Haste Ye Back To Scotland The opening shows took place at the Odeon Cinema on 3 December. The last Beatles’ performance in Glasgow was a joint production of Arthur Howes and Brian Epstein. Other great beat bands who were on the bill included The Moody Blues and former back-up band for Sandi Shaw, The Paramounts [who enjoyed international fame as Procol Harum].
1965 was a fantastic year for beat music with dozens of talented British bands writing and composing new music for the baby boom generations. The movement inspired many for generations to come. Although they were not the only musicians to make a mark on modern culture and music, The Beatles, with their creative drive and charisma, led the way for the movement that continues to resonate in the 21st Century. The British film “Stardust” [1974] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeMzMJ2nSPI portrays the excitement of time when British vocalists and beat bands were gaining attention worldwide.
https://startsat60.com/discover/opinion/nostalgia-the-beatles-last-tour-of-uk-december-1965 Beatles photos during last Glasgow show: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/solobeatlesphotosforum/3-december-1965-uk-odeon-cinema-glasgow-t6954.html
“The tour took place between December 3 and December 12 and was made up of 18 shows at nine venues across the United Kingdom. Unlike the band’s tour of the United States earlier in the year where concerts were held in large auditoriums and arenas, The Beatles’ final tour of England, Scotland and Wales was done in theatres and cinemas.
The first concert was held at the Odeon Cinema in Glasgow on December 3. Also on the bill were The Moody Blues. There was a heavy police presence at the event and though there were still the ear-tingling screams from fans’, it was largely reported that they did not seem as wild as they had been in previous years. John Lennon was singing lead and kicked things off with ‘I Feel Fine’. In their dressing room at Odeon The Beatles also took the time to record a message for Radio Scotland, a new pirate station.” https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/concert/1965-12-03/
3 December 1965 – Glasgow – Scotland – Odeon
4 December 1965 – Newcastle – England – Newcastle City Hall
5 December 1965 – Liverpool – Liverpool Empire Theatre
7 December 1965 – Manchester – Manchester Apollo
8 December 1965 – Sheffield – Sheffield City Hall
9 December 1965 – Birmingham – Odeon
10 December 1965 – London – Hammersmith Odeon
11 December 1965 – Finsbury Park – Astoria
12 December 1965 – Cardiff – Wales – Capitol Centre Supporting acts: Compere for this tour was up-and-coming showbiz personality Jerry Stevens. The other acts were:
The Moody Blues (with future Wings member Denny Laine, a NEMS act)
The Paramounts (Another NEMS act who later regrouped as Procol Harum)
The Marionettes (coloured pop-soul vocal group)
The Koobas (from Liverpool, aka The Kubas)
Beryl Marsden (18 year old singer from Liverpool with a big voice, no relation)
Steve Aldo (coloured singer, also from Liverpool) http://wogew.blogspot.com/2012/03/final-uk-tour-december-1965.html
Evening Express [Aberdeen] – On the Nigel Benson beat – Monday January 1965: “The North beat scene: Announced last Thursday that TV’s Top Of The Pops has reached its 55th broadcast. If it gets any worse – I don’t want to see the 100th one! DEL SHANNON could make a big chart comeback with Keep Searchin’. Dates to note – all in Elgin February 11, THE MERSEYBEATS; March 4 or 11, THE KINKS; and April 8, THE ANIMALS, New group on the Inverness beat scene – the SIZE 4.
HIGHLAND HIT PARADE – GEORGIE FAME reaches Number One – we’ve lost P.J. PROBY and FREDDIE AND THE DREAMERS – and newcomers are SANDIE SHOW and the MOODY BLUES.” Nigel Benson [Aberdeen]
Responding to the question, “what is beat music” as Brian Wilson was performing with the Beach Boys on Ready, Steady, Go [9/64], he responded, “Surf music is beat music with surfer lyrics”. The band who had 5 hit albums in the US and soon to release their Christmas album had arrived for the first time in the UK, 6 months after the Beatles were showcased on the Ed Sullivan Show in the US… https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=vcYrmYeyFsM
Contemporary music was changing in Scotland along with the rest of the UK, USA, and Australia as “beat” groups were eclipsing jazz and folk bands also popular at the time. Just two years after The Beatles began their year of touring commencing in Elgin, Scotland [3 Jan 63], their music and that of their contemporaries had made inroads into the larger American market with young “baby boomers” looking for new styles of music and fashion that reflected the changing perspectives and lifestyles.
