Everyone knows about the Beatles' last live performance in London. It was their final one full stop — and what a way to wrap things up too, what with the police raid, Ringo in that shiny red mac and all.
But what about the Fab Four's first show in London — the moment they set light to the south — a spark that would soon sweep like wildfire across the globe? Well, rather like Strawberry Fields Forever in the band's Anthology 2 album, there are a few different versions.
According to Beatles London tour guide Richard Porter, the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein was keen for the group to have a hit record before they attempted to break London. And so while the band were known as the Beatles as early as August 1960, had already made a splash in Hamburg and their hometown of Liverpool by 1961, and had Ringo in the ranks by August 1962 — Porter says it wasn't until 9 March 1963 that they played their first 'official' London gig. The venue was the Granada in East Ham; as Paul Talling writes in London's Lost Music Venues 2 "Just before going onstage the band learnt that their forthcoming single, I Want to Hold Your Hand was likely to have more than one million advance sales ahead of its release. Apparently the scenes outside the venue were so chaotic that a food delivery had to be accompanied by a police escort to make it through the crowds of fans". The Beatles were actually the support act for American heartthrobs Tommy Roe and Chris Montez. Awks.
Such was the Fab Four's surging popularity in fact, they were shifted up the bill, and belted out Love Me Do, Misery, A Taste of Honey, Do You Want to Know a Secret, Please Please Me and I Saw Her Standing There, in a 15-20-minute slot at the end of the show's first half. The Granada building still exists, since 2014 operating as a trampoline park, where you can presumably twist, but are reminded not to shout.
Soon after, on the same tour, the Beatles played the ABC Cinemas in Romford (20 March 1963) and Croydon (21 March 1963) — although at the time neither was technically in Greater London. The Beatles did also play the Lewisham Odeon (29 March 1963), and less than a month after that (18 April 1963)... the Royal Albert Hall — not just a London venue, but one of the London venues. That escalated quickly.
Richard Porter's use of 'official' for the East Ham Granada is important though — because the Beatles had actually played in London a couple of times before... quite a long time before.
On New Year's Eve 1961, the (pre-Ringo) Beatles along with Brian Epstein, travelled to London to lay down audition tapes at Decca Studios in West Hampstead. Their driver had got lost, and the trip to That There London took 10 hours — "just in time to see the drunks jumping in the Trafalgar Square fountain," John Lennon later quipped. Nevertheless, on New Year's Day, the band laid down 15 tracks for Decca, five of which — namely Searchin', Three Cool Cats, The Sheik of Araby, Like Dreamers Do and Hello Little Girl — appear on the Anthology 1 album.
The Decca record execs' response to this audition was legendarily off the mark: "guitar groups are on the way out" and "the Beatles have no future in show business." Oof. Decca signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead (no, us neither). At least the auditions left us some professional quality recordings of the still relatively-nascent group. The Decca session wasn't a London gig, but they did put on a hell of a show — and it was a great setlist.
There's one more contender to throw into the ring though — and this one dates all the way back to 9 December 1961, with a show that was never supposed to happen. This was the infamous episode in which the Beatles were booked to play the Palais Ballroom in Aldershot. No one showed up (including the other band the Beatles were meant to play with), so John, Paul and co had a skinful, caused a scene and were told by police never to return to Aldershot again. (There's more on this debacle on the Beatles Bible, including shots of the lads dicking around.) Around 1am, the group and their entourage decided to drive to London, where they put on an impromptu set at Soho's Blue Gardenia Club in St Anne’s Court, off Wardour Street. There's no account of what they played that night, although friend of the band, Dave Johnstone, remembered: "We had a great time. People said that George Harrison didn't join in, but I seem to recall he did because someone noted 'that's a fine guitar player you've got there' and that would have been George.
"Anyway, they really enjoyed it and stayed until about 3am or so and then it was straight into the van and the drive back to Liverpool."
Of course, Ringo was still a way off becoming the drummer at that time, and so again, whether you count the Blue Gardenia as the Beatles Beatles — and whether you classify it as a gig or an impromptu jam — is subjective. But there you have it: three Beatles performances in London: one in 1961, one in 1962 and one in 1963 — that might all be considered their first live London show.
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