'Were you at Beatles Tooting gig?', asks author (From Wandsworth Guardian)

'Were you at Beatles Tooting gig?', asks author

10:40am Wednesday 18th November 2009

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It was a date circled in many teenage diaries - Saturday June 1, 1963 - for this was the occasion when the Granada Cinema in Tooting was to be transformed, for one night only, into a concert arena.

The crowds gathered outside for once weren’t there to see the latest John Wayne western, or any other blockbuster movie - this was the night when pop stars were coming to town.

And those teenagers who shelled out five shillings (25p) for the cheapest seats up to nine shillings (45p) for the most expensive got as their reward the chance to see American heartthrob Roy Orbison, the Hit Parade’s newest stars Gerry and the Pacemakers, and topping the bill… The Beatles.

The tour, now going into its third week, was beginning to create chaotic scenes up and down the country as teenagers screamed themselves hoarse at every show.

Either The Beatles or Gerry were at number one for 14 weeks either side of the Tooting concert.

Gerry’s first single How Do You Do It was toppled by the Beatles’ From Me To You which was still at number one when the tour hit Tooting.

The Beatles were finally knocked off the top after seven weeks… by Gerry’s second single, I Like It.

Now Martin Creasy, author of the book Legends On Tour - The Pop Package Tours Of The 1960s, is writing a book on the six UK tours of The Beatles and he wants to hear from people who were inside the Tooting Granada all those years ago.

“We’re going back 46 years so I accept that memories may be a bit hazy after all this time,” said Martin, “but I’d like to hear from anybody with a story to tell.

I have been talking to musicians who accompanied the Beatles on these tours, plus reporters and photographers who covered the shows, staff from the venues where they played and the boarding houses where they stayed and fans who saw the shows.

“Now I’d like to hear from people who saw this wonderful show at the old Tooting Granada. Maybe the Tooting girls didn’t scream as loud as others and you actually got to hear the Beatles as well as see them?

"Or maybe Tooting went the same way as everywhere else and it just turned into one giant screamfest. Either way, I’d like to hear your stories.”

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