BEATLES – Day By Day – 12/9/61
Saturday, 9th December, 1961
Today was the day of perhaps the most infamous gig of The Beatles early years. Thanks to the ambitious promoter Sam Leach The Beatles took their first steps to reach a wider audience, an hopefully attract the attention of a London based record executive, by agreeing to play a gig in the Southern town of Aldershot (about 230 miles away).
The journey by van took over nine hours The gig was billed as a “Liverpool vs London, Battle of the Bands,” unfortunately the local newspaper, The Aldershot News, failed to run Sam Leach’s advertisement (according to Leach they refused to take his check as he wasn’t a regular advertiser), and as a result hardly anyone knew about the gig.
The crowd on the night turned out to be just 18 paying customers plus friends of the two bands. The hoped for record executives also failed to materialize.
The Beatle’s competition for the evening came from “Ivor Jay & The Jaywalkers,” and while they were on stage John and George took to the dance floor for a spin.
After the gig was over the Liverpool contingent including Leach and his photographer friend Dick Matthews took solace in a few bottles of brown ale and then held a soccer match in the hall using bingo balls. The drunken antics soon attracted the attention of the Aldershot police who suggested they leave town.
The van left Aldershot at 1:00am and headed the 37 miles into London where they ended up at The Blue Gardenia Club in Soho now run by old friend Brian Casser (formerly of Cass & The Casanovas). Few of the remaining customers bothered to take any notice when The Beatles (without George) performed an impromptu set. The reason for George’s non participation isn’t given in any of the accounts I’ve read of this strange day in Beatles history.
