A previously unheard two-song Beatles performance from April 5th, 1963 in London has just been unearthed. The “Fab Four” were captured in very good quality tackling their first two chart-toppers “From Me To You” and “Please Please Me” at their record label headquarters, EMI House in Manchester Square. At the time “From Me To You” was still a week away from being released.
The Beatles were playing the rare and private in-house industry set while being awarded their first silver disc, for sales of more than 250,000 copies of their first British chart-topper, “Please Please Me.” The Daily Beatle reported longtime Beatles aide Tony Bramwell believes the mini-set was recorded by Radio Luxemburg — a pan-European radio station.
During John Lennon‘s 1970 Rolling Stone interview, he set the record straight once and for all about the Beatles' abilities as a live act: “We were four guys, that. . . I met Paul (McCartney) and said, ‘Y’wanna join me band? And then George (Harrison) joined, and then Ringo (Starr) joined. We were just a band that made it very, very big — that’s all. Our best work was never recorded, y’know? We were performers — in spite off what Mick (Jagger) says about us — in Liverpool, Hamburg, and around the dance halls, y’know? And what we generated was fantastic, when we played straight rock. And there was nobody to touch us in Britain, y’know? But as soon as we made it, we made it — the edges were knocked off. Y’know, Brian (Epstein) put us in suits and all that and we made it very, very big — but we sold out. The Beatles’ music died then — as musicians. That’s why we never improved (laughs), y’know? As musicians, we killed ourselves then, to make it. We always missed the club days, ‘cause that’s when we were playing music.”
