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It may have been 1963, but in truth it was year zero for British music and the group that was about to change the face of rock ‘n’ roll.

When The Beatles released their debut studio album Please Please Me on March 22, 1963, it’s a simple fact that the world wouldn’t be quite the same place again.

It triggered the onset of a fantastical and enduring story that still enthralls and captivates us to this day. The popularity of the Fab Four – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, (as if their names even need writing) – shows no sign of waning. In fact, they’ve never been more popular.

A new movie, Yesterday, released last week, from director Danny Boyle and writer Richard Curtis uses as its main premise the seemingly unimaginable – a world without The Beatles.

Thankfully, we don’t have to deal with that potential yawning cultural chasm. And it’s hard to contemplate a time without The Beatles, but imagine if you will being at that epochal point in musical history – the moment of their arrival, the dawning of The Beatles on an unsuspecting planet.

Two months after the release of that aforementioned debut album, the first seeds of the Beatlemania that would erupt the following year were being sown as the Fab Four embarked on a national tour that included a date at Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre on May 27, 1963.

(Image: Western Mail & Echo)

It was a package tour, the sort that were popular in the ‘60s, that also included the Terry Young Six, Ian Crawford, Louise Cordet, David Macbeth, Gerry and the Pacemakers, comedian Erkey Grant, and Roy Orbison.

Initially, the tour was to be headlined by Orbison, however so popular had The Beatles become, that the top billing was shared. Indeed, within a week of the start of the tour the artwork for the the souvenir programme’s cover was changed from Roy Orbison/The Beatles to The Beatles/Roy Orbison.

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In the book The Beatles and Wales by author David Jones, the writer sheds light on how the situation unfolded.

“Orbison was later to recall that at the opening date of the tour at The Adelphi, Slough, he was confronted in his dressing room by John Lennon and (Beatles manager) Brian Epstein, about who should close the show. They reasoned he was getting the most money (it is said The Beatles were getting £100 a night whilst Orbison commanded £2,500 a week), so asked if the group could go on last. Orbison, whilst ensuring he got paid as per his contract as top of the bill, realised how big the group were becoming and readily agreed.

“He remarked: ‘I was earning three times their money. They approached me and said, 'You’re making the money, let us close the show'.

“It was a brave decision by the American singer because he had to accept the spot in the show when the fans’ feverish anticipation and impatience was at its height.”

It was a sure sign of how rapidly the group were ascending only two months after the release of their debut album. This rising popularity could also be seen in the devotion of the fans who had begun following the group around.

(Image: Western Mail & Echo)

Edwina Timms and her cousin Sue, who were from Devon, were two of the many fans who had warmed to the charms of John, Paul, George and Ringo, having previously seen the band live in Exeter.

Writing in the September/October 2005 edition of the now-defunct US magazine Beatlology, Timms tells the story of how she travelled from Devon with her cousin to see the Fabs make their first appearance in the Welsh capital.

“The next episode of our 1963 Year of The Beatles was a trip to Cardiff, one of the venues on their tour with Roy Orbison and Gerry and the Pacemakers. They were now top of the bill. The date was May 27 and the theatre the Cardiff Capitol,” she wrote.

“Sue’s sister lived in Cardiff so we stayed there a few days finding our way around. We got to the theatre early in the afternoon of show day in the hope of seeing our heroes arrive.

“I don’t know how we did it but we found our way into the dressing rooms of the Capitol Theatre with no problem. Security was very lax in the early days. The Beatles’ dressing room was like Piccadilly Circus in the rush hour. Gerry Marsden came in, followed by Roy Orbison. We were out of our minds with excitement being surrounded by our favourite stars. We got more autographs, including Roy Orbison and Gerry.”

(Image: Western Mail & Echo)

Another pre-show visitor to The Beatles’ dressing room was renowned Welsh guitarist Dave Edmunds, who before he found fame as a member of the bands Love Sculpture, Rockpile and as a solo artist, then worked as a sales assistant in a Cardiff music shop.

