For The Beatles, 1963 was the breakthrough year. Four quickfire UK hits in 12 months - the first peaking at number two, the other three hitting the top spot - kicked off their unstoppable ascent to worldwide musical domination.
In a year of incessant touring around the provinces of the UK as the band built its reputation to increasingly hysterical audience reactions, some songs were written on the road. For years, it has been known that the early lightning rod of Beatlemania, She Loves You , was written in Newcastle.
The Fab Four performed four times in the city during 1963, twice at the City Hall, and twice at the smaller Majestic Ballroom (today it's 02 Academy) on Westgate Road. It was after the June 26 show at the Majestic that The Beatles wrote She Loves You - a fact confirmed by none other than Paul McCartney.
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"We were in a van up in Newcastle. I’d planned an ‘answering song’ where a couple of us would sing ‘she loves you’ and the other ones would answer ‘yeah yeah’," he recalled years later. "We decided that was a crummy idea, but at least we then had the idea of a song called She Loves You . So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it - John and I, sitting on twin beds with guitars."
But exactly which hotel the song was written in has been a much-debated piece of pop music folklore. Many have claimed it was the former Royal Turks Head Hotel on Grey Street; but others say it was at the Imperial Hotel (today it's a Holiday Inn) in Jesmond.
The subject has finally been laid to rest in a newly-published book, The Beatles 1963: A Year In The Life , by Dafydd Rees. It's the product of many year's of work and research, including delving through archives of the Evening Chronicle, by the author.
In his entry for Wednesday, June 26, he describes the band's appearance at the Majestic. There were two 20-minute sets and a frenzied crowd reaction which forced the musicians to take refuge inside the city's former police station on Pilgrim Street. Rees also writes: "After checking into the Royal Turks Head Hotel ... John and Paul settled down in one of the rooms sitting facing each other on twin beds and began to write She Loves You ." So there it is.
All of which has come as a bit of a disappointment to Madeleine Warren, Director of Sales at the Holiday Inn, Jesmond - formerly the Imperial Hotel. "I've been looking into this for six years since I started working here," she says. "I’m a Beatles fan and was excited and intrigued when a friend told me we’d had the Beatles stay in my hotel in 1963. I started looking into it, read all the articles I could find online, and even contacted the son of the hotel’s owner from that period for more information.
"I reignited my search this year because next year will be the song’s 60th anniversary. We had plans for the anniversary - a tribute band, an Abbey Road set up outside the hotel, and renaming the bar with a Beatles theme. Then I got in touch with Daffyd Rees via his publishers and he graciously responded and very gently dampened my hopes."
It turns out, however, that the Holiday Inn has an interesting musical history of its own. During her research, Madeleine discovered the Rolling Stones, 10cc, Elton John and many other musicians stayed there. And there was one other revelation in Daffyd Rees' new book. After another 1963 show by Fab Four at the Majestic - this time earlier in the year on Monday, January 28, "they drove the short journey to the Imperial Hotel on Jesmond Road where they spent the night".
The Beatles did stay at Jesmond's Imperial Hotel; they just didn't write She Loves You there.
The Beatles 1963: A Year In The Life , by Dafydd Rees is published by Omnibus Press.
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