A Beatles performance in Sheffield

[extaxman]

One of my mates played on the same bill as the Beatles at Doncaster Baths. The unusual thing about it was the Beatles were second on the bill - after the Xcaliburs, a Sheffield / Retford group. My mate gave John Lennon a Woodbine - he never got another back!

[Timbuck]

Yes the beatles did play at the azena, co's i was there, the gig was moved there after the Stringfellow Bro's found they were selling to many tickets and their place wasn't big enough...I think they got the Fab Four because they booked them just before they became famous, and the beatles honoured all bookings taken, and The Stringfellows got them for about £65 Quid.

My mate "John Bealy" was the singer in the support band at this gig and Paul Macartney borrowed his Bass players gear that night

later on that bass amp and speaker became mine.

From what i remember all the songs were "Chuck Berries" except for "Love me do".

But the Azena will always be the place for "Dave berry and the Cruisers" for me.

[mojoworking]

The Beatles played in Sheffield a total of seven times.

 

The first Sheffield concert was at the Azena Ballroom, White Lane, Gleadless on 12 February 1963. Peter Stringfellow paid £85 to book them. Although Peter had originally been quoted £65, Brian Epstein put the price up to £90 "because they've got a record in the charts", which was then haggled down by a fiver.

 

Stringfellow originally planned to book them to play at his Black Cat Club (St. Aiden's Church Hall), but because he couldn't fit enough people in to cover the huge booking fee of £85 (most "name" bands charged between £35 - £50 back then), he hired the Azena for the night, which cost him £29.

 

The Azena normally held 500 people, but Stringfellow sold 2,000 tickets and it's estimated another 1,000 showed up on the night. Tickets were four shillings (20p) rising to five shillings (25p) when demand took off.

 

Just pause and think about that: 25p to see the Beatles!

 

God knows how they did it, but the Beatles also played another gig on the same day in Oldham, Lancs.

 

The exact set list for the Azena show is lost in the mists of time, but they were only playing one Chuck Berry song live around that time (Too Much Monkey Business). The rest of the set would have been songs from their first LP including: Chains, Keep Your Hands Off My Baby, Please Please Me, Love Me Do, A Taste Of Honey, Do You Want To Know A Secret, I Saw Her Standing There.

 

By an amazing coincidence the Beatles had just recorded the remaining 10 tracks which would make up their debut LP on 11th Feb - the day before the Azena gig! All ten tracks were recorded in the one day, the remaining 4 tracks (it was a 14 track LP) being the A & B sides of their first two singles (Love Me Do & Please Please Me), which were already released.

 

Interestingly, The Beatles were back in Sheffield only a few weeks later on 2 March and then again on 16 March. Both concerts took place at the City Hall during the first wave of Beatlemania.

 

For the second of the City Hall shows, The Star organized a competition in which six of their readers could win a trip to the ABC Television Studios in Birmingham to meet the Beatles. Reviewing the concert in the Star, journalist Francis Mullins called it "the night when Sheffield went Beatle-barmy" and described how 4,000 "frenzied screamagers" yelled themselves hoarse during the two shows at the hall.

 

The Beatles played Sheffield again two months later when they appeared at the City Hall as part of a Roy Orbison package tour on 25 May 1963. Roy started the tour as headliner, but was moved to second on the bill after a few concerts, as the Beatles' popularity was growing daily.

 

Their fifth visit of 1963 was on November 2, again at the City Hall, where they were billed as headliners for the first time.

 

The Beatles' final City Hall concert took place a year later on November 9, 1964. Once again the Stringfellow brothers had a hand in it. Sheffield originally wasn't on the tour itinerary, but Pete & Geoff Stringfellow dropped in to see Brian Epstein at his London office to petition him to ensure that Sheffield was added. The brothers impressed Epstein and he not only agreed to the gig, but offered the brothers the opportunity of compering the City Hall concerts that evening instead of the tour compere Bob Bain.

 

The Beatles stayed overnight at the Park Hall Residential Country Club in Spinhill, near Sheffield, having landed on the lawn in front of the building by helicopter. The club later became the Parkhall Hotel and Restaurant.

