When Beatlemania hit Sheffield

There is no doubt The Beatles changed everything in the Sixties.

They were icons within days of hitting the charts, legends before the end of that year and enjoyed multi-million selling, global domination within months of that.

Neil Anderson traces Sheffield’s role in Beatlemania:

It is decades since they split and little has changed, they just seem to get bigger.

The city was actually home to the mother of Brian Epstein, their Svengali-like manager who ended up nearly as famous as the band themselves.

Eighteen-year-old Malka, known to most as Queenie, married 29-year-old Harry Epstein at the Synagogue, Wilson Road, Broomhill, in 1933.

The band’s show at the Azena Ballroom in Gleadless is the one that has taken on almost mythical status.

There is no doubt it was the show that helped put the show’s promoter Peter Stringfellow in a different league to his contemporaries.

The gig was originally booked for the home of Peter Stringfellow’s Black Cat Club, St Aiden’s Hall, Manor, but as the band’s career hit a vertical trajectory in the spring of 1963, so did ticket sales.

With 2,000 tickets sold he had no option to find a bigger venue. He tried for the Mecca dance hall but failed and opted for the Azena.

The scene was total carnage at the event with hundreds turning up without tickets; windows were smashed and the fire doors mysteriously opened.

Paul Cooper says: “I can still remember the night vividly. I don’t think Gleadless has ever seen an event quite like it!

“I remember paying 6s 6d for a ticket on the black market outside the venue, I think the original price was 5s 6d.

“Someone managed to open the Azena fire door and hundreds poured in till the police came in and somehow restored order. It was absolute bedlam.”

In November that year, The Beatles finally headlined Sheffield City Hall in their own right – they had already performed there numerous times over the past months as part of bigger package tours as support to the likes of Helen Shapiro and Roy Orbison.

It was the night hysteria-style Armageddon truly arrived.

Former Sheffield Star journalist Francis Mullions described it as ‘the night when Sheffield went Beatle-barmy’ and tells the story of thousands of ‘frenzied screamagers’ yelling themselves hoarse.

There were faintings and hundreds of fans still outside the stage door at midnight, not realising the band had actually left within seconds of finishing – they did not even bother changing out of their stage clothes, but just ran.

Joan Morris recalls: “We’d been counting down the days to the show for weeks. We were absolutely Beatle-crazy.

“The screaming was bad enough before they started, but when they appeared it was absolute pandemonium.

“I could hardly recognise a song all night – it was impossible over the noise of the hysterics.

“A girl near us fainted – I can remember it plain as day. Once she was okay she just started screaming again!”

There was no less chaos backstage either.

The band – or at least their entourage - managed to snub Olympic long jumper Sheila Parkin, who had previously arranged to present them with a Top Stars Special Popularity Poll Award.

When the Sheffield athlete turned up, she was told the band were too tired to see anyone.

All came good after  Epstein invited her on an all-expenses-paid trip to London to meet the band.

She also won silver at the 1968 Olympics and gold at the 1970 Commonwealth Games, so it was not a bad era for her really.

The Beatles said thank you and good night to the city on Wednesday, December 8, 1965, when they performed at the Gaumont, Barker’s Pool, as part of the band’s final British tour.

They totally outwitted the fans again as well. While they were in hysterics laying siege to the stage door hours before the show, The Beatles simply pulled up outside the main public entrance and walked straight in.

Ringo said at the time: “It was unusual for us. Normally we had to hide in vans or go in through back entrances. They did not know what was going on.”

The Top Stars Special snub was not repeated. Compere Jerry Stevens, of Gleadless, presented them with two awards while they were on stage.

Taken from the Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1960s Sheffield – available from dirtystopouts.com for £13.95