England, meanwhile, George Martin supervised new mono mixes of "A Hard Day's Night" and "Things We Said Today" and the copying of two sets of A Hard Day's Night mono mixes for dissemination to Capital Records and United Artists Records in the USA ("I Should Have Known Better", "If I Fell", "Tell Me Why", "And I Love Her", "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You", "I'll Cry Instead", "Can't Buy Me Love", and "A Hard Day's Night").

The Complete Beatles Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn

BBC re-broadcasts 'Around The Beatles'.

Brian flies back to London and announces that Gerry and the Pacemakers will star in their own Christmas show.

Vara TV (Holland) screens the 5 June 1964 recording.

On the morning of 7 June 1964 The Beatles flew from Amsterdam to Hong Kong, a journey which took in refueling stops in several countries and lasted more than 24 hours.

The group first flew back to London Airport where their connecting flight was postponed for an hour to allow them to catch it. Once they were on board the BEA 10.15am flight to Hong Kong began.

The aeroplane made scheduled stops in Zurich, Beirut, Karachi, Calcutta and Bangkok before arriving in Hong Kong. At each airport terminal hordes of fans turned out in the hope of seeing The Beatles, regardless of the time of day or whether the group actually left the plane.

In Beirut local police used fire-fighting foam to hold back hundreds of fans who broke through security and invaded the runway. In Karachi Paul McCartney was mobbed while buying souvenirs at the airport at 2am, forcing him back onto the aeroplane. The only stop which held no drama was at Calcutta, where they managed to disembark for a cup of tea at 6am on 8 June.

KB Hallen, Peter Bangsvej, Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark

Two shows (at 6:00 and 9:30 pm), each seen by 4400 people, kicked-off the Beatle's 27-day world tour, which spanned Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand. For the first five dates, Copenhagen through to Adelaide, Jimmy Nicol replaced Ringo Starr.

For the two Copenhagen "houses", and the following ten dates until they reached Wellington, their repertoire comprised "I Saw Her Standing There", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "You Can't Do That", "All My Loving", "She Loves You", "Till There Was You", "All My Loving", "She Loves You", "Till There Was You", "Roll Over Beethoven", "Can't Buy Me Love", "This Boy", and "Long Tall Sally".

With the Beatles out of the country (except for Ringo, that is, who remained behind in a London hospital), George Martin and balance engineer Norman Smith were left with the task of completing the group's batch of recent recordings.

The Beatles Complete Chronicle- ML

Vellinghal Op Hoop Van Zegen, Veilingweg, Blokker, The Netherlands

Two shows in an auction hall in Blokker, 40 km north of Amsterdam, near Hoorn, a 2:30 matinee attended by only 2000 fans and a 7:00 pm performance for which all of the 7000 tickets were sold. The Beatles appeared on stage at 4:30 and 10:05 pm respectively, following eight support acts, and played for around 25 minutes each time. Typical of so many of the group's latter-day concerts, the evening performance was filmed, in this instance by television news and newsreel cameras.

Cafe-Restaurant Treslong, Vosselaan, Hillegom, The Netherlands

The Beatle's first duty in Holland following their 1:00 pm arrival and press conference at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, was to tape a performance for VARA-t, one of the group's best television appearances of all. For this they were driven south, to the town of Hillegom, near Haarlem, arriving around 4:00 pm at this restaurant with theatre facilities often hired by TV companies. Rehearsals began at 5:30 and recording at 8:00.

The program fell into two distinct sections. In the first part, members of the 150-person audience put some questions to Herman Stok, who was seated among them. Stok then fed the questions by microphone/headphone to Berend Boudewijn, seated in the theatre's bar area with the Beatles, Boudewijn translated them into English and the group responded.

The second part was a music performance - the Beatles miming to EMI recordings but adding new vocals on top if they felt like doing so because the microphones were left open. (Their guitars were also plugged in, but no amplifiers nor new sounds were evident). They began with "Twist And Shout" then followed with "All My Loving" and "Roll Over Beethoven". During the next number, "Long Tall Sally", dancing members of the audience began to encroach onto the stage, they got even closer during "She Loves You" and by the time John, Paul and George began "Can't Buy Me Love" they were completely engulfed. Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall and Derek Taylor came on to clear the area but, being unable to do so, Neil directed the three Beatles to leave the stage. Meanwhile, because they were miming, the music continued in their absence, only Jimm Nicol remaining behind, seemingly determined to fulfil his job as the Beatle's temporary drummer even though the others had left.

The Beatles Complete Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

The Beatle's work at EMI Studios on this date can be separated into two distinct sections: 3:00-4:00 pm rehearsing and 5:30-9:30 pm recording.

The afternoon rehearsal, which was not taped, replaced a pre-booked 2:30-5:30 recording session and was swiftly arranged by Brian Epstein to familarize session drummer Jimmy Nicol with the Beatles and their material. Just a few hours earlier, Nicol had been pottering around his home in Barnes, west London, when a telephone call came through from George Martin, on behalf of Epstein, inviting him to become a temporary Beatle. Ringo had been taken ill during a photo session that monring and since he was now in the hospital it was clear that he wouldn't be going out on tour with the Beatles the following morning. With some urgency, Nicol was recruited as his temporary replacement.

So, Nicol went to EMI where, instead of recording, the three remaining Beatles ran him through a half-dozen songs in their present stage routine - "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You", "I saw her standing there", "This Boy", later, John, Paul, George and Jimmy were on stage in Copenhagen, giving their first concert.

When Nicol left the studio, John, Paul and George remained behind to do some recording (documentary evidence that this session took place, and it's details, only came to light in 1991). In Ringo's absence, each of the three took the opportunity to tape simple demo versions of recent compositions. The resulting tapes were taken away either by the composers or by their music publisher Dick James, for they were deposited in the Abbey Road tape library, not then nor any time since.

George began the 5:30 to 9:30 pm session, recording a demo of a song entitled, "You'll Know What To Do"? Paul followed, taping a demo of a revised arrangement of "It's For You", in order that he could give Cilla Black for her exclusive release. The third demo was made by John, of new composition "No Reply". This would be issued later in the year on the album Beatles For Sale. John made this demo because he donated first use of his song to fellow NEMS artist Tommy Quickly, for release by him as a single. Towards 9:30 pm, John, Paul and George returned to EMI four-track recording, taping overdubs onto "Any Time At All" and "Things We Said Today".

The Complete Beatles Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

Two more sessions, each running 15 minutes over the booked times of 10:00 am-1:00 pm and 2:30-5:30 pm. Songs taped this time were John's "Any Time at All" and "When I Get Home" (11 takes each) and Paul's "Things We Said Today" (3 takes), all for the second side of the album, A Hard Day's Night.

The Beatles Complete Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

The film completed, and holidays taken, the Beatles returned to EMI Studios for three days to record the non-soundtrack side of the LP A Hard Day's Night, any surplus songs being set aside for an EP, Long Tall Sally, with that title song and "I Call Your Name" already in the can.

They worked this day fro 2:30 to 7:15 and 8:00-11:15 pm first recording five takes of "Matchbox" (released on the EP) and then tackling "I'll Cry Instead" (the LP), taped in two sections with six takes of the first and two of the second recorded for later editing, six takes  of "Slow Down" (for the EP) and 16 of "I'll Be Back" (LP)

Visiting the afternoon session, and watching the Beatles record a cover of "Matchbox", his original recording, was Carl Perkins, one of the biggest influences on the group, who was over from America on a promoted tour.

The Complete Beatles Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn