NSR: The British Invasion, this date Feb 7, 1964

[Stig / Major Tom]

The BEATLES arrive in the U.S.A.
I read :
"The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom.... and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States."

Seems to sum it up well.

My father was stationed in Paris....so we missed the Ed Sullivan show with the Beatles....but we'd been listening to them, and a lot of other British groups on pirate radio stations for quite some time.
A folk music fan at the time -   I began to appreciate these guys a lot more as the decades passed.

A fav performance (Judy Collins did it well, too)



My daughter says this is the best Beatles movie.



Stig

[Neil955i]

"Pirate" stations?  Radio Luxembourg perchance?  Or maybe Caroline?

[Stig / Major Tom]

"Pirate" stations?  Radio Luxembourg perchance?  Or maybe Caroline?

Yeah, Radio Luxembourg rings a bell - I think most of what we listened to was from that station. My brother told me some of the music was from off-shore ships, pirate stations?
No TV for our 4.5 yrs in France - so we listened to the radio a lot!
Many performers came through Paris - but the only one I saw was P.P. and Mary at the Olympia. I pulled a large poster of the event off the outside of the place. Stole it and ran.

Man, if you had a British accent in those days you were the coolest!
I was only in London twice, for 3 days each - for a soccer game and a football game against school from Lakenheath AF Base. We flew in a prop airplane. Landed in a grass field!
Then our bus driver drove fast and on the wrong side of the road!! He warned us about crossing the streets while looking the wrong way. A very real danger for a bunch of teens!

We practiced in Hyde park, near our hotel, until the bobbies came along and chewed out my coach for messing up the grass.
I think we won both games.
That's where I bought a can of genuine London Fog. (probably had air in it from Calcutta) (yeah, I opened it...weeks later)
Still have the tailored Harris Tweed sports coat in the closet. Should fit again .....about 2 mos after I pass. That and my German guitar are the only things I have from those years. One pic of my prom date and I on the Eiffel Tower (prom there at the Jules Verne restaurant 1966) School booked that 3 yrs in advance.

Stig

[Neil955i]

My first memory of London was in 1970 driving across the city towing a caravan belonging to my then GF's father!  Best memory of Paris was haring around the Périphérique on a Triumph Sprint 900 as we were running late for a ferry booking at Calais...

[Iahawk]

I just reminded my 12...I mean, now 13 year old daughter that she was born 46 years to the day that The Beatles arrived in the US! Feb 7th is a good day.