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George Harrison's guitar

I knew that the Beatles were in town because I had taken some gear the day before to the props department at Granada studio's. The props guy said they were due the next day.

The next morning around 10 o'clock a car pulls up outside the shop (Barratts Of Manchester) and out gets this guy dressed in an off white Mack style thing with leather buttons on it (very 60s). As he came in to the shop I recognized him as being the Beatles roadie, Neil Aspinall (the other roadie was a great guy Mal Evans).

He was carrying one of those beige Selmer guitar cases. Anyway he walked up to the counter where one of the staff said "Can I be of some help to you?" (more probably "wad-ya want mate?" ). He asked to speak to Brian Higham so the member of staff said who shall I say it is,his somewhat terse reply (that's Neil) was tell him "Its the Beatles".

I came from behind the counter we shook hands and Neil explained that George had asked him to ask me to look at the tuners as he was having big problems tuning up. Well, the third tuner was bent where it had sustained a knock and three of the others were loose so I told Neil that they will have to be changed, to which Neil replied George said that he needed it for the concert tonight at the A.B.C. Ardwick Green (now the Apollo) and that I might be able to do it today as a special favor.

Now these particular tuners or machine heads as we called them were the big grovers so the problem was finding some that day. I made some quick calls and lucky for me they had a set at head office in Denton. So I asked Neil to leave it with me and as I was gigging in Manchester that night I would drop it in at the Apollo in time for their gig. Neil then explained that they were doing Granada and then a photo session so he would need to borrow a guitar of some kind, it didn't matter what it was he said as it wouldn't be plugged in it was just for the pics and miming for the TV. I had a quick look round the shop and we had a secondhand Maton MS-500, will that do the job and Neil said that it would so off he went Maton in hand. I drove to Denton where Adrian Barratt was waiting with the machine's, I picked them up drove back to the shop and changed to faulty ones (I still have them).

After I had closed the shop I went for a bite to eat and then went over to the Piccadilly Club to drop some stuff off for my gig (the harbourlights ) and just by chance I bumped into Norman Rossington who played the Beatles roadie in "A Hard Days Night". We had a quick drink and then took a cab together to the A.B.C. where we were met by the head of ABC and given the full VIP treatment.
We were ushered back stage and there as you can imagine there was lots of introductions and hand shaking, I met up with George and we disappeared to a small dressing room with the now repaired Gretsch andspent a good while tuning up, the Gent was fine but he also had a Gretsch Tennessean 12 string which Gretsch had done specially for him and that was a real bugger to tune (I think in the end he later gave it away to one of The Sounds Incorporated).

Anyway, I spent the evening with them an watched the concert, spoke to Paul about bass string as you would, watched Coronation Street with John (in black and white) then set about putting the world to rights and discussed the advantages of short scale guitars (his Riccie was s/s) while drinking a most disgusting cup of tea out of a paper cup.

Ringo was in the sounds dressing room looking, well, like Ringo. "How's it goin' whacker" was the greeting I got. Brian Epstien turned up and was very charming. The gig was great to watch from the wings but why the hell they bothered tuning up I don't know,you couldn't here a dammed thing for all the kids screaming,

John only had to point to the floor and the noise got louder if that was possible. As soon as they finished they came straight off and passed the guitars to the roadies. We had a very quick hand shake and they ran and were in the vehicle that was at the stage door and drove off into the night.

That folks was my night "With The Beatles". I went back to the Piccadilly Club did my gig at 12 o-clock and then went home a very happy and satisfied little bunny.

George called me a few days later and asked if he could hang onto the Maton for a while so I said fine keep it as long as you like and he did.
Brian Higham

Lots o groovy pics of the fabs at rest and writing the white album at http://www.thebeatlesinindia.com

This is the only Beatles photo I have. My dad gave it to me in 1964. Dad was a professional photographer and was working for a local TV station at the time. This is a news syndicate photograph. Taped on the back is the original news bulletin as it came off the wire.

5/4/64
COURT GESTURES
"LONDON: Looking real snappy in their Elizabethan "threads" from the first Elizabeth Era that is, The Beatles appear to blend into the "scene" with their "modern" haircuts. The "Beatles" (Left to Right) John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Paul McCartney, were doing a scene from their hour-long film presentation "Around The Beatles." During the film the singing quartet do a take off from Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream."

Enjoy.

Always look forward to new pics on this thread. What a treasure trove.

Those Beatles really weren't into Scratch-X and Zymol, were they...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g2jR7l_ ... re=related

Whatever the truth is (and I think we all know what really happened).... George's version is better!

"It Don't Come Easy" is a song released as an Apple Records single by Ringo Starr in April 1971, reaching #4 in both the UK and U.S. singles charts. It was Starr's first solo single in the UK, but his second in the U.S.(the first was "Beaucoups of Blues") - following the breakup of The Beatles.

Starr reportedly composed the song in 1970. Decades later, he admitted that the song's producer George Harrison "co-wrote" the song (as he did with other hits such as "Photograph.") But controversy still surrounds the assertion that Ringo really wrote the complex and mature song -- especially since demo tapes have surfaced by Harrison where Ringo is completely absent and the song is more or less in its final form. Whether Harrison really wrote it or not (and gave it to his friend to start him on his career), the released version (recorded on March 8, 1970) included George Harrison on guitar, Klaus Voorman on bass guitar, Stephen Stills, Ron Cattermole (brass), Badfinger members Pete Ham and Tom Evans performing background vocals, and Starr on drums and lead vocals. Starr was featured performing the song at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971.

lyle_from_minneapolis wrote:Always look forward to new pics on this thread. What a treasure trove.

+1
Thanks Brammy

I'm glad that Goerge didn't stick with the 425. IMHO, it wasn't a good "look" for him.

George is playing his red Duo Jet in this picture (above). Personally I liked the look of the black one better....... but does anyone know why he abandoned this Gretsch model? The Gent was nice but I always felt that it was slightly too BIG of a guitar for George. The Duo Jet seemed just right. In the end of 1961 George replaced the Futurama by a black Gretsch Duo Jet 6128. He used it for The Beatles' Cavern and Casbah club performaces in 1961/62. It's the guitar he played with during the whole "Please Please Me" LP. In the beginning of 1963, he replaced his Duo Jet by a bigger and more expensive Gretsch, a Country Gentleman 6122.

Thanks, Kent