Rock Flashback: A Day In The Car With The Beatles

From the Label of the British EP "The Beatles' Hits"

For a working musician, playing is a joy. Traveling often is not. I once interviewed an artist who asked me a question before I could ask him one: “Where am I?” He’d gotten on the bus after the previous night’s show and gone to sleep without knowing where he was headed next. On this date in 1963, a rising young British band spent a long day on the road because they couldn’t afford not to.

On February 19, 1963, the Beatles played a show at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. The next day, they were booked for their first live appearance on the BBC, on a radio show called Parade of the Pops. Nowadays, they’d go to a studio in Liverpool and play on a satellite uplink. In 1963, they had to travel. So they made the 200-mile trip, and were in London by 11:00 in the morning to rehearse.

Parade of the Pops went on the air at 12:30. The Beatles played two songs: “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me.” Total time on the air: approximately four minutes. Then it was back into the car to race to their nighttime gig. Sources vary on precisely where it was — either in Manchester or Doncaster — but either way, it was at least 175 highway miles to get there.

So in the span of maybe 18 hours, the band drove nearly 400 miles roundtrip for a four-minute gig. When you’re a young band on the rise in 1963, that’s the kind of thing you have to do if you want to keep rising.

Here’s the studio version of “Love Me Do” with some great footage of Beatlemania.

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