The north of Scotland was a destination for new British groups touring to gain a reputation and sell their records in 1965. LCB Agency [Albert Bonici’s promotions in Elgin, Moray] had two groups on tour every week and were keeping up the momentum by printing reduced price “tickets” in the dead of winter 1965:
promotional discounts were given to bearers of tickets/flyers to bring in guests in winter/1965
In 1965, popular British beat bands included;
The Searchers https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/love-potion-number-9/
The Beatles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPkNAP8AQtk
The Animals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHjKzr6tLz0
The Who https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJrdPE8imas
The Hollies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leU5AvubeUg
The Zombies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vrt0b5bQAk
The Kinks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9H8EDxRbaQ
The Yardbirds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQGeBynppmU
The Rolling Stones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60DKSdfw8FI
The Moody Blues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrMQUDx3NmI
besides a variety of pop acts like The DC5, Freddy And The Dreamers, Herman’s Hermits, Tom Jones, and Shirley Bassey (who sang Goldfinger for the first James Bond film).
Although current American groups like The Beach Boys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCR76ml2Skc and The Supremes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yPcoS7Y38Q held their own amongst young music fans, “Beatlemania” was in full swing as the US market was saturated with everything from Beatles trading cards to bobble head Beatles besides a weekly cartoon. http://www.openculture.com/2014/09/the-beatles-saturday-morning-cartoon-show.html.
Beatles music was already becoming popular by summer of ’63 and gained momentum after their early performances on The Ed Sullivan Show [feb/’64]. In the coming months, folk music acts were losing popularity as British music was coming into favour as television programming like Shindig! [which replaced Hootenanny] gained a youthful audience. As beat bands including The Beatles, DC5, The Animals, and The Who, had taken the US, Canada, and Australia, world by storm, the music venue in Elgin’s Two Red Shoes and Elgin Town Hall, was in full swing as promoters embraced the idea of sending emerging bands into the north of Scotland to work out their acts playing to smaller audiences. The summer of 1964, ’65, ’66 were hot though in 1967, when Pink Floyd appeared at the Two Red Shoes, they were unhappy with the small stage besides an audience favouring local band Johnny and The Copycats to Pink Floyd’s experimental psychedelia. By the end of the ’67, promoter Bonici was booking most of the groups at the larger halls in the region including Nairn’s Ballerina Ballroom [which he purchased in 1968]. Here is a list of some of the beat bands who appeared during the summers…
Summer 1964- 28May [TRS] Johnny Anger and The Wild Ones
4 Jun [TRS] Wayne Fontana And The Mindbenders http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B8k3wzHUvE
18Jun Lulu And The Luvvers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HhS2E6VXy8 plus The Puppetshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwVKphI_bQI
25 JunTRS “Another Mod Be In” featuring The Animals https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/eric-burdon-and-the-animals/
9Jul [ETH] The Hollies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32VWELcZUMM
Jul 30 Johnny And The Copycats https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/the-copycats/
13Aug [TRS] Neil Landon And The Burnettes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRV8BlGvOR8&list=PL8DXd_T093ZFNuhH2ww_2U7240GaDVPVM
Aug 20 Robb Storme & The Whispers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41fofmtPu4
10Sep Malcolm Clarke And The Cresters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxXYMZknKaA
-summer 1965-
6May [TRS] “I Can’t Explain” Group The Who http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3h–K5928M
27May[TRS] The Searchers https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/meet-the-searchers/ plus The Rats http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGFKH43QYWI
3Jun The Measles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mucP7f5gdME
24Jun [TRS] The Four Pennies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcHAi9xISzw
Jul 15 TRS “Night Of The Beat People”
-summer 1966- 26May [ETH] Freddy and The Dreamers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So9gS4LGwF8 16 Jun [TRS] The Mindbenders and The Drovers 2Jun [ETH] Small Faces https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/small-faces-1966/ 7July [ETH] The Yardbirds https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/yardbirds-1966/ http://www.marmalade-skies.co.uk/jul1966.htm 4 Aug [TRS] The Overlanders http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9jVo2UZDsA and The Copycats
