The Beatles First Ever Radio Interview, November 28, 1962

According to renown Beatles author Mark Lewisohn, this is the Beatles' first-ever radio interview. Lewisohn accurately describes it as rare and fascinating, not just for historical importance, but also because it's wonderfully intriguing. The following ordeal was interviewed by Monty Lister, with additional questions from Malcolm Threadgill and Peter Smethurst on behalf of Radio Clatterbridge, a closed-circuit radio station serving Cleaver and Clatterbridge Hospitals. Enjoy.

MONTY: It's a very great pleasure for us this evening to say hello to an up-and-coming Merseyside group, The Beatles. I know their names, and I'm going to try and put faces to them. Now, you're John Lennon, aren't you?"

JOHN: "Yes, that's right."

MONTY: "What do you do in the group, John?"

JOHN: "I play harmonica, rhythm guitar, and vocal. That's what they call it."

MONTY: "Then, there's Paul McCartney. That's you?"

PAUL: "Yeah, that's me. Yeah."

MONTY: "And what do you do?"

PAUL: "Play bass guitar and uhh, sing? ...I think! That's what they say."

MONTY: "That's quite apart from being vocal?"

PAUL: "Well... yes, yes."

MONTY: "Then there's George Harrison."

GEORGE: "How d'you do."

MONTY: "How d'you do. What's your job?"

GEORGE: "Uhh, lead guitar and sort of singing."

MONTY: "By playing lead guitar does that mean that you're sort of leader of the group or are you...?"

GEORGE: "No, no. Just... Well you see, the other guitar is the rhythm. Ching, ching, ching, you see."

PAUL: "He's solo guitar, you see. John is, in fact, the leader of the group."

MONTY: "And over in the background, here, and also in the background of the group making a lot of noise is Ringo Starr."

RINGO: "Hello."

MONTY: "You're new to the group, aren't you Ringo?"

RINGO: "Yes, umm, nine weeks now."

MONTY: "Were you in on the act when the recording was made of 'Love Me Do'?"

RINGO: "Yes, I'm on the record. I'm on the disc."

(the group giggles)

RINGO: (comic voice) "It's down on record, you know?"

MONTY: "Now, umm..."

RINGO: "I'm the drummer!"

(laughter)

MONTY: "What's that offensive weapon you've got there? Those are your drumsticks?"

RINGO: "Well, it's umm... just a pair of sticks I found. I just bought 'em, you know, 'cuz we're going away."

MONTY: "When you say you're going away, that leads us on to another question now. Where are you going?"

RINGO: "Germany. Hamburg. For two weeks."

MONTY: "You have standing and great engagements over there, haven't you?"

RINGO: "Well, the boys have been there quite a lot, you know. And I've been there with other groups, but this is the first time I've been there with the Beatles."

MONTY: "Paul, tell us. How do you get in on the act in Germany?"

PAUL: "Well, it was all through an old agent."

(laughter)

PAUL: (chuckles) "We first went there for a fella who used to manage us, and Mr. Allan Williams of the Jacaranda Club in Liverpool. And he found the engagements, so we sort of went there, and then went under our own..."

JOHN: "Steam."

PAUL: "Steam... (laughs)

JOHN: "...as they say."

PAUL: "As they say, afterwards, you know. And we've just been going backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards."

MONTY: (surprised) "You're not busy at all?"

PAUL: (jokingly) "Well yes, actually. Yes. It's me left leg. You know. The war."

(laughter)

MONTY: "George, were you brought up in Liverpool?"

GEORGE: "Yes. So far, yes."

MONTY: "Whereabouts?"

GEORGE: "Well, born in Wavertree, and bred in Wavertree and Speke -- where the airplanes are, you know."

MONTY: "Are you all 'Liverpool types,' then?"

RINGO: "Yes."

JOHN: "Uhh... types, yes."

PAUL: "Oh yeah."

RINGO: "Liverpool-typed Paul, there."

MONTY: "Now, I'm told that you were actually in the same form as young Ron Wycherley..."

RINGO: "Ronald. Yes."

MONTY: "...now Billy Fury."

RINGO: "In Saint Sylus."

MONTY: "In which?"

RINGO: "Saint Sylus."

JOHN: "Really?"

RINGO: "It wasn't Dingle Vale like you said in the Musical Express."

PAUL: "No, that was wrong. Saint Sylus school."

MONTY: "Now I'd like to introduce a young disc jockey. His name is Malcolm Threadgill, he's 16-years old, and I'm sure he'd like to ask some questions from the teenage point of view."

MALCOLM: "I understand you've made other recordings before on a German label."

PAUL: "Yeah."

MALCOLM: "What ones were they?"

PAUL: "Well, we didn't make... First of all, we made a recording with a fella called Tony Sheridan. We were working in a club called 'The Top Ten Club' in Hamburg. And we made a recording with him called, 'My Bonnie,' which got to number five in the German Hit Parade."

JOHN: "Ach tung!"

PAUL: (giggles) "But it didn't do a thing over here, you know. It wasn't a very good record, but the Germans must've liked it a bit. And we did an instrumental which was released in France on an EP of Tony Sheridan's, which George and John wrote themselves. That wasn't released here. It got one copy. That's all, you know. It didn't do anything."

