Tuesday 5 November 1963 | Live performances | Adelphi Cinema, Slough | By Beatles Fabdom
On 5 November 1963, The Beatles gave two shows at the Adelphi Cinema in Slough. Their Autumn Tour resumed the day after the Royal Variety Performance in London, returning John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr to the travelling theatre programme that had opened four days earlier.
Before heading to Slough, the group filmed an interview for the current-affairs programme This Week. The conversation took place in a car travelling around London and was broadcast on 7 November. The day therefore combined television filming with another two-house concert engagement.
| Date | Tuesday 5 November 1963 |
|---|---|
| Venue | Adelphi Cinema, Slough |
| Address | 3 Bath Road, Slough, England |
| Tour | 1963 Autumn Tour |
| Shows | Two |
| Beatles set | Ten songs |
| Previous Adelphi visit | 18 May 1963, opening night of the Roy Orbison tour |
| Earlier that day | This Week interview filmed in a car in London |
| Interview transmission | 7 November 1963 |
| Next tour stop | ABC Cinema, Northampton, 6 November |
Back on tour after the Royal Variety Performance
The Autumn Tour began in Cheltenham on 1 November, followed by Sheffield City Hall on 2 November and Leeds Odeon on 3 November. The Royal Variety engagement at the Prince of Wales Theatre occupied the following evening before the touring show resumed in Slough.
The London appearance had placed The Beatles before the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. Slough brought them back to the practical routine of a package tour: a theatre programme, supporting acts and two audiences attending the evening’s shows.
McCartney recalled the transition in Anthology. The Queen Mother asked where the group would play the following night. When he answered Slough, she replied, “Oh, that’s just near us!” The exchange connected the royal occasion with their next booking a few miles from Windsor.
This Week: an interview filmed on the move
In the morning, The Beatles were interviewed for This Week in a car travelling through London. Harrison and Starr were filmed first, followed by Lennon and McCartney.
The interview lasted around nine minutes in its broadcast form and was shown on 7 November. Filming and transmission were separate events: the conversation was recorded on the day of the Slough concerts, while viewers saw it two days later.
This was current-affairs television rather than a musical performance filmed at the Adelphi. It reflected the widening interest in the group beyond the pop programmes on which they had appeared earlier in the year.
A second and final visit to Slough’s Adelphi
The Beatles had first played the venue on 18 May 1963, when their tour with Roy Orbison opened in Slough. The November return was their second concert visit to the Adelphi and their last.
Between those two engagements, the group’s position had changed substantially. They returned as the principal attraction in a programme bearing their own name, after the national success of She Loves You and immediately following their Royal Variety appearance.
Slough was then in Buckinghamshire; it became part of Berkshire in the 1974 local-government changes. The cinema’s Bath Road address identifies the venue independently of that later county boundary change.
The Beatles Show: the 1963 tour programme
The cover credits Arthur Howes, by arrangement with Brian Epstein, as presenting The Beatles Show. Four individual portraits cross the page diagonally, with the title at the lower right.
The supporting tour bill included the Rhythm & Blues Quartet, the Vernons Girls, the Brook Brothers, Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, and the Kestrels, with Frank Berry as compere. They appeared as separate attractions within the package show, not as additional members of The Beatles’ performing line-up.
Brian Epstein’s management linked this touring work with the group’s recording, broadcasting and publicity commitments. The Slough date followed an especially visible London engagement, but it remained part of an extensive schedule running into December.
Setlist
- I Saw Her Standing There
- From Me To You
- All My Loving
- You Really Got A Hold On Me
- Roll Over Beethoven
- Boys
- Till There Was You
- She Loves You
- Money (That’s What I Want)
- Twist And Shout
Singles, stage favourites and With The Beatles
The ten-song sequence opened with I Saw Her Standing There and ended with Twist And Shout, both familiar from Please Please Me. Boys gave Ringo a lead-vocal feature, while From Me To You and She Loves You represented the group’s successful 1963 singles.
Five selections connected the live show with the forthcoming second album: All My Loving, You Really Got A Hold On Me, Roll Over Beethoven, Till There Was You and Money. With The Beatles would be released in Britain on 22 November, so the Slough audience heard those songs on stage before the LP reached the shops.
