Beatlemania Was Born In Blackpool

The Beatles 'arrived' when I was nine and nothing would ever be quite the same again. They permeated our young lives and literally became the soundtrack to my adolescence. Christmases were always awash with fabulous Beatle music (1963 With The Beatles, 1964 Beatles For Sale, 1965 Rubber Soul). We thrilled to their sound on transistors, radiograms and TV specials.

Tennis rackets became guitars, biscuit tins became drums (except no one really wanted to be Ringo) and the girls next door became groupies as we mimed to John, Paul, George and Ringo's unprecedented string of number one hits. In the playground there were mock battles between Beatles fans, Searchers supporters and those deluded few who thought the Dave Clark Five were going to take over the world. We were still all wearing short trousers - even in winter. They seemed such innocent and exciting times....
 

Years later, Beatles For Sale was the de rigeur LP (and then CD) of choice to be played during the annual decorating of the Christmas tree, and so the Beatles became not just part of my DNA but indelibly part of my daughters' as well... and Revolver remains my favourite album of all time.
 

Today's poem is one that I've just written as part of a project for Blackpool's Imperial Hotel, about some of its most famous guests and this being Christmas week, what better time to give it an airing?
 

This iconic image of The Beatles in Blackpool was taken on the roof of the Opera House by photographer Peter Emmett.

Beatlemania!

Beatlemania was born in Blackpool

back in the summer of sixty-three.

The fab four rocked the town by the sea

no fewer than eight times in that giddy year,

playing Queens Theatre, the Opera House and ABC

from balmy July to sultry September,

each show a performance to remember.

None more so than their first appearance

at the Queens - once Feldman’s - on Bank Hey Street

(now a cut-price department store)

when four thousand frenzied but ticketless fans

besieged and surrounded the sold-out venue,

completely blocking all of its doors

so that the mops

had to be smuggled in across rooftops –

the first of many a Hard Day’s Night. 

On stage their fringes shook in crazy joy,

their music, soundtrack of our unshackling,

hardly heard above the noise

of screaming girls in pheromone flow.

It was mayhem of the most wondrous kind…

…and later in Imperial pomp

the boys sipped scotch and coke to unwind,

cloistered in their hotel suite

figuring the chords to I Feel Fine. 

But the Fab Four did so much more

than light up Blackpool –

they were about to turn on a generation!

From Love Me Do to Love You To,

the Beatles soon commanded every station.

A cultural phenomenon

unparalleled in modern times,

these four young men enthralled a nation

eager to escape our post-war blues.

They switched the points -

and in doing so

allowed us to forgo

destination Squaresville
in favour of a Magical Mystery Tour.

Thanks for reading. Have a rocking New Year Beatlemaniacs everywhere, S :-)