BEATLES – Day By Day – 11/23/62
Friday, 23rd November, 1962
The Beatles travelled down to London to audition for BBC TV. The opportunity had arisen due to Beatles fan David Smith of Preston who had written to the BBC asking for the group to be featured. Assuming that Smith was the group’s manager the BBC replied offering an audition date in London on 6th November, Smith took the letter to Brian Epstein’s brother Clive (Brian was in Hamburg with The Beatles at the time). Clive Epstein contacted the BBC, set the record straight and rearranged the audition for this date.
The audition only lasted 10 minutes over lunch time and was held in the St. James’s Church Hall on Gloucester Terrace in London. The reception was less than enthusaistic, and the BBC wouldn’t take any more notice of the group until after they had hit the top of the charts the following year.
After the audition The Beatles hasitly travelled the 220 miles back to Liverpool for an evening gig at the Tower Ballroom in New Brighton. Billed as the 12th annual “Lancashire and Cheshire Arts Ball,” the Beatles were joined by Billy Kramer & The Coasters, the Lew Hird Jazz Band and the Clan McCleod pipe band.