 

Their seventh and final Sheffield appearance took place at the Gaumont Cinema, Barker's Pool on Wednesday 8 December 1965. It was their only appearance at this venue and was one of the very last concert dates the group performed in Britain (the last time the Beatles played live in front of an audience was at Candlestick Park, San Francisco on August 29, 1966)

 

Compering the Gaumont show was a local lad, Jerry Stevens of Seagrave Avenue, Gleadless. He said, "It is a big experience working with the Beatles and I have learned a lot. I said before I met them I thought they were the greatest. Now I think they are even better than I thought they were."

 

During the show Jerry presented them with two Top Stars Special awards. The first was for being voted the most popular group by the Sheffield readers of the paper, the second was for Help! voted the most popular single of the year.

 

Ironically, Seagrave Avenue runs off White Lane, which kind of takes us back to where we started. I can't help wondering if young Jerry was also in the audience for the Azena show.

[Cycleracer]

Originally posted by mojoworking

The Beatles played in Sheffield a total of seven times.

 

The first Sheffield concert was at the Azena Ballroom, White Lane, Gleadless on 12 February 1963. Peter Stringfellow paid £85 to book them. Although Peter had originally been quoted £65, Brian Epstein put the price up to £90 "because they've got a record in the charts", which was then haggled down by a fiver.

 

Stringfellow originally planned to book them to play at his Black Cat Club (St. Aiden's Church Hall), but because he couldn't fit enough people in to cover the huge booking fee of £85 (most "name" bands charged between £35 - £50 back then), he hired the Azena for the night, which cost him £29.

 

The Azena normally held 500 people, but Stringfellow sold 2,000 tickets and it's estimated another 1,000 showed up on the night. Tickets were four shillings (20p) rising to five shillings (25p) when demand took off.

 

Just pause and think about that: 25p to see the Beatles!

 

God knows how they did it, but the Beatles also played another gig on the same day in Oldham, Lancs.

 

The exact set list for the Azena show is lost in the mists of time, but they were only playing one Chuck Berry song live around that time (Too Much Monkey Business). The rest of the set would have been songs from their first LP including: Chains, Keep Your Hands Off My Baby, Please Please Me, Love Me Do, A Taste Of Honey, Do You Want To Know A Secret, I Saw Her Standing There.

 

By an amazing coincidence the Beatles had just recorded the remaining 10 tracks which would make up their debut LP on 11th Feb - the day before the Azena gig! All ten tracks were recorded in the one day, the remaining 4 tracks (it was a 14 track LP) being the A & B sides of their first two singles (Love Me Do & Please Please Me), which were already released.

 

Interestingly, The Beatles were back in Sheffield only a few weeks later on 2 March and then again on 16 March. Both concerts took place at the City Hall during the first wave of Beatlemania.

 

For the second of the City Hall shows, The Star organized a competition in which six of their readers could win a trip to the ABC Television Studios in Birmingham to meet the Beatles. Reviewing the concert in the Star, journalist Francis Mullins called it "the night when Sheffield went Beatle-barmy" and described how 4,000 "frenzied screamagers" yelled themselves hoarse during the two shows at the hall.

 

The Beatles played Sheffield again two months later when they appeared at the City Hall as part of the Roy Orbison tour on 25 May 1963.

 

Their fifth visit of 1963 was on November 2, again at the City Hall, where they headlined for the first time.

 

The Beatles' final City Hall concert took place a year later on November 9, 1964. Once again the Stringfellow brothers had a hand in it. Sheffield originally wasn't on the tour itinerary, but Pete & Geoff Stringfellow dropped in to see Epstein at his London office to petition him to ensure that Sheffield was added. The brothers impressed Brian and he not only agreed to the gig, but offered the brothers the opportunity of compering the City Hall concerts that evening instead of the tour compere Bob Bain.

 

The Beatles stayed overnight at the Park Hall Residential Country Club in Spinhill, near Sheffield, having landed on the lawn in front of the building by helicopter. The club later became the Parkhall Hotel and Restaurant.

 

Their seventh and final Sheffield appearance took place at the Gaumont Cinema, Barker's Pool on Wednesday 8 December 1965. It was their only appearance at this venue and was one of the very last concert dates the group performed in Britain.

