One of the earliest known recordings of the Beatles in England has been shared by the BBC. Captured at Stowe Boarding School in Buckinghamshire by a 15-year-old named John Bloomfield, the recording captures a unique Fab Four concert.
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The recording was revealed on BBC’s Front Row. As noted by the BBC, it is one of the few Beatles concert recordings that isn’t drowned out by hordes of screaming girls.
“It was a unique Beatles gig, performed in front of an almost entirely male audience,” the BBC wrote. “And crucially, despite loud cheers and some screaming, the tape is not drowned out by the audience reaction.”
The hour-long recording features early Beatles offerings like “I Saw Her Standing There” and a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Too Much Monkey Business.” The band was tapped to play at the boarding school in 1963 by their manager Brian Epstein. One of the pupils, David Moores, wrote to Epstein asking if the foursome could come and play for the school. The group agreed to perform for a fee of £100.
Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn commented on the significance of the recording. “The opportunity that this tape presents, which is completely out of the blue, is fantastic because we hear them just on the cusp of the breakthrough into complete world fame,” he told the BBC. “And at that point, all audience recordings become blanketed in screams.”
He continued, “I think it’s an incredibly important recording, and I hope something good and constructive and creative eventually happens to it.”
Elsewhere on the tape, the group is heard taking requests from those in attendance from their debut album Please Please Me. The group played more than 22 songs in an hour.
Bloomfield commented on the impact the show had on him at 15. “I would say I grew up at that very instant. It sounds a bit of an exaggeration, but I realized this was something from a different planet.”
Check out a portion of the recording on BBC’s Front Row, HERE.
(Photo by William Vanderson/Fox Photos/Getty Images)
