In the hectic, golden year of 1963, the Fab Four performed at three venues in Somerset. Now, Beatles fans across are marking and remembering John, Paul, George and Ringo's progress through the county exactly forty years ago. Their first concert date in Somerset that year was at the Gaumont Cinema in Taunton on 26 February. The Fab Four came back to Somerset a few months later - they played at the Pavilion in Bath on Monday 10 June 1963.  | | Do you have any Beatles' stories? Share them with us! |
Just over a month later, John, Paul, George and Ringo were in the county again - this time at the seaside. They performed a week of concerts at the Odeon Cinema in Weston-super-Mare between Monday 22 to Saturday 27 July 1963. They also made some unreleased recordings with Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers at the Royal Pier Hotel. Jenny Ponsillo from Walton near Street was 16 at the time: "Helen Shapiro was top of the bill and the Beatles were the supporting act - we loved them! "My friend and I sat in the front row, yards away from Paul McCartney. "I fell in love with him then and still have a soft spot for him after forty years. "We then saw them in Bristol in the Colston Hall in 1964 - they had become famous by then and the hall was full of screaming teenagers including me." On the Saturday, photographer Dezo Hoffman filmed the Beatles at Weston beach, on go-carts and fooling around during photo shoots. The photos are being auctioned on 20 November 2003 at the Hard Rock Cafe in London. Portions of the footage were used in the Real Love and Anthology 1 videos.  | | The Fab Four swept into the Gaumont Theatre in Taunton to screaming girls |
The Beatles obviously liked Somerset - they came back in September that year. They performed again at the Gaumont Cinema in Taunton on Thursday 5 September 1963 with Mike Berry, and Freddy Starr and the Midnighters. The Fab Four came on stage to growing, resounding applause... and lots of screaming from the crowd of girls! >>> Listen to the memories of Martin and Vic of the concert The Beatles returned to the county in 1964 to film scenes at Crowcombe on the West Somerset Railway for A Hard Day's Night. Stephen Burke, who grew up in Somerset but now lives in Florida in the USA, said: "I remember seeing the Beatles in the front of a diesel train coming through Watchet station; they were heading towards Minehead. "We were allowed to leave Watchet Primary School early so that we could stand on the station platform, and witness this great event," Stephen added. | 
