‘Whispering’ Bob Harris and The Songs The Beatles Gave Away

BBC's Bob Harris and author/music journalist Colin Hall come to Basingstoke’s Haymarket on Friday, November 3 (7.30pm) with a show based around their mutual love and appreciation of The Beatles, including a rare archive from Bob's collection of interviews with Lennon & McCartney.

By 1963, John and Paul had written so many songs, they simply couldn't all be accommodated on just their own Beatles releases, so it made artistic and economic good sense to be offered to other artists for recording. The Merseybeat boom of 1963 and 1964 gave them a tailor-made outlet in artists such as Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer, and Tommy Quickly.

This is the story behind those songs, the hits, the misses, and the demos that the group never released.

National treasure 'Whispering' Bob Harris has been at the very heart of UK music scene for the best part of 50 years. He has established a worldwide reputation as one of the most trusted and influential broadcasters of his generation – described by Radio Times as "...one of the greats of British contemporary music broadcasting”.

For the past 20 years, Colin Hall has been the custodian at John Lennon’s childhood home 'Mendips' (guiding the likes of Bob Dylan, Yoko Ono, and James Taylor around the property), he's written two books on The Fab Four, and presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary with Alexei Sayle titled The Lennon Visitors. Colin was incredibly in the audience at the village fete where John was first introduced to Paul!

The two friends have worked on several projects together before, including the upcoming film Pre Fab! (which focuses on the band's early days as The Quarrymen), a WBBC production of The Songs The Beatles Gave Away, and 2007's Sony Award-winning The Day John Met Paul.

Tickets are priced at £22 (includes £4 booking fee). Visit https://www.anvilarts.org.uk/whats-on/event/bob-harris-colin-hall or contact the Anvil Arts box office on 01256 844244.