Panda

I'm sure this panda is one many Beatles fans are familiar with! It was given to The Beatles by the fans in the above picture at their concert on 20th November at Manchester's ABC Cinema and filmed by Pathe News for Beatles Come to Town.

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The panda made appearances in later photos of John at his home in 1965, and finally with John and Julian in 1967 (and one scary looking koala). How lovely that must be for the fans to know that it was kept and obviously so well liked.

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Happy 74th Birthday Ringo ♥

The Beatles giving Ringo the bumps for his 24th birthday in 1964, 50 years ago.

9th October 1971

St. Louis

21 August 1966, St. Louis Busch Stadium

Paul McCartney: "It rained quite heavily, and they put bits of corrugated iron over the stage, so it felt like the worst little gig we'd ever played at even before we'd started as a band. We were having to worry about the rain getting in the amps and this took us right back to the Cavern days – it was worse than those early days. And I don't even think the house was full. After the gig I remember us getting in a big, empty steel-lined wagon, like a removal van. There was no furniture in there – nothing. We were sliding around trying to hold on to something, and at that moment everyone said, ‘Oh, this bloody touring lark – I've had it up to here, man.’ I finally agreed. I'd been trying to say, ‘Ah, touring’s good and it keeps us sharp. We need touring, and musicians need to play. Keep music live.’ I had held on that attitude when there were doubts, but finally I agreed with them. George and John were the ones most against touring; they got particularly fed up. So we agreed to say nothing, but never to tour again. We thought we'd get into recording, and say nothing until some journalist asked, ‘Are you going out on tour?’ – ‘Not yet.’ We wouldn't make The Big Announcement that we’d finished touring forever, but it would gradually dawn on people: ‘They don't appear to be going on tour, do they? How long was that? Ten years? Maybe they've given it up.’ That was the main point: we'd always tried to keep some fun in it for ourselves. In anything you do you have to do that, and we'd been pretty good at it. But now even America was beginning to pall because of the conditions of touring and because we’d done it so many times."

Send me a postcard, drop me a line

I don't normally post news, but I thought this was just too cute!


Love letters from Ringo Starr to a teenage girlfriend sold today for £16,250.

Doreen Speight met the future Beatles drummer on a Butlin’s holiday in Pwllheli, North Wales, in 1961, when she was 16 and he was with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.

Ringo wrote to her later in October 1962: “I got a phone call asking me would I join the Beatles and I said yes and I left Rory.

“I am doing very well with the new group, we have a record out I hope you have herd (sic) it it is on (Radio) Luxembourg every night (also don’t forget to buy it).”

Doreen, of Bredbury, Stockport, rediscovered the letters in a drawer. They were sold at a Bonhams auction in London to an anonymous UK collector.

“He was known as Richard Starkey back then and we ended up spending the whole week together, having barbecues and beach parties after they had practised.

“We would sit in Rory’s car and Ringo would hold my hand and buy us non-alcoholic drinks, he was a real gentleman. When we left he told me to write to him.”

Five out of a dozen letters have survived and each begins with ‘Dear Doreen’, with three sent from 10 Admiral Grove in Liverpool, where Starr grew up.

In most of the messages he enclosed photographs of himself and signs off with ‘Lots of love and luck, Ringo x x x’.

A Bonhams spokeswoman said: “We are extremely pleased with the result. The Ringo Starr letters obviously captured the hearts of many as competitive bidding pushed the price to more than double the estimate.”


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Almeria

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With Maureen and Cynthia Lennon, watching John Lennon film scenes of How I Won The War in Almeria, Spain, October 1966.