MALCOLM: "You composed 'P.S. I Love You' and 'Love Me Do' yourself, didn't you? Who does the composing between you?"

PAUL: "Well, it's John and I. We write the songs between us. It's, you know... We've sort of signed contracts and things to say, that now if we..."

JOHN: "It's equal shares."

PAUL: "Yeah, equal shares and royalties and things, so that really we just both write most of the stuff. George did write this instrumental, as we say. But mainly it's John and I. We've written over about a hundred songs, but we don't use half of them, you know. We just happened to sort of rearrange 'Love Me Do' and played it to the recording people, and 'P.S. I Love You,' and uhh, they seemed to quite like it. So that's what we recorded."

MALCOLM: "Is there any more of your own compositions you intend to record?"

JOHN: "Well, we did record another song of our own when we were down there, but it wasn't finished enough. So, you know, we'll take it back next time and see how they like it then."

(long pause)

JOHN: (jokingly) "Well... that's all from MY end!"

(laughter)

MONTY: "I would like to just ask you-- and we're recording this at Hume Hall, Port Sunlight-- Did any of you come over to this side before you became famous, as it were? Do you know this district?"

PAUL: "Well, we played here, uhh... I don't know what you mean by famous, you know.

(laughter)

PAUL: "If being famous is being in the Hit Parade, we've been over here-- we were here about two months ago. Been here twice, haven't we?"

JOHN: "I've got relations here. Rock Ferry."

MONTY: "Have you?"

JOHN: "Yes. Oh, all sides of the water, you know."

PAUL: "Yeah, I've got a relation in Claughton Village-- Upton Road."

RINGO: (jokingly) "I've got a friend in Birkenhead!"

(laughter)

MONTY: "I wish I had."

GEORGE: (jokingly) "I know a man in Chester!"

(laughter)

MONTY: "Now, that's a very dangerous thing to say. There's a mental home there, mate. Peter Smethurst is here as well, and he looks like he is bursting with a question."

PETER: "There is just one question I'd like to ask. I'm sure it's the question everyone's asking. I'd like your impressions on your first appearance on television."

PAUL: "Well, strangely enough, we thought we were gonna be dead nervous. And everyone said, 'You suddenly when you see the cameras, you realize that there are two million people watching,' because there were two million watching that 'People And Places' that we did... we heard afterwards. But, strangely enough, it didn't come to us. We didn't think at all about that. And it was much easier doing the television than it was doing the (live musical performance) radio. It's still nerve-wracking, but it was a bit easier than doing radio because there was a full audience for the radio broadcast."

MONTY: "Do you find it nerve-wracking doing this now?"

(laughter)

PAUL: (jokingly) "Yeah, yeah."

MONTY: "Over at Cleaver Hospital, a certain record on Parlophone-- the top side has been requested. So perhaps the Beatles themselves would like to tell them what it's going to be."

PAUL: "Yeah. Well, I think it's gonna be 'Love Me Do.'"

JOHN: "Parlophone R4949."

(laughter)

PAUL: "'Love Me Do.'"

MONTY: "And I'm sure, for them, the answer is P.S. I love you!"

PAUL: "Yeah." (And as the music faded, that was the end of the end of the broadcast.

Eight Months Later, a lot had happened, and on August 23rd, 1963, Klas Burling interviewed the Beatles following their performance in Bournemouth, Hampshire. The Fab Four were in the midst of a six-night engagement in at Bournemouth's Gaumont Cinema. This day, discussions lean toward the excitement releasing a brand new hot single.

KLAS: "On my left is a boy... sounding like what?"

RINGO: "Uhh, Ringo. That's me. You know me. (imitates drums) Ting-cha, bump bah-bump!"

KLAS: "This would be the drums."

RINGO: "Yeah, that's... Well..."

KLAS: "Well.."

(Beatles giggle)

KLAS: "And after that, we've got..?"

GEORGE: "George Harrison."

KLAS: "Playing..?"

GEORGE: "Guitar."

KLAS: "Solo guitar."

GEORGE: "Yes. (imitates guitar) Dee deena-lee, deena-lee dee dee."

(laughter)

KLAS: "Next in line is..?"

JOHN: (imitates guitar) "Ja-jing jing jing, ja-ja jing jing."

(laughter)

JOHN: "John."

RINGO: "Lennon."

JOHN: "Rhythmus."

(Beatles giggle)

KLAS: "And on my right side is..?"

PAUL: (imitates bass) "boom bah-boom boom, bah-boom boom. Paul McCartney."

KLAS: "All from Liverpool, known as..?"

PAUL & JOHN: "The Beatles."

KLAS: "Yeah, that's right. You've had some hits in Sweden, and have you ever thought about coming to Sweden?"

RINGO: "Well, we'd like to, you know. But we're so busy at the moment. I don't think we'll get there until sometime next year if we go at all."

PAUL: "Actually, you know, we want to come because we've heard about the girls in Sweden. All gorgeous blondes. you know."

GEORGE & JOHN: "Yeah."