In an interview for Radio Wales’ The Dragon’s Breath documentary in 2001, Edmunds remembered: “Barretts of Manchester opened a Cardiff branch. It was a musical instrument shop and I was working there. The Beatles came to town and the the shop manager said, ‘Why don’t you take this stuff around, sticks, strings, bass strings whatever, for The Beatles and see if they need anything and give them a good deal so they remember Barretts of Manchester’.

“So we went around and sure enough they were setting up, going for a sound check in the afternoon and we rolled in. There was no security in those days. I stayed for the whole day. In the evening, I was just standing on the side of the stage watching The Beatles do their first tour. We were too nervous to charge them so we just gave them everything, all the sticks and strings. I gave Paul McCartney a set of bass strings.”

The Beatles performed just seven songs in their headline set at The Capitol Theatre: Some Other Guy, Do You Want To Know A Secret, Love Me Do, From Me To You, Please Please Me, I Saw Her Standing There and Twist And Shout. The band performed at the Capitol Theatre on two subsequent occasions – November 7, 1964 and December 12, 1965 – that ‘65 show notable for being the final live tour date they would ever play in the UK.

(Image: Western Mail & Echo)

For Edwina Timms, the adventure hadn't finished at the gig. She was determined to eke out every last drop of fun to be had following The Fabs.

“After the show some friends took us to the Angel Hotel where it was rumoured the stars were staying overnight,” wrote Timms in Beatlology magazine. “Before long The Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers arrived. Paul and George stopped for a chat and we asked them to sign our programmes.

“As we could never have enough Beatles sightings, we got to the Angel Hotel by 8am next morning, complete with cameras, and prepared to wait for their departure. Nothing happened until around noon. Then at last the Fab Four emerged. They all posed for our cameras, said, ‘Goodbye, see you again’, piled into to a green Ford Zephyr, waved and were gone. Once again we were on cloud nine.”

(Image: Patrick O'Dea) (Image: Patrick O'Dea)

(Image: Patrick O'Dea)

The original prints that Edwina Timms took that morning outside The Angel Hotel are striking as they serve as a record of a band on the brink of superstardom.

At what other point in the band’s existence could fans roll up to their hotel and have a chat with the Fab Four as they checked out? From that tour onwards as Beatlemania took hold, security swelled and fans could only catch brief glimpses of their heroes, with nothing like the access they were afforded in 1963.

The pictures were auctioned off by Timms in 2005, and came up for auction again last year at specialist rock ‘n’ roll auctioneers Omega Auctions.

Then they were purchased for £1,800 by Beatles specialist Patrick O’Dea, who had a particular interest in the pictures.

“Before I bought the pictures I’d obtained an original copy of The Beatles’ Please Please Me album, which was signed by all four members at the Angel Hotel on the morning after the gig at the Capitol Theatre,” he said.

(Image: Patrick O'Dea)

(Image: Patrick O'Dea)

The album set O’Dea, 57, back an eye-watering £12,000, such is the huge money items signed by all four of The Beatles can exchange hands for.

“The album came with a letter from the owner who was one of the other fans there that morning alongside Edwina Timms,” he said. “The girls went into the hotel in the morning as The Beatles were having breakfast. They asked them would they mind signing the album and they said no problem.

“When I saw the pictures of The Beatles had come up for auction I was very keen to get them, having originally read about them in the Beatlology magazine. I love Cardiff and I’ve stayed at the Angel Hotel many times.”

As a measure of its importance in The Beatles story, O’Dea has a message for the current owners of the hotel.

“If I owned the Angel Hotel, I’d have some kind of plaque or picture up there to mark the fact that The Beatles stayed there in 1963.”

I don’t think there are too many people who would disagree with him.

* If you have any Beatles records or memorabilia you are interested in selling, you can contact Patrick O’Dea on on 0790 431 5588 or via jungleroom@tiscali.co.uk