Adventures of a Teenage Beatles Fan in the ’60s & beyond
Primrose Hill Community Centre
Tuesday 8 March
7.00–8.45pm
Primrose Hill Community Centre is the ideal venue for a Beatles themed evening, if for no other reason than Paul McCartney allegedly wrote ‘The Fool on the Hill’ after an uncanny experience he had Primrose Hill.
Now David Stark, a Beatles fan from north London, will share his extraordinary first-hand accounts of his encounters with the band, which are recorded in his book It’s All Too Much.
The event will focus on David’s adventures as a teenage London-based Beatles fan in the ’60s and beyond, meeting all members of the group in some extraordinary circumstances.
Aged just fifteen, David gate-crashed the Yellow Submarine film premiere in 1968 and ending up sitting directly behind the group. In subsequent years he met all of them individually and has many entertaining stories to tell.
As he says, “I was extremely lucky to have been in the right time and place to witness some of pop music’s most iconic moments during the late ’60s. Apart from gate-crashing the Yellow Submarine premiere, I was also at the Rolling Stones’ legendary Rock And Roll Circus film shoot where John Lennon played; watched Jimi Hendrix supporting The Who at the Saville Theatre in early 1967 with all the Beatles present; and was also there when Hendrix famously opened another legendary show in June ’67 with his sensational version of ‘Sgt. Pepper’.
“I was present at John and Yoko’s court appearance following their infamous drug bust in 1968, and met them right up until they left for New York in 1971. I’ve met Paul McCartney many times up to the present day, of which I have some great stories. I once introduced George Harrison to my mum at the Albert Hall, while another time I cheekily visited Ringo Starr with a pal to ask him out for a drink one Saturday night. By a mix of chutzpah, sheer nerve and luck I got to meet all the Beatles in person on many occasions, and even received letters from them a couple of times.”
However, David’s stories don’t end with the 1960s, as he continued to encounter all the individual Beatles into the 1970s and beyond, culminating in 2006 when Sir Paul McCartney inducted him as a ‘Companion of LIPA’, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts for his work with song-writing students. He also knew the late Sir George Martin, who has his own chapter in the book, as does John Lennon’s legendary Aunt Mimi, who David visited and became friends with just months after Lennon’s murder in 1980.
David is a life-long drummer who plays with the Trembling Wilburys tribute band, as well as having played drums for The Quarrymen on one occasion. He was responsible for the erection of an official Blue Plaque for the late Brian Epstein outside the old NEMS offices in London’s Argyll Street in 2014; and was one of a small group of fellow supporters who, in 2019, achieved the placing of a long-awaited Blue Plaque at 3 Savile Row to mark the Beatles’ final live appearance on the roof of Apple in 1969.
Alongside David’s talk, Susan Black, an acclaimed singer/songwriter will be performing Beatles songs.
Primrose Hill Community Centre
Tuesday 8 March
7.00–8.45pm
Tickets include a glass of wine or soft drink.
