In the ’60s, Beatlemania quickly spread throughout the globe as four young lads from UK’s Liverpool, John Lennon, Paul McCartneyGeorge Harrison and Ringo Starr, hit the big time.
And in June 1964, the Beatles made their way Down Under for their first and only tour of Australia, where they played a series of dates for thousands of adoring fans.
One lucky lady in the crowd at one of their shows 60 years ago was Katoomba local Gail White, now 75, who was just 15 years old at the time of the tour – and her attendance was immortalized by a newspaper photographer.
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In an incredible image, a young Gail can be seen in an old black and white newspaper clipping being swept up in the sheer pandemonium of it all.
Reflecting on the once-in-a-lifetime moment to 9honey Celebrity, Gail described it as a moment of “mass hysteria”.
“I obviously didn’t know (the photograph) was being taken,” Gail says.
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“Once I got in there, I got into the whole thing and screamed. It was mass hysteria,” she continues.
Gail got tickets through her cousin, who she says was cut out of the photograph.
“It was quite an experience and we were close to the stage, it was a revolving stage… the stage went around very slowly,” she says.
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But she didn’t even know her photograph made the paper until the ’90s.
“I was at work and I had a boyfriend, as such, and years later he rang me, an ex by now obviously, and he said, ‘I just saw your photo in the paper’,” she explains. “That must have been in the late ’90s.”
Gail, however, was more of an Elvis Presley fan, and she wouldn’t describe herself as a Beatles mega-fan by any means.
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“I love all types of music and I like them as much as anybody else,” she explains.
However, the photograph inspired her husband of 55 years, Terry White, 76, to start a Beatles memorabilia collection back in 2010. Before that, he had a golf collection.
Terry’s impressive collection is being shown at Beatlesfest in Lithgow on September 27 to 29, but two program items began on Thursday.
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“I have 10 scrapbooks from the Beatles in 1964 and 1965, photos and pictures from articles, magazines and newspapers and quite a bit from their Australian tour,” Terry says, proudly.
Terry, who says John Lennon was his favorite Beatle, says it’s a ”dream come true” to be showing off his collection at beatlesfest,
“To display my collection at Beatlesfest is one of my dreams, I rang them and told them I had a collection,” Terry says. “It’s not a lot of great value, but it’s valuable to me!”
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“My collection, stuff I have acquired I haven’t paid a lot of money for, but I enjoy doing it. All the framing is done by myself,” he says.
He adds that he likes to collect clippings for the historical side of things.
Beatlesfest runs from September 27 to 29 and celebrates the 60th anniversary of The Beatles’ only Australian tour in 1964.
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