You never knew who you'd bump into in the 60's Manchester music scene . . . Brian Higham recollects

"Steak & kidney pie's & the Beatles"

Now that seems like an unlikely marriage but here is how it came about. I was sitting in my local pub in Cheadle village (Cheshire) might have been a Thursday because that was my day off from the shop. As I sat there gazing out of the window across towards Cheadle green I saw a white van turning into the pub car park - you had to go through an archway to reach the car park at the rear of the pub. A couple of minutes later these four leather clad figures appeared walking past the window where I was sitting, whoops I thought I know those faces! First John Lennon then Paul McCartney & then George Harrison. The last one to pass the window was Ringo Starr, he looked in the pub window & winked at me. Next door to the George & Dragon was a very high class confectioner & bakery. The actual bakery was in Ash field Road where I lived at no 2 & was called "The Premier Cafe Bakery". Well, the boys had gone into the shop so I went outside the pub & when they came out they had all bought steak pie's and meat & potato pie's. After the hello's and what are you doing here and everybody talking with mouths full of pie crust & potato we all went into the pub tap room for a drink & they sat there eating. You see things were different in those days you could take your own grub in the tap room in this pub. Some of the local council workers used to have their buttys in there at lunch time & the land lady never used to mind. The council workers didn't know what to make of these long haired rockers from Liverpool. John was in stitches laughing at old Perry, the road sweeper in the corner who had taken his teeth out & put them on the table whilst he sucked on his butty. By this time the whole of the tap room was laughing including me but to this day I don't know what at, George ended up having to go outside he was that doubled up with laughter, Paul & Ringo were also doubled up. The landlord & landlady were Frank & Marjorie Bagnall,      when they heard all the commotion going on they came to investigate. They were good friends of my family so I made the introductions & everybody chatted for a while until it was time for the boys to leave. We went out to the car park, they all jumped in the van we said our goodbye's & me with Marjorie & Frank waved them off.

The Beatles had just had lunch in my local pub eating pie's from my local shop, now ain't that something!! Now Marjorie Bagnall has told this story of how the Beatles visited her pub so many times and why not, I have lost count. Sadly Frank passed away some years later but good old Marjorie is still truckin' on and lives in Timperly village near Altringham to this day. She still tells the story whenever I see her & it has now gone down in folk lore in Cheadle village. I think we should have put a sign up saying "THE BEATLES WERE HERE" thanks to Frank Wienholts (the owner of the premier cafe bakery) steak & kidney pie's which were enjoyed to the full.  THE REST SHALL WE SAY ONCE AGAIN IS HISTORY, but it has been a pleasure to tell this little story again.

"What's the Maton George?"

I knew that the Beatles were in town because I had taken some gear the day before to the props department at Granada studio's. The props guy said they were due the next day. The next morning around 10 o'clock a car pulls up outside the shop (Barratts Of Manchester) and out gets this guy dressed in an off white Mack style thing with leather buttons on it (very 60's). As he came in to the shop I recognized him as being the Beatles roadie Neil Aspinall (the other roadie was a great guy Mal Evans). He was carrying one of those beige Selmer guitar cases, anyway he walked up to the counter where one of the staff said can I be of some help to you (more probably wad-ya want mate!). He asked to speak to Brian Higham so the member of staff said who shall I say it is, his somewhat terse reply (that's Neil) was tell him its the Beatles. I came from behind the counter we shook hands and Neil explained that George had asked him to ask me to look at the tuners as he was having big problems tuning up. Well the third tuner was bent where it had sustained a knock and three of the others were loose so I told Neil that they will have to be changed, to which Neil replied George said that he needed it for the concert tonight at the ABC Ardwick Green (now the Apollo) & that I might be able to do it today as a special favour. Now these particular tuners or machine heads as we called them were the big Grovers so the problem was finding some that day. I made some quick calls and lucky for me they had a set at head office (DENTON). So I asked Neil to leave it with me and as I was gigging in m/c that night I would drop it in at the Apollo in time for there gig. Neil then explained that they were doing Granada and then a photo session so he would need to borrow a guitar of some kind, it didn't matter what it was he said as it wouldn't be plugged in it was just for the pics & miming for the TV. I had a quick look round the shop and we had a secondhand Maton MS-500, will that do the job & Neil said that it would so off he went Maton in hand. I drove to Denton where Adrian Barratt was waiting with the machine's, I picked them up drove back to the shop and changed the faulty ones (I still have them). After I had closed the shop I went for a bite to eat & then went over to the Piccadilly Club to drop some stuff off for my gig (the Harbourlights) & just by chance I bumped into Norman Rossington who played the Beatles roadie in 'A Hard Days Night'. We had a quick drink & then took a cab together to the ABC Apollo where we were met by the head of ABC & given the full VIP treatment.  We were ushered back stage and there as you can imagine there was lots of introductions & hand shaking, I met up with George & we disappeared to a small dressing room with the now repaired Gretsch & spent a good while tuning up,the gent was fine but he also had a Gretsch Tennessean 12 string which Gretsch had done specially for him & that was a real bugger to tune ( I think in the end he later gave it away to one of The Sounds Incorporated. Anyway I spent the evening with them an watched the concert, spoke to Paul about bass string as you would, watched coronation street with John (in black & white) then set about putting the world to rights & discussed the advantages of short scale guitars (his Rickie was s/s) while drinking a most disgusting cup of tea out of a paper cup. Ringo was in the sounds dressing room looking, well, like Ringo! "How's it goin' whacker" was the greeting I got. Brian Epstein turned up and was very charming. The gig was great to watch from the wings but why the hell they bothered tuning up I don't know, you couldn't here a dammed thing for all the kids screaming, John only had to point to the floor and the noise got louder if that was possible. As soon as they finished  they came straight off passed the guitars to the roadies. We had a very quick hand shake & they ran & were in the vehicle that was at the stage door & drove off into the night. That folks was my night "With The Beatles". I went back to the Piccadilly club did my gig at 12 o-clock with the Harbourlights and then went home a very happy & satisfied little bunny. George called me a few days later and asked if he could hang onto the Maton for a while so I said fine keep it as long as you like and he did. THE REST AS THEY SAY IS HISTORY. 

