When The Beatles were snubbed in Dingwall with only a 19-person crowd
What’s the moment you regret most in your life? For the people of Dingwall, it was the time they decided not to go and see The Beatles.
Without wanting to insult any natives, the historic Highland market town isn’t exactly famed for much: its Viking roots, a museum, and Ross County FC, at best. It’s not exactly what you would call the cultural capital of the world, and certainly not Scotland. You’d think that when the biggest band in the world came calling, the entire population would be out in force.
But as it turns out, the 1960s population of Dingwall could have made for the most hardy bunch of critics in the world, because when The Beatles showed up for one of their five dates on their Scottish tour of 1963, any hint of burgeoning success and egos was crashed well and truly back to Earth.
It probably goes without saying that Dingwall doesn’t have many concerts happening within its walls, but unfortunately for the Fab Four, their billed evening at the Town Hall on January 4th happened to clash with the clearly much more attractive offering of The Melotones, who were playing at the nearby Strathpeffer Pavilion.
As such, it meant that while the local heroes, The Melotones, pulled in an audience of over 1,000 people, The Beatles only got 19 – you read that right: not 19,000, 1900, or even 190, just a measly 19 people that lined the floor of the venue that night, watching this fledgling Liverpool band take to the stage with no idea of what would happen next.
Within only a space of weeks afterwards, people in Dingwall would have been eating their words as the band scored their first UK top ten hit with ‘Please Please Me’. Then, in the space of barely a year, they had become the biggest band the world had ever seen. Smugness is an ugly trait, but it was well-deserved for those who were in the crowd that night.
The folklore of the infamous snub became so rampant in the town that, nearly half a century later, in 2011, a reunion was staged between the 19 lucky souls who had the foresight to see that those former oddballs from Liverpool really were on to something. Oddly enough, however, 24 people came forward in the search.
The extra five claimed they were staff at the Town Hall, responsible for handing out cups of tea and manning the cloakroom on the night that John, Paul, George, and Ringo hardly conquered Dingwall. With no evidence, you just have to take their word for it – but there’s every chance that these were just people trying to pretend they had a slice of the action.
It does make you wonder if, only a mere two years later, when The Beatles were tearing up Shea Stadium, they stood on that stage in front of a screaming crowd of thousands and thought back to the time they were well and truly humbled in Dingwall. For a band seen as so stratospheric, it certainly was a reminder of the bump back to reality, but if one thing was certain, it didn’t seem to dwell on their minds for long.
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