The concert was not a reproduction of either album’s running order. It combined established material with songs associated with the next release, bringing different vocal features into a compact theatre set.
The performing line-up
| Musician | Role |
|---|---|
| John Lennon | Guitar and vocals |
| Paul McCartney | Bass guitar and vocals |
| George Harrison | Guitar and vocals |
| Ringo Starr | Drums and vocals |
The familiar quartet was now headlining British theatre shows. The contrast with their earlier 5 November engagements can be followed through the 1960 Kaiserkeller appearance and the 1962 Star-Club residency. Slough belonged to the next stage: a national tour during the rapid growth of Beatlemania.
The Adelphi Cinema on Bath Road
The Adelphi opened on 17 February 1930. Slough Museum records that it was built on the site of two Victorian houses, Montem and Montrose, as one of the town’s major new cinemas.
Designed by Eric Norman Bailey, the building included a substantial auditorium, a stage, a theatre organ, a café and a ballroom. Its facilities supported both films and live entertainment, making it suitable for the package shows that brought major recording artists to towns across Britain.
The cinema later became a bingo hall. The historic venue is at 3 Bath Road, Slough; the map below targets that building rather than a general town-centre location.
Open the Adelphi’s Bath Road address in Google Maps. Explore the building’s earlier history in Slough Museum’s Adelphi history.
1963 Autumn Tour: complete venue itinerary
The tour ran from Cheltenham on 1 November to Southampton on 13 December. The postponed Portsmouth booking and its rescheduled performance are identified separately.
- 1 November — Odeon, Cheltenham
- 2 November — City Hall, Sheffield
- 3 November — Odeon, Leeds
- 5 November — Adelphi, Slough: this performance
- 6 November — ABC, Northampton
- 7 November — Adelphi, Dublin
- 8 November — Ritz, Belfast
- 9 November — Granada, East Ham
- 10 November — Hippodrome, Birmingham
- 12 November — Guildhall, Portsmouth: postponed to 3 December
- 13 November — ABC, Plymouth
- 14 November — ABC, Exeter
- 15 November — Colston Hall, Bristol
- 16 November — Winter Gardens, Bournemouth
- 17 November — Coventry Theatre, Coventry
- 19 November — Gaumont, Wolverhampton
- 20 November — ABC, Ardwick, Manchester
- 21 November — ABC, Carlisle
- 22 November — Globe, Stockton-on-Tees
- 23 November — City Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne
- 24 November — ABC, Hull
- 26 November — Regal, Cambridge
- 27 November — Rialto, York
- 28 November — ABC, Lincoln
- 29 November — ABC, Huddersfield
- 30 November — Empire, Sunderland
- 1 December — De Montfort Hall, Leicester
- 3 December — Guildhall, Portsmouth: rescheduled performance
- 7 December — Odeon, Liverpool
- 8 December — Odeon, Lewisham
- 9 December — Odeon, Southend-on-Sea
- 10 December — Gaumont, Doncaster
- 11 December — Futurist, Scarborough
- 12 December — Odeon, Nottingham
- 13 December — Gaumont, Southampton
Separate engagements during the period included the Royal Variety Performance on 4 November, Grosvenor House in London on 2 December and the Empire Theatre in Liverpool on 7 December, distinct from the Odeon show that day.
With The Beatles designs for fans
The forthcoming album supplied half the Slough set. The With The Beatles steel wall sign reproduces its black-and-white portrait design.
The With The Beatles 8 Track T-shirt combines the portraits with track-list typography.
Frequently asked questions
Where did The Beatles play on 5 November 1963?
They gave two shows at the Adelphi Cinema at 3 Bath Road in Slough.
Had The Beatles played the Adelphi before?
Yes. They had appeared there on 18 May 1963, the opening night of their tour with Roy Orbison.
What did they perform in Slough?
The ten-song set opened with I Saw Her Standing There and closed with Twist And Shout. It included From Me To You, She Loves You and five songs from the forthcoming With The Beatles album.
What was filmed for This Week that morning?
The Beatles were interviewed in a car travelling around London. George Harrison and Ringo Starr were filmed first, followed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
When was the This Week interview broadcast?
The interview filmed on 5 November was broadcast on 7 November 1963.
Where had The Beatles appeared the previous evening?
They had performed at the Royal Variety Performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London on 4 November.
0 comments