TEIGNMOUTH celebrates a very special anniversary next week – the day and night The Beatles came to town.

It was be 50 years ago the week that the Fab Four arrived ‘unannounced’ while filming the surreal film The Magical Mystery Tour.

It was the height of Beatlemania, and the mop tops were the most famous group in the world. The one-night stand was hushed up as much as possible, but inevitably the news soon spread around, and the former Royal Hotel on the seafront was besieged by fans and press.

To mark the historic 1967 stay, a group of fanatical German fans will be coming over on a conducted tour of the towns featured in the film.

They say if you can remember the ’60s, you weren’t really there. Well, I was and I do recall quite a bit of the era, but some of it is quite hazy due to various excesses, mainly beer.

Scribbling for a daily paper then, I joined a motley collection of hacks who had descended on the hotel, and told to wait in the bar while John, Paul, Ringo and George tucked into a supper.

It was quite a long wait, and the drinks flowed freely as we passed the time. Eventually it was decided only a couple of press – a reporter and photographer – would be allowed into their room for a chat, and they would have to ‘pool’ the quotes and snaps with the others.

By sheer luck – or maybe because we were locals and frequented the bar quite a bit and knew the management quite well – I and my snapper were picked to head upstairs.

We were ushered into their room, and the lads seemed relaxed and full of good humour as they puffed on fags, and talked freely for a few minutes.

They were garbed in typical ’60s gear, and Paul McCartney’s tanktop stood out in my mind – it was very colourful and looked like it could have been knitted by his mum.

John Lennon was the most vocal, of course, and said they honestly had no idea where they were going next – only the coach driver knew.

‘This is supposed to be a mystery tour,’ he said.

‘So it is much better that no one really knows where they are heading.’

They had apparently all been to Teignmouth before – on holidays – and preferred to stop at a small town, rather than somewhere bigger like Torquay.

McCartney added: ‘We decided on the West Country because it is so interesting and varied.’

By 6pm there were a few fans milling around, but by the time The Beatles arrived three hours later, it was more like 500, and about 20 police were needed to stop them blocking the road.

It was thought the tour coach would be pulling up outside the Royal, but anticipating a crowd, the four, along with the film crew and management, swapped into cars outside the town.

This caught the fans off-guard, and many rushed into the lobby.

Some managed to pound on the first-floor bedroom doors, before being moved on by ‘good humoured policemen’, according to news reports at the time.

Others took more drastic action to try and see their idols – climbing through other guests’bedrooms. Some girls stood on their boyfriend’s shoulders to clamber into the Royal.

Under-manager Roy Naylor told us the booking