The following article appeared in New Musical Express on December 13, 1963, page 3
A seagull squawked, a ferry boat hooted out on the murky river, and a girl walked past me singing "Bless 'Em All, John, Ringo, Geor-orge and Paul". Beatle boots, Beatle books and Beatle picture: you could buy them at almost every corner in the dark, rain-soaked streets.
This was Liverpool on Saturday-proudly welcoming back its home-grown, bushy-haired, record-shattering sensation. The Beatles.
There were no riots, no mobbing crowds outside the theatre. As Paul McCartney put in, disguising a dry grin: "They're used to us in 'Liddypool'. We've played here before!"
Used to them maybe, but there was far from a mild reception for The Beatles when they bounced on to the stage of the city's Empire theatre shortly after 2.30 pm, ready to appear on two Saturday night shows for BBC-TV.
The first, an all-Beatle "Juke Box Jury", turned out to be the noisiest, screamingest ever screened.
BBC technicians had moved into Liverpool 24 hours before, bringing a complex outside-broadcast unit in a military-styled operation to finalise every detail. But it didn't quite work out that way.
The 2,500 fans there-gathered from all parts of the North of England for the first Beatle fan club convention-screamed and screamed and screamed. And the noise merged into a muffled, high-pitched whistling sound that battered the ear-drums and sent the BBC technical staff into a frenzy of worry. Somehow, they hoped, they could make The Beatles heard for the sake of the millions of viewers expected to turn in that night.
The day had started quietly enough for The Beatles themselves. Paul and John flew in from London; Ringo and George arrived by car from their homes outside the city.
Rehearsals took part during the morning, stopping at 1 pm for lunch. The group ordered their food-sent in on a tray-from a 9s. 6d. three-course menu offering Scotch salmon, honeydew melon, roast lamb, minced chicken duchesse and gooseberry pie.
Just after 1.30 pm the audience were in the theatre and the first "We want..." shout echoed from the auditorium.
Both shows were well enough-you probably saw them on TV-but as I'll explain later the highly professional Beatles weren't as happy with them as they might have been.
The telerecording at the Empire over, I walked with the group across the deserted, cobbled street that back on to the Odeon cinema. Here, two performances were due to take place later that night. Strange that the street should be deserted? Not really. Police had closed it off with a barricade of constables at both ends. There were police everywhere. In doorways, on corners, lurking in the shadows, and six more of them were wedged inot the narrow stage-door entrance.
In the Odeon dressing room a TV set had been hurriedly installed.
For convenience sake there was no aerial, simply a piece of metal screwed to a coat rack. And it worked well enough for a while as we all watched the "Telegoons". Then interference began to ruin the picture, so much that it seemed the group wouldn't be able to see themselves on "Jury". I tried some adjustments, but no luck. Then George (who used to be an electrical apprentice) tried. Nothing happened!
It was decided to summon a TV engineer to help out-with only 15 minutes before the programme went on the air! He came with only a few minutes to go.
Suddenly everything came right.
What did The Beatles think of the shows? No too much. "The sound's all wrong," said Paul. "and they keep showing George and I when John is singing. I think there's a John Lennon-hater at the BBC!"
George grinned. "I think you'll have to sue the BBC about this!"
The Beatles are centainly their own most critical audience. Hardly a number went by without them shuddering at a wrong note, or expressing their disappointment at the production.
So many letters in similar vein poured inot the NME offices on Monday, it's obvious that many viewers felt let-down too.
The programme over, they all rose to prepare for the second house of their Odeon show. Said John: "I hope viewers don't take it too badly."
Then he grinned: "I think we'll have to have a guarantee of a good sound balance before we do another BBC-TV show!"