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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Mark Brown North of England correspondent

Letters from George Harrison’s mum reveal her horror at Beatles fans

George Harrison Louise Harrison Beatles Paul Johnson
Screaming Beatles fans at a concerts in Manchester in 1963.
Screaming Beatles fans at a concert in Manchester in 1963. Photograph: PA Archive

In an inflammatory 1964 essay on the “menace of Beatlism”, the historian and commentator Paul Johnson described the fans who screamed themselves into hysteria as “the least fortunate of their generation, the dull, the idle, the failures”.

He wasn’t alone. A newly revealed letter from George Harrison’s mum shows that she was similarly horrified.

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