Saturday 29 June 1963, 6.35-7pm

(Recorded 22 June, 8.30-9.15pm)

Panel: Catherine Boyle, John Lennon, Caroline Maudling, Bruce Prochnik

Producer: Neville Wortman

Records played:
Southend – Cleo Laine (Fontana) MISS
B side was Watch Your Step
So Much In Love – The Tymes (Cameo Parkway) MISS
JL: “I thought it was Rolf Harris at first, and then I thought, It’s the Drifters.”
Devil In Disguise – Elvis Presley (RCA) HIT
JL’s harshest criticism
John Lennon doesn’t like Elvis Presley – so what?
NME, 26 July 1963
The Click Song – Miriam Makeba & Harry Belafonte (London) MISS
JL: “If it was in English, it’d mean even less. It’s intriguing because it’s foreign.”
On Top Of Spaghetti – Tom Glazer (London) MISS
JL: “I can’t stand these ‘all together now’ records. I prefer Little Eva’s Old Smokey Locomotion.”
Flamenco – Russ Conway (Columbia) MISS
JL: “I like pianos but not pub pianos playing flamenco music. Didn’t sound anything like flamenco.”
First Quarrel – Paul & Paula (Philips) MISS
JL: “I liked their first record because I liked the octave singing, her singing one above him. This second wasn’t worth bothering about. This had Jim in it. American records are always about Jim and Bobby and Alfred.”
Don’t Ever Let Me Down – Julie Grant (Pye) MISS
JL: “I thought ‘Ah, one of those with an intro, but the intro was enough.”

Photo of smiling Bruce Prochnik in Radio Times, looking about 14. He had played the title role in Oliver! on Broadway
Caroline Maudling was stepping in for Zsa Zsa Gabor
Caroline was Reginald Maudling’s daughter and was in Frankie Vaughan film, It’s All Over Town.
Katie Boyle was hosting the Eurovision Song Contest

John Lennon did a Johnny Mathis, giving negative reviews of every disc. He voted all but one a Miss. Didn’t harm his career though.

Producer Neville Wortman: “I had John Lennon on before the rest of the Beatles. A music publisher told me that John Lennon would be a marvellous guest so I rang him and he came in and had lunch with us at the Television Centre with his leather jacket and it was a marvellous lunch in which he spoke about everything. It was a cinch to have him. A lot of people came up from Liverpool and elsewhere for that show. The Shepherd’s Bush Empire was besieged. That is when I thought this is going to be something much bigger than I thought it was. John Lennon was a great panellist as he didn’t care what he said. He stood from the rest of the panel that day.”

The Beatles were playing in Abergavenny that night but they didn’t have to take the stage until 10.30pm at the Town Hall Ballroom. John Lennon was flown by helicopter from London at a cost of £100 and touched down at the the Penypound football ground at 9.50pm. They played to 600 fans and then stayed overnight at the Angel Hotel.