‘We had silver suits specially made’: performing at the Beatles Christmas shows

John Beecham on appearing with the Fab Four at Hammersmith Odeon, London, December 1964

This wasn’t the first time we’d shared a bill with the Beatles. A few years earlier, they were our warm-up band, when we headlined the Cavern in Liverpool. We really admired them.

I was the trombonist in the Mike Cotton Sound, a footnote to the 1960s music scene. On this occasion, we were their support band; we are pictured here at the press call for Another Beatles Christmas Show, a follow-up to their successful production a year earlier.

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