The Beatles’ York gigs remembered on 60th anniversary of first show

Music fans in York have been reminiscing about The Beatles playing the city for the first time on the 60th anniversary of the gig.

The band first performed in York on 27 February 1963, at the Rialto theatre.

John, Paul, George and Ringo were on tour with Helen Shapiro, who missed the York show through sickness.

Graham Metcalf , who was there on the night, said though the Fab Four were only fifth on the bill, when they came on stage the venue "went wild".

The Beatles played York four times that year, along with gigs at Harrogate's Royal Hall and Scarborough's Futurist Theatre.

Mr Metcalf was 16 years old at the time of the first York gig, which he described as "a bit of a disappointment really", because of the other artists on the bill.

"The other performers were good artists, they'd been on television quite a lot, but we were only bothered about The Beatles, we weren't even bothered about Helen Shapiro," he said.

"And then the Beatles did come on and the place just went wild, although you couldn't hear anything because of all the girls just screaming - it was a crazy night, but once The Beatles had been on we just lost interest."

The four young men from Merseyside, who were nicknamed the mop tops due to their haircuts, were just beginning to create the buzz which would later turn into full-blown Beatlemania, when they took to the stage for the first time at the Fishergate venue.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the show, Tracks, a Beatles and music memorabilia specialist, invited people to bring music memorabilia to be valued at their Monday event being held at York City F.C.

Tony Parkin, who also saw music history in the making that night, said he too had gone home "a little disappointed".

"They didn't do a great set in that it was not the stuff we heard them do on the radio, where they'd do all this rock 'n' roll stuff - Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

"But in York they did Taste of Honey and stuff like that. It was early on and they were followed by people like Kenny Lynch and at the end of the night it was Danny Williams singing Moon River.

"It was hardly a Beatles crowd, so I came away a bit deflated."

However, he said when the Liverpool quartet returned to the city later in the year it was a different story.

"At their other York gigs, they did Twist and Shout and Please, Please Me and I Saw Her Standing There, so those nights were amazing, brilliant, the best gigs I've ever seen."

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].