The Beatles: August was THEIR Month …
WOW!! Hey … forget the RR’s birthday; this entire month seemed to belong to The Beatles!
For example: Forty-eight years ago, on August 17, the lads performed as “THE BEATLES” for the very first time! It was at the Indra Club in Hamburg, Germany, and (get this!) they played for four and half hours a night and six hours on the weekend, for 48 nights! Let’s see any other band do that (THE FORE have played their share of back-to-backs, but not for a full month-and-change straight … yet …
Now, I toldja about it bein’ the month that John, Paul and George hired, then (two years later, same month …) released Pete and hired Ringo. Well, Ringo’s debut with the band was August 18, 1962 at Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight, Birkenhead.
Five days later, John married Cynthia Powell, who was pregnant with their son, Julian. Although they didn’t want the press to know (Paul and George were in attendance, though), someone saw them come out of the Registry Office and … well, you can take it from there …
On August 18, 1964, the Fab Four began their first full-fledged concert tour of the states, starting on the 19th with The Cow Palace in San Francisco. Among their opening acts were The Righteous Brothers and Jackie DeShannon.
Two years later, on the 17th, John (who’d already p-o’ed the religious right with his “Jesus” statement) said that he admired American draft-dodgers. Needless to say, that made the hawk faction as mad as the evangelicals!
Soooo, two nights later, during a gig in Memphis, the band was on the receiving end of an assassination threat; in their second show of the evening, someone threw a cherry bomb (firecracker) onstage during If I Needed Someone — but the band just kept on playing! (Hear the incident by clicking here. Just click the song link under the “MORE TUNES …’” section)
A year later, same date, Ringo and his then-wife Maureen became parents of a baby boy named Jason. But didja know that, on that same day, The Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” hits #1 on the pop charts?
Remember when I toldja about John and Cynthia’s marriage in 1962? Well, on August 22 1968, she filed for divorce on the grounds of John’s adultery — one day before their sixth anniversary! Y’see, she’d come back from a vacation and found a woman named Yoko Ono living in their London home!
As if that wasn’t enough, Ringo quit The Beatles a day later, during the recording sessions for The White Album. He’d found out that Paul had been erasing his drum tracks and replacing them with his own. Although the Ringed One finally gave in and rejoined, Paul filled in on the drums for Back In The USSR.
Sadly, August 20, 1969 marked the last time that all four of The Beatles recorded anything together as a band. They completed I Want You for their Abbey Road album. Later, they’d get together to arrange the tracks … but that would be it …
Two days later, they had their last-ever photo session outside John and Yoko’s Tittenhurst Park home.
And, on August 20, 1980, John began recording his final album, Double Fantasy. It was released on November 17 of that year by the newly-formed Geffen Records. But three weeks later …
Okay … that’s a wrap for tonight’s edition. Now, providin’ I remember this time, yer Uncle Relic’ll have some fresh, new, aromatic copy tomorrow afternoon. So, until then, remember:
Keep your eyes on the skies, your feet on the ground, your heart with the music …
and I’ll see ya on the flip side …
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