IN 1963, the Beatles were on the verge of becoming one of the biggest bands of all time with 'She Loves You' hitting the charts in August that year, catapulting them to fame. Before that, however, the band played a 20-minute set at Abergavenny Town Hall - and a local historian was there to capture the event. Former South Wales Argus sub editor Nigel Corten recalls how this rare archive footage was recovered.

"THOUGH not yet the biggest band in the world, in their pre-Fab Four days The Beatles stepped off their rocket ship to everlasting fame in June 1963 to play Abergavenny Town Hall in front of a few hundred fans. 

The gig was booked a year or two before Beatlemania, and possibly they could have got out of it, but they decided to honour the gig and what a gig it was, as you can see by the photographs. 

The finding of the photographs is a story in itself. Abergavenny local man, Albert Lyons, was well known for documenting everything worthy of a photograph in the town and surrounding area, he was also on hand to keep his camera busy the day The Beatles came to town. He kept his collection in a spare bedroom in his house. 

South Wales Argus: The Beatles on stage at Abergavenny

After he passed away, his wife asked a friend if he’d like to look through his collection, which he did. There were hundreds, possibly thousands of photographs and negatives and some equipment in the room. He looked on every shelf and in every box. He even looked under the bed. This is where fate comes in. 

South Wales Argus: Abert Lyons

Pushed well under the bed was a tin, but slightly out of reach, so he left it and carried on with the search. About to stop, he remembered the tin and this time making an extra effort he reached it and pulled it out. Inside there were many developed rolls of film. One was Albert’s day with The Beatles. 

He instantly knew what he had when he looked through the frames on the film and made prints from them.  

Luckily for the Abergavenny Free Press he took the prints and his story to the Press’ chief copy editor, Lesley Flynn, and she saw what a great story it was, along with the candid photographs of The Beatles visit to Abergavenny. 

South Wales Argus: The poster for the gig The poster for the gig (Image: Albert Lyons)The poster for the gig 

Free Press sub-editor, Nigel Corten, put together the page and it was printed off for the February 12, 2003, edition of the paper. 

It didn’t stop there. Nigel knew that Yoko Ono was a keen collector of Beatles memorabilia, so he sent off a copy of the paper to her home in New York, in America. 

South Wales Argus: The Free Press article written by reporter Lesley Flynn and created in print by Nigel Corten

That was the end of the story, he thought, but two months later he received a message and a hand-painted card from John Lennon’s widow to thank him, and that the paper was in her collection."