PS I did something that night that I had never done before or since. I asked them for their autographs & I still have them to this day...you can see the Maton, along with my provenance, in The Beatles Gear book page 95.

"Mikes for Mal"

Just to put you in the picture I had met the Beatles several times before the Maton guitar episode. I used to go down to the BBC Playhouse in Hulme most mornings & Dickinson Road to follow up deals or sales with the Northern Dance Orchestra. And there was this group from Liverpool that had a gig there on regular N.D.O. sessions - they did the bit in between.

There was a lady that had a sort of butty bar for coffee & bacon rolls & butties etc. at the top back of the old Playhouse Theatre. I would sit there for ages while the N.D.O. rehearsed & recorded waiting for them to have a break and the boys did there bit in between & as soon as they broke it was wheeler dealer time... But like I said while the N.D.O. were doing there thing the boys would come up to the top to the butty bar for a ciggy and a snack (George smoked more than Fred Dibnah's traction engine - he could smoke three fags while having a butty & a cuppa!). So we used to talk about this & that mainly about guitars & how much you got per gig & where - they were always very chatty & witty with it. George & I were particularly chatty (hence the maton thing) but they were just another band trying to make a crust. I told Mal Evans that if they came to m/c and had any problems to give me a ring at the shop. On one occasion he did ring in a bit of a panic.

The boys had come to Manchester to play a gig at the Oasis on Lloyd St, this was one of the biggest gigs in Manchester at the time. Well the phone rang & for those in the know Barratts had two phone numbers 236 0052 which everyone knew & a lesser known 'special' one 236 4843 and it was this number I had given to Mal Evans who was on the other end of the line in a bit of a panic to say the least. It turned out that The Beatles roadie had come all the way from Liverpool to Manchester for the gig but Mal had left the microphones back home in Liverpool, at that time they were using the two sided Reslo ribbon mike's, anyway, I told him not to panic and asked him what time were they doing a rehearsal or sound check. He replied now 2-30pm so I then explained to Mal that I only had the latest model in stock which were the Reslo C.R.H. Directional which were one sided to which he replied any thing would do just get them here before Neil & John throw a fit. I said I'm on my way...Off I went to the oasis with three Reslo C.R.H. mikes & 3 Valan stands. As soon as I arrived outside the club there waiting was a very relieved Mal Evan's. We went into the club where all the other gear was set up ready for the gig, I said to mal that I would set up the mike's for him & because they hadn't used this type before I would run through the PA set up with him. All the guy's were there & from the minute I started setting them up John Lennon never left my side, always asking questions like why was there only one side, would it effect their sound so I explained that they were directional & vocally it might improve things (now was that cheeky or what!) by now Paul & George had become more interested as instead of sharing one mike they now had two, but guess what? when I had finished setting up & they were ready to do a sound check (it was practice in those days, LOL!) Paul pushed his & George's mike together like they were one. I looked at Mal he looked at me & said that's the way they like it & so it was.

With Ringo perched on his drum kit they did a bit of "Some other guy" & "Standing there" & one or two others I can't remember. Afterwards they all said how good the sound was & John in particular was highly delighted & said that they might buy some at a later date (yeah yeah yeah we've heard that one before!). Anyway I was just glad to help Mal out of his predicament & was chuffed that the boy's were so pleased. There was lots of thanks, joking & hand shaking as I said "See ya!" & left to go back to the shop. Mal rang the next day & said that he had left the gear at the Oasis with the manager & that they were in a safe place & also thanked me personally & Barratts of Manchester for pulling out all the stops to help out, as we now know, the biggest band the world would ever see "THE BEATLES".

Dedicated to the memory Adrian Barratt who was a great friend & great influence on the Manchester music scene throughout the 60's & 70's until his untimely departure from the job to which he devoted his life & to whom I owe a great debt.