BEATLES MONTHLY ISSUE 1

Original Print 1963

Pre-production Print 1963

The first issue of this most iconic music magazine arrived in August 1963 to eager readers who bought up the whole of the print run, reputedly around 80,000, by the time Issue 3 went to print. Despite the demand, Beat Publications decided against further prints, but they increased the print run for future issues.

This issue introduced fans to the Beatles, plus Brian Epstein and George Martin. From here the format was set for the whole run of 77 monthly issues; a Fan Club page, special features, exclusive photos (and drawings by Bob Gibson, the in-house artist), a centre-spread photo, letters from fans (sometimes with answers from the boys – in fact ghosted by the Editor), a song of the month, competitions and all the latest news.

This month’s centre spread shows the band playing at EMI House on 5th April 1963, when they were presented with a Silver Disc for 250,000 sales of their Please Please Me single. As well as PPM, they play From Me To You, to be released the following week.

Meanwhile…

The Beatles performed their final gig at the Cavern in Liverpool on the 3rd. In fact, except for the 1st, they played to live audiences across the UK every single day of August, sometimes playing more than once a day.

REPRINTS:

See The Many Faces of Number One on the OTHER STUFF page for reprints of this issue.

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