Fans recall the Beatles' early days

What was it like to see the Fabs' in their early days in Britain? Fans from that period share their memories.

When the performance finished we walked down the side of the theatre, and found the door open. So we went in — and straight afterwards security locked the door. The Beatles were waiting to make their getaway, but couldn’t get out until the van came round. A lot of girls were banging on the doors, but we were inside — and for an hour so were the Beatles.

They were so friendly and nice, and once they knew we weren’t hysterical they were happy to have us. I don’t think Beatlemania took off until a year later. In some ways, it was a little bit of history lost for ever. They were very ordinary guys, very friendly. Cynthia Lennon was there, standing in the background with a cape on. John kept saying to her “Did you get that?” Nobody realised he was married — he was pretending she was a reporter. You can imagine what it was like the next day in school. My friends were incredibly jealous.