Beatles Rehearsals

[JWL1964]

Hi guys,

Despite having read all of the major recognised literature on the Fab Four I've never seen much about when & more interestingly where they rehearsed.

With such tight performances on record and live shows to prepare for they must have made time to arrange and practice on a regular basis and yet there doesn't seem to be much written about it..

The only mentions I can bring to mind are;

The pictures of the rehearsals for the Miami Ed Sullivan Show
The filmed rehearsals for the Get Back/Let it Be project
A dodgy bootleg I have from George's Kinfauns house of White Album demos

I know that the Anthology CDs show that a lot of material was eveolved/rehearsed in the studio but for example surely Paul had practiced his bassline on John's 'And Your Bird Can Sing' before they got into recording it?

Does anyone have any more info on their rehearsal schedule?

[servant]

Other than the early days, studio time booked at Abbey Road was their rehearsal time. Some sources state that someone would arrive with an idea, and they would do a couple run-throughs, then commit to tape.

The Get Back / Let It Be sessions, as you describe, support this and it was not unique. The cavernous film studio was unique but turned out to be a horrible idea so - where did they go to finish rehearsing? Not Abbey Road this time but Apple Studios, and only because it was (almost, and that's fodder for another thread) ready.

The Miami rehearsals were for camera angles, not The Beatles needing to rehearse. If you have seen the photos, you should remember the "broomsticks" for microphones. This was for visual cues and spacing, not musical rehearsal. John said something like, "I wrote it, I played it, I sang it. Why do I need to rehearse it?" (for live presentation).

The Kinfauns tapes are demos of all the material they had written in India. I wouldn't call it a rehearsal, because they weren't "practising" on their respective instruments as a group.

[electrofaro]

Dean's right.

Read Philip Norman's "John Lennon: the Life" - it does provide info on these kind of things as well.
Bootlegs usually have home demos, then a whole string of takes where they're working, developing the song.

[RobRick]

Playing in Hamburg and the Cavern Club in Liverpool was their rehearsal! There are photos of the Beatles preparing for a tour in some hotel or airport lounge with three acoustic guitars. I doubt they rehearsed much in the traditional sense for their tours 1964 - 1966.

[chucksimms]

I've often wondered the same thing. I was always surprised how quickly Ringo appeared up to speed with probably very little rehearsal. I guess because he'd played so many of the tunes before, but on the Star Club album he's completely integrated into the band's DNA. It's not like today where you e-mail the new guy a list of the tunes with MP3s and youtube links!

[johnnysain]

Paul's house on Cavendish (post - 1965) was a frequent meeting place. He kept drums and recording studio equipment there for his own use. And it was a few blocks from Abbey Rd, so it often became a practice place as well, especially for John & Paul's songwriting sessions.