 

Compering the show was a local lad, Jerry Stevens of Seagrave Avenue, Gleadless. He said, "It is a big experience working with the Beatles and I have learned a lot. I said before I met them I thought they were the greatest. Now I think they are even better than I thought they were."

 

During the show Jerry presented them with two Top Stars Special awards. The first was for being voted the most popular group by the Sheffield readers of the paper, the second was for Help! voted the most popular single of the year.

Mojoworking, I am currently working on a radio programme I'm going to broadcast on Sheffield live later and would be appreciated if I can use this posting included on the Beatles section.

It is interesting and although local would be made to fit into my schedual.

What do you reckon.

[Maddy]

My mum went to see the beatles at the City Hall. She was narked that she couldn't actually hear them! My mother is not the screaming type lol

[TWIST]

Originally posted by malibu

the ballroom in gleadless townend was owned by my auntie and uncle arnie and zeana sadly they are both deceased now but we have 1000s of memorys of her if any body wants to chat about this subject or anything else to do with gleadless drop me a line

 

i remember your uncle...was their second name Fidler?

my mum went to see the beatles there with my dad when they were "courtin"....above the ceiling in somerfields,which is a false,lowered one,is the original ceiling which is still as it was,with stars,and the lights.....up the stairs to the offices was the door which led onto the balcony,but im not sure if thats still there,or they blocked it in.

it has a very strong reputation of being haunted,my mum used to work there and my cousin still does.....things have even been filmed on the cctv.

the young lads that used to work on the night shifts,when it was kwik save,used to tell my mum all the stories.

Small things might happen like things would fly off the shelves,right upto seeing people walk through them,and hearing the sound of glasses clinking and the hum of a crowded place,as if it was still a ballroom and it was full of people enjoying themselves..i think everyone whos worked there has encounted something odd happen to them,the ghost/s seem very playfull.

i keep telling my cousin,whos a manager there,to get you guys from the paranormal society in,to do some readings.....would you be interested??????

[mojoworking]

Originally posted by Cycleracer

Mojoworking, I am currently working on a radio programme I'm going to broadcast on Sheffield live later and would be appreciated if I can use this posting included on the Beatles section.

It is interesting and although local would be made to fit into my schedual.

What do you reckon.

 

No problem, please go ahead, although I did edit quite a bit out in the interest of brevity (plus I didn't want to bore people TOO much).

 

If you want more on the Fabs' Sheffield visits, let me know

[Bushbaby]

It’s been well documented here that The Beatles first Sheffield concert was at the Azena Ballrom on White Lane, Gleadless (S12 3GH) Febraury 12 1963, and it’s also been mentioned that this building still exists, in the form of a Somerfields Supermarket.

I’m kinda thinking that there should be some recognition of this, so I have asked the management at Somerfields to put up a Blue Plaque on the inside of the place, for all to see. They could have an unveiling ceremony, maybe getting Stringy or his brother to attend, and provide a nice bit of local promotion. After all, there can’t be many supermarkets that can boast having had a Beatles concert!!

 

There is a Mcdonalds in Sandhurst (Berkshire) that has a Blue Plaque saying that it’s built on the site of Sir Arthur Sullivan’s birthplace. Ours, I feel, is a greater cause, and as it is now over 40 years since the great day, it can be considered historic.

 

If you feel like I do, that this would be worthwhile, you can ask the people concerned by visiting their customer feedback site. I’m sure a few polite emails wouldn’t go amiss.

 

http://www.somerfield.co.uk/site/contact/feedback/index.asp

[mikey]

Nice post Mojoworking, were you at any of these gigs?

 

You should write a book on it.

[mojoworking]

Originally posted by mikey

Nice post Mojoworking, were you at any of these gigs?

 

You should write a book on it.

 

Thank you for those kind words.

 

I lived up the road from the Azena in Gleadless, so I hung around outside on the night of the concert, hoping to see the Beatles. I was only 13 at the time, so I couldn't even raise the five bob to get in. I do recall it was bedlam outside the venue.

 

The older sister of a mate later took us both to the Roy Orbison show (which was wonderful), but I was just too young to go to the other concerts at the time.