The Beatles Royal Hall Harrogate poster – 1963

The Beatles Royal Hall Harrogate poster – 1963 vintage concert poster

February and March of 1963 were hectic, grueling and pivotal months for The Beatles. The band performed 257 shows during the year, taking in tours with Helen Shapiro, Tommy Roe, Chris Montez and Roy Orbison, Brian Epstein’s Mersey Beat Showcase, in addition to their own standalone headlining performances.
The band made thirty-nine Television Appearances shows including Thank Your Lucky Stars, Big Night Out, Ready, Steady Go, The Morecambe and Wise Show, and the legendary performances on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Throughout the year the band recorded forty radio performances for the BBC alone.

The year also saw the recording and release of the group’s first two albums, Please Please Me released in March and Meet the Beatles released in November. In addition four singles, Please Please Me, From Me To You, She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand were released. The band was on the cusp of superstardom and Beatlemania was about to take the country by storm.

The show at the Royal Hall in Harrogate on the 8th March 1963 was one of the earliest performances outside of Merseyside. It would also be the only time the band played in the town. The three-hour show was billed as an event with ‘dancing for teens and twenties’, starting at 8 pm and finishing at 1 am. The Beatles were supported on the night by local acts Barry Corbett & his Mustangs and Chinchillas and the Apaches who are billed as Harrogate’s most popular groups. The concert poster for the event introduces the Liverpool group as The Sensational Beatles, the recording stars of Please, Please Me.

The single, Please, Please Me was the group’s second single, the follow-up to 1962s Love Me Do which reached number 17 in the UK singles chart. It was released on 11 January 1963 and topped the charts in the New Musical Express and Melody Maker music newspapers. However, it only reached number two on the Record Retailer chart. The concert at Harrogate pre-dates the release of the band’s first album by fifteen days.

An original copy of the 1963 Beatles concert poster came up for sale at a saleroom in North Yorkshire in July 2017. It was listed with a guide price of between £1,500 and £2,000. However, the bidding war pushed the sale price up to £5,500.

Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as a fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.

The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a bargain of print and poster for just £22.