The Beat music bands were also popular amongst the youth in the UK though BBC had tried to put a damper on the new music by lack of radio airplay. Before BBC Radio 1 was launched in ’67, British youth listened to Radio Luxembourg, “pirate radio” and broadcasts from Radio London [Dec/’64] and others operating from international waters. “The first pirate station broadcast in the UK was Radio Caroline in 1964. Scotland had its own pirate station – Radio Scotland which began broadcasting on New Year’s Eve 1965. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_78qsRhdDDE Radio Scotland was hugely popular. When it was finally forced to shut by the government in 1967, more than 2 million people signed a petition to try to keep it going. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_78qsRhdDDE This was unsuccessful and so Radio Scotland and all the other pirate radio stations were closed down.” Fortunately, music television shows continued to introduce new folk, blues, and beat groups besides dance and concert halls with live shows across Great Britain. “1965 marked the first year The Who entered the mainstream, thanks to the success of their first two singles, “I Can’t Explain” and “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere“, which afforded them numerous appearances on BBC radio and television, most notably the Ready Steady Go! TV program. Meanwhile the band performed continuously in the United Kingdom throughout the year, with brief stops in France and Scandinavia. Their act consisted mostly of R&B and Motown covers, but more and more original material appeared as the year wore on, particularly by the release of the My Generation album in December.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Who_Tour_1965 1965 was another triumph for the Beatles who played a big part in ushering in the “British Invasion” in the United States after The Beatles appeared on three consecutive Sundays in February 1964 on The Ed Sullivan Show. http://www.beatlesagain.com/the-beatles-on-ed-sullivan.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ed_Sullivan_Show A few months after performances in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London and the release of A Hard Days Night http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hard_Day’s_Night_(film) the Beatles began their first US tour in San Francisco in August ’64, returning August ’65 and again in August ’66 with their final US performance in “the city by the bay”. Their final live tour in the UK commenced in Glasgow, Scotland to cheering crowds. http://www.beatlesbible.com/1965/12/03/the-beatles-final-uk-tour-glasgow/ Here is their concert at Shea Stadium in June/1965 with Ed Sullivan introducing them… http://vimeo.com/64434714 The Beatles popularity grew internationally with their early cinema features A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and Help! (1965) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_in_film Whilst the band were enjoying their newfound fame and fortune, in 1965 the doors swung wide open for many talented British musicians and entertainers who sought an international audience to sell their products in mass. London became known as “Swingin’ London” and the British clothing market also took advantage of the trend with “mod” fashion as both television and movies reflected the changing styles. The second “British Invasion” came in the form of music videos broadcasted by MTV in 1981. The Beatles are credited for popularizing music videos when they decided not to tour and opted for distributing videos of some of their tunes. MTV took advantage of a wealth of music videos that were being produced by both British and American bands. Music videos helped to launch careers for many musicians as the new television station secured a large platform via the advent of cable television. http://893fm.com.au/programs/beatlemania/ http://www.sixtiesmusic.org/sixtiesmusichistory1965.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQMpOVIhQU http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=658 [song tracks1965] British beat music http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_music http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965_in_British_music http://www.rockmusictimeline.com/1965.html http://www.skidmore.edu/~gthompso/britrock/60brchro/60brch65.html http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/top-100-1965.shtml http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/tag/pop-culture-1965/ http://www.the60sofficialsite.com/British_Music_Invasion.html
Two Red Shoes Ballroom who had gained a reputation throughout Scotland as a happening jazz and beat music venue by 1964, was due to the relentless efforts of Albert Bonici and his London booking agent, Jack Fallon who saturated the market in Morayshire and the north of Scotland:
SCOTBEAT and http://bonici.wordpress.com includes photos and documents from the Bonici Archives with permission from the Bonici family [PC Holding Co]. You may contact me at dillsdavid@yahoo.co.uk for consent in using images for media projects. Am currently updating http://djdills.wordpress.com with original new collages. #collageart #beatmusic #popmusic #1960smusic
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