This Day in Beatle History

March 31

1969 (Mar 31) - John Lennon Film 'Rape' Airs in Australia

A short John Lennon film entitled Rape appears on Australian TV.

1972 (Mar 31) - Beatles Fan Club Officially Closed

The Beatles Official Fan Club closed. The Beatles Monthly magazine had ceased three years previously.

2008 (Feb 20) - Beatles' Autographed Rolling Stones Album Auctioned

A 1976 Rolling Stones album bought for £2 at a car boot sale sold for £4,000 at an auction. The ‘Black and Blue’ LP was signed by John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Paul and Linda McCartney and George Harrison as well as members of the Rolling Stones. The seller obtained the album after haggling the cost down from £3.

April 1

1961 (Apr 1) - Beatles Begin Residency in Hamburg

The Beatles began a three-month residency at The Top Ten Club, Hamburg, playing 92 straight nights. The group played for seven hours a night on weekdays and eight hours at weekends with a fifteen-minute break every hour. It was during this visit that Astrid Kirchherr cut Stuart Sutcliffe’s hair into the style destined to become known as the “Beatle haircut” which The Beatles later adopted themselves.

1962 (Jun 6) - First Beatles Recordings at What Will Become 'Abbey Road'

The first Beatles recording session took place at EMI studios. The group recorded four tracks, one of which was ‘Love Me Do’ the four musicians received payments for the session of £7.10 ($12.07) each.

1966 (Apr 1) - John Inspired for 'Tomorrow Never Knows'

John Lennon bought a copy of Timothy Leary’s ‘The Psychedelic Experience’ and ‘The Tibetan Book Of The Dead’, where he read near the beginning of the book’s introduction; “When in doubt, relax, turn off your mind, float downstream,” which captured Lennon’s imagination and became the first line of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, (which he recorded 5 days later).

1966 (Feb 18) - Brian Wilson Finishes 'Good Vibrations'

Beach Boy Brian Wilson finished recording the future classic song ‘Good Vibrations’, which went on to become the band’s third US number-one hit. As a child, his mother told him that dogs could pick up “vibrations” from people, so that the dog would bark at “bad vibrations” Wilson turned this into the general idea for the song.