KLAS: "That's Paul, and he's supposed to be the sweet boy in this family, no?"

PAUL: (jokingly) "Aww, shuttup."

(laughter)

JOHN: "His dad was a Mars bar."

PAUL: (laughs)

KLAS: "And George, you would like to go..."

GEORGE: "I would like to go to Sweden, yes."

KLAS: "By the side, by the way, is Michael Cox. An old friend of yours..."

RINGO: "Yeah...!"

JOHN: (loudly) "Hello, Michael Cox!"

PAUL: "He's from Liverpool, too."

GEORGE: "How is he?"

MICHAEL COX: "Fine, fine."

KLAS: "And he has told you a lot about Sweden, and so on."

GEORGE: "Yes."

KLAS: "You're still interested?"

BEATLES: "Yeah!"

RINGO: "More than ever."

KLAS: "After this, we'll get to your recording of 'Twist And Shout.' I watched you, and John you are singing..."

JOHN: "Shouting it."

KLAS: "Yeah, you're shouting it, really. How do you feel from that... the throat?"

JOHN: "Well, um, at first it was hard. But when I do it twice a night, it's easy." (imitates dog barking)

(laughter)

JOHN: (giggling) "It's quite easy now. Practice, you know, if I keep shouting every night. But a year ago I couldn't sing it."

KLAS: "And another thing in your stage act, John, is all that SICK humor. You've got funny hands, and..."

JOHN: "Well, I thought it was quite healthy."

KLAS: (laughs)

RINGO: "It's not sick. He's just a cripple."

(laughter)

JOHN: (giggling) "I'm not, I'm not!"

(laughter)

JOHN: "I'm quite normal, my Swedish friends."

(laughter, the Beatles recording of 'Twist And Shout' is played)

KLAS: "The songwriters in the Beatles, they are John Lennon and Paul McCartney."

JOHN: (monotone) "Hurray."

KLAS: "Tell us something about how you find a song... how you get the idea about a song, to write it down."

JOHN: "Well, sometimes it's the words first, and then the music after."

KLAS: "Very often you've got a title, you know... Me and you, and everything like that?"

PAUL: "Yeah. We try to do that, to make it personal so it's... so we really mean it. When we sing a thing about 'I love you,' it's easier."

JOHN: (singing) "'And don't you forget it!'"

JOHN & PAUL: (singing together, jokingly) "'I love you and don't you forget it!'"

PAUL: "Well, you see, it's easier than singing something about the cat that lives on the hill, man."

(laughter)

PAUL: "It's a lot easier just to sing about what you feel yourself."

KLAS: "And you've given a lot of nice numbers to Billy J. Kramer."

JOHN: (loudly) "Well, he's our good friend and mate... buddy... pal... friend."

PAUL: "Yeah. Listen to 'Bad To Me,' folks."

KLAS: "Your latest recording is called..?

PAUL: "It's called 'She Loves You.' And there's story to this one, how we wrote it. We were on tour with Roy Orbison, and Gerry and the Pacemakers. And we were in Newcastle, up north of England, and we were in a hotel room. We had about three days left in which to write a song. We had a recording date set for three days from this date. So we went to the hotel, and we booked in a room, and we just decided that we have to write a song very quickly. So, we sat down, no ideas came for a bit. But eventually, we got an idea. 'She Loves You' came, you know. It was just lucky."

KLAS: "But from the start that was supposed to be the B-side, John?"

JOHN: "The B-side of 'She Loves You' was meant to be the A-side. And the same for 'From Me To you.' The B-Side of 'From Me To You' was the A-side, and then we wrote another song after."

KLAS: "Well, it..."

JOHN: "Came out better."

PAUL: "Yeah, see, we write one song, then we can get going then after that and get more ideas after having written one song. So, we wrote 'I'll Get You' which is the B-side, first. And then 'She Loves You' came after that, you know. We got ideas from that, and we recorded it."

KLAS: "Yes."

PAUL: "And there ya go."

KLAS: "It sounds very easy, all of it."

JOHN: "Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's hard."

RINGO: (jokingly) "We find it difficult sometimes!"

(laughter)

KLAS: (jokingly) "Thanks, Ringo."

(John and Paul giggle)

KLAS: "Well, singing too. All of you. You're singing, actually."

PAUL: "Yeah, we all sing."

JOHN: "The Singing Dogs."

RINGO: "You know me... 'Boys.'"

(Beatles laugh)

PAUL: "We've written a new song for Ringo which we are gonna do on our new LP."

KLAS: "Yes, what about that new LP? When?"

JOHN: "It's September, isn't it?"

PAUL: "No, it's November."

JOHN: (jokingly perturbed at being corrected) "Okay, okay!"

(laughter)

PAUL: "Don't know when it'll get to Sweden, though, but we hope it'll get there in November. (nasal voice) And we hope it sells!"

KLAS: "Alright."

PAUL: "That's all I can say."

KLAS: "Alright. RIght now, we'll listen to 'She Loves You.'"

(Beatles yell 'Hurray!' and applaud)

PAUL: "More!"

RINGO: "Play it twice."

('She Loves You' is played) Followed by closing music which ends the program.

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