Our museums and galleries house fascinating collections, from living bugs to The Beatles, fine art to photography, the Titanic to ancient Egypt.
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Our museums and galleries house fascinating collections, from living bugs to The Beatles, fine art to photography, the Titanic to ancient Egypt.
Beatles online exhibition
Daybook number RH2005.0020
An early photo of The Beatles from their page in the programme
The Beatles were just one of sixteen acts to appear at this 'Star Matinee' concert held on Sunday afternoon, 15 October 1961, at the Albany Cinema in Maghull, Liverpool, in aid of the the local St John's Ambulance Brigade. Topping the bill was comedian Ken Dodd. The Beatles, number 10 on the bill, did a ten minute spot. Also featured on the bill is Shirley Gordon, a local club singer. The programme was donated to the collections by Shirley's niece Judie De Wald.
The concert was organised by local agent Jim Gretty who worked at Hessy's music store and sold John Lennon his first guitar.
The programme entry for The Beatles, featuring an early photograph of the band, is shown above. The entry refers to their hectic touring schedule at the time. Although they came to be known as the fab four, here they are described without any abreviation as fabulous:
"THE BEATLES
We are fortunate in having secured the services of The Beatles as they have only just arrived back from Germany. They are in England for only a short time before embarking upon another European tour. All four are Liverpool born and great favourites with the teenagers, all of whom are of one voice in describing them as "FABULOUS". What more can we say?"
Front cover
The text on the front cover of the programme reads:
"THE ALBANY CINEMA MAGHULL
Star Matinee in aid of
THE ST JOHN AMBULANCE BRIGADE
WATERLOO AMBULANCE AMD NURSING DIVISIONS
Souvenir Programme price 2/-"
Centre pages of the programme with a list of acts
The full line up as listed on in the centre pages is:
"JIM GRETTY presents STAR MATINEE with your compere ARTHUR SCOTT introducing...
1. The Dusty Road Ramblers
2. Les Arnold
3. Joe Cordova
4. Dunn and Markey
5. Bob McGrady
6. Lennie Rens
7. Shirley Gordon
8. Bert King
9. The Eltones
Interval
10. The Beatles
11. Dennis Horton and Gladys Ambrose
12. Jackie Owen and the Joe Royal Trio
13. Edna Bell
14. Jim Gretty
15. Denis Smerdon
16. KEN DODDAt the Lowry Organ - BERT SMITH
At the piano Maurice Ley and Joe Royal
Production and Stage Management - George Martin and Jim Gretty"
We'd like to include your memories and stories in the new Museum of Liverpool's 'Growing up with The Beatles' exhibition and on this website. Are you a Beatles fan? Did you ever see them perform live? If so then we would love to hear from you.
E-mail the Museum of Liverpool and tell us what comes to mind while looking at our Beatles collection. Please include your name, age, where you are from and your contact details if you'd like to get involved.
'Growing up with The Beatles' is one of the displays being planned for the new Museum of Liverpool, which opens in 2011.