04 April 2023 , 20:29
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The earliest known full recording of a Beatles UK gig, by a schoolboy, has emerged after 60 years.
John Bloomfield, then 15, had no idea what to expect when the Fab Four turned up to play at his boarding school for £100 on April 4, 1963.
He said: “The curtains went back and they started. I would say I grew up at that very instant.
“I realised this was something from a different planet. It was something we’d never vaguely experienced. We were stunned.”
They had been booked by fellow Stowe School pupil David Moores, heir to Littlewoods pools empire and future chairman of Liverpool FC.
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Stowe School in Bucks (PA)The 22-song gig was just two weeks after the release of their debut album Please Please Me. Their set included I Saw Her Standing There and Chuck Berry’s Too Much Monkey Business.
Mr. Bloomfield only revealed the hour long real to reel tape to the BBC’s Samira Ahmed when she visited the Buckinghamshire school to make a radio show about the concert.
They took requests from the mainly male audience although some girls were watching from the back. Mr Bloomfield said: “It wasn’t until they started playing that we heard the screaming, and we realised we were in the middle of Beatlemania.”
Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn had to “pick myself up off the floor” when he was told about the tape.
The Beatles at Stowe School is on Front Row on BBC Sounds.