(Credits: MUBI)
Thu 25 December 2025 6:00, UK
Michael Palin is a legendary member of the Monty Python troupe, a renowned travel documentarian, a prolific author, a Bafta winner, and he’s also seen The Beatles live way before they reached the cult levels of global stardom they’re known for today, truly proving there’s nothing he hasn’t done.
The adventure took place at The Tower Ballroom in New Brighton, the seaside town over the river from Liverpool, which, and I’m speaking from dozens of weekends spent frolicking in the mucky sand there, doesn’t quite have the best of British culture to show.
Think more discarded shopping trolleys, pebbledash alleys, and a seagull attacking for a soggy chip or two, none of which clearly didn’t matter to Palin, for, speaking from experience again, New Brighton has a mighty fine entertainment scene. He was accompanied by a close friend to the momentous show, which saw him excited, entering the building which has now been pulled down, and lo and behold, “There were The Beatles playing, and it was by no means full, and it’s a big place”.
It’s an almost unimaginable reality; forget the halls decked out with bodies accumulating to reach numbers that hit twice the capacity, itching for just a single sight of the star scousers, and instead, in its place, a near-empty ballroom, haunted by that awkward extra space. Surely, at least The Beatles were killing it on stage, but according to Palin, that was not quite the case.
“John Lennon was up on stage trying to get a twist competition going, and trying to get girls to come up… Imagine that! The Beatles trying to get girls to come up on stage?” The erudite frontman, soon to forever become an icon with those telltale round glasses, struggling with a simple call-and-response on his home turf is baffling to say the least.
Things went from bad to worse for the band after they lost a key spectator; they struggled to keep Palin’s attention for the entirety of the gig, who, instead, found his eye wandering, confessing that the night didn’t finish like many would’ve hoped.
He added, “Anyway, we watched them for a bit, but we were pursuing two girls ourselves and never really… I mean, there were The Beatles, yes, they were great, noisy, and that was it. That was my first experience of The Beatles.”
You might try to pore over the history books to place this manic night, but you’d be all out of luck as The Beatles played the Tower Ballroom a grand total of 27 times between 1961 and 1963. The huge venue held up to 5,000 people, becoming a crucial location for the friends to hone their craft before stepping things up and launching into the big leagues, so Palin’s story is just one of many lost to the wind.
As for the girls he was chasing, I guess that’s a secret he’ll keep forever close to his chest, but by the smirk on his face, my guess is that missing The Beatles has never been a big regret of his.
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