And the award for most prosaic image on a blog about the mansions of rich men goes to...this. South-west of Weybridge lies the army town of Aldershot, and twas here they came on December 9, 1961, to the Palais Ballroom for a "Battle O' The Bands", a "Big Beat Session", if you will. In the event, the crowd comprised a grand total of 18 paying punters, due mainly to an advertising related balls-up.
The Palais Ballroom has long since burned to the ground, and what you see above is what's there now. What was there then, that night, looked like this (at right angles, comparatively speaking):
So, nothing now remains - except, just maybe, that wall on the left:
More pictures can be found on the always excellent Savage Young Beatles site (link to the right).
On a vaguely related "tip", it's worth acquiring one of the several naughty albums (freely available from certain sources) which document the complete rooftop concert, of January 30, 1969. Listening to the whole unedited thing is interesting, in that it shows them going out (in a live context) very much as they came in; there is a wonderful reek, redolent of the pre-Eppy era. John screams non sequiturs. Between song arsing about is much in evidence. In-jokes abound... that type of thing. It's all much closer to the Cavern than Candlestick.
A dozen+ dancing at a Beatles gig. Wow. All I can say is, Wow. WOW!
ReplyDeletehows this for a wow, my name is ken wood, i was born in aldershot in 1967 less than half a mile from there, and my mum used to go there
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