My Story of ‘With The Beatles’
I’d been introduced to the Beatles when my mate Tony Hum played the Please Please Me album and was hooked. I’d bought all the singles Love Me Do, Please Please Me and From Me To You as well as that first album. I remember excitedly waiting for the second album. You never had to wait too long back then.
The 22nd of November 1963 found me heading off to our local record store – Birkheads on Walton High Street – to collect my album (all ordered and paid for).
I was fourteen-years-old and full of the kind of excitement that only a fourteen-year-old can muster. I was standing outside when the shop opened at nine-o-clock and came out clutching my album wrapped in a brown paper bag. I immediately took it out of the bag, in amongst the shoppers,and examined it – checking the track listing, reading the notes, feeling the adrenaline. I rushed home to bung it on the old dansette.
That’s where it went wrong. The bloody record player wouldn’t work. I examined the plug, changed the fuse, but it was as dead as Cliff Richard. Horror. You can’t imagine the frustration!
At that moment my friend Jeff, from down the road, popped in. He knew I’d bought the album and wanted to cop a listen. I showed him the album while loudly lamenting the demise of the record player. He commiserated. We sat for a while forlornly reading the back cover and looking at the front artwork. That only served to make it even more miserable.
Then Jeff suggested that, as I couldn’t play it, couldn’t he borrow it for a few days – just until I managed to get my record player fixed. Like a fool I let him. I remember him scuttling off down the road clutching my prize possession and he never even invited me for a listen!
So it was that I bought the Beatles second album on day one but never got to play it for a whole week!
Finally I was able to play it – every bit as great as I had built it up to be! Perhaps the wait added a sparkle?