To mark the 50th anniversary of The
Beatles’ first shows in Bournemouth, on 19 August 1963 when they opened a
six-day residency at the Gaumont (now the Odeon) cinema on Westover Road, a new
exhibition celebrating their many connections to the town is to open.
The Beatles played more shows at the
Gaumont than in any other UK theatre outside London, notching up no less than
16 shows between August 1963 and their final visit on 2 October 1964. The exhibition, at the Beacon Hotel on
Priory Road, Bournemouth, includes dozens of photos of The Beatles in
Bournemouth, as well as posters, handbills, reviews and programmes from the
group’s four visits to the town.
There are
various other photos from Robert Freeman’s photo shoot of the boys at
the Palace Court Hotel on Westover Road that produced the iconic half-shadow
sleeve shot for their second album, With The Beatles. Also at the
Beacon Hotel you can find the main venue sign, a section of stage and some
seats from the historic Winter Gardens theatre where The Beatles played on 16
November 1963 and were filmed for US television – the first footage America was
to see of the Fab Four.
Much interest is bound to fall on the
remarkable photo of John Lennon with his young son Julian and his Aunt Mimi at
Sandbanks Ferry, just yards from the harbourside bungalow he bought for Mimi in
1965 and where he visited her many times before he left these shores for good in
1971. The exhibition tells an incredible story of
how a small resort on the south coast of England came to play a significant
part in the history of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll group of them all.
In
conjunction with the exhibition there is a new restaurant opening at the Beacon
Hotel in August. The
Bournemouth Rock Cafe uses Harry Taylor’s iconic ‘Stick of Rock’ photo as part
of its logo and will be serving gourmet burgers and a full menu in rooms that
are adorned with Bournemouth music memorabilia from all eras and genres.
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