How did you become a Beatle fan? (Part One)

I can’t remember not liking The Beatles. I’ve been into the band for so long it’s like my memory doesn’t go back that far. I can remember seeing them listed on the chart run down on the UK show Top Of The Pops (must’ve been) around 1970 I guess and the reason I remember is because I thought it was a strange name for a group! From the mid 1970’s I really got into it when the BBC ran a season of the films. Again I can remember thinking, I’ve heard all of this great music somewhere? I couldn’t place it and I don’t suppose it really matters, the point is, that the feeling I was getting was that it was somehow “part” of me and that it always had been. Quite a strange feeling, even when I examine that thought now. So anyway, truly infected by the mania, I spent any pocket money I had trying to buy as many Beatle records and products as possible. This is probably similar to how a lot of people, (particularly second generation) get into the band. Somehow, it just sneaks up on you and then you can’t remember not being into them. One of the products I discovered by accident was the Beatle Monthly. For a youngster in the UK to discover reprints of a Beatle fan magazine with updated news section during the height of punk was a revelation to me. I started to get these magazines every month and began to pick up on some of the developments happening in Beatle land. One such important development was the reintroduction of the BBC archive. I can remember reading about it thinking, I don’t know that one, that one or that one…mmm? I wonder what that sounds like? In short it looked like an Aladdin’s cave to me. Couldn’t wait to hear it! Come the big day when the broadcast was due, I sat there with my C120 cassette tape at the ready to record these gems. I won’t go into what I thought of them because the point was that this was the single moment when I realised how BIG a subject, musically, The Beatles were and that there was so much more than just the albums available in the shops. This was the material I wanted to hear. Sure, I loved everything you could hear from the released material, but this was different. There was something about this stuff that I loved. The songs and the banter – fantastic!
As a Beatle fan during this time-frame (post 1981) there was a distinct lack of activity. You had to be a bit of a miner to find new stuff or anything of interest unless of course it came up and bit you on the nose!
So there I was, at a rehearsal with my band, when a visitor came in. One of the guy’s had invited this girl to come see us rehearse. I couldn’t help noticing she was wearing a tiny Beatle badge (as you would from fifty paces!) and asked her if she liked the band…she said she loved them and further that she was going to a convention at the weekend. Further, it was fairly local (and easily within reach). I was quite frankly gobsmacked! How on earth did my Beatle radar miss that one?
“Was I going?” she asked. I answered that I didn’t have a ticket. “I’ve got a spare ticket, would you like it?”. Well, I almost bit her hand off for it. Money exchanged, I was going to my first Beatle gathering. How cool was that?
Now after being the “lone” Beatle fan everywhere I went, this was a truly exciting prospect and I just couldn’t wait – bring it on!



In part two, I’ll tell you what happened next and how it changed the course of my life.