The Beatles live: Candie Gardens, Guernsey

Following their two nights performing in Jersey, The Beatles boarded a 12-seater aeroplane for the 30-mile journey to Guernsey on 8 August 1963. Their equipment arrived by ferry.

The group performed two shows in the auditorium at Candie Gardens, in St Peter Port, Guernsey. The concerts, at 7pm and 9.15pm, were their only ones on the island, and were promoted by Baron Pontin.

Tickets cost 17 shillings and sixpence, 15 shillings, 12 shillings and sixpence, and 10 shillings. The support acts were Vic Sutcliffe, Les Dell, the Rob Charles Combo, The Robert Brothers, and Mike Kelly.

Following the show, John Lennon went to the rented flat of beat poet Royston Ellis. The Beatles had befriended Ellis after performed as his backing band in Liverpool in June 1960.

On this night Lennon, Ellis and his girlfriend Stephanie wore polythene and shared a bed out of curiosity about kinky sex.

We’d read all these things about leather and we didn’t have any leather but I had my oilskins and we had some polythene bags from somewhere. We all dressed up in them and wore them in bed. John stayed the night with us in the same bed. I don’t think anything very exciting happened and we all wondered what the fun was in being ‘kinky’. It was probably more my idea than John’s.
Royston Ellis
A Hard Day’s Write, Steve Turner

The incident later helped inspire Lennon’s song ‘Polythene Pam’, written in 1968 and released on the following year’s Abbey Road.

Last updated: 25 January 2024
The Beatles live: Springfield Ballroom, Jersey
The Beatles live: Springfield Ballroom, Jersey
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