Live: Grafton Rooms, Liverpool

The Beatles’ third known concert at Liverpool’s Grafton Rooms had been arranged in February 1963, and was a fundraiser for the charity the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).

The group performed for no fee. The event was organised by Oxford student Jeffrey Archer, who later became a novelist, Conservative party politician and a disgraced peer.

They were very generous. It was very good of them to do it. There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that Paul McCartney and John Lennon were very bright. There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that they could have gone to Oxford, if that was their course, if they hadn’t been prisoners of birth. Harrison clearly was a wonderful musician. And Ringo, I couldn’t get to terms with at all. But it was a great day in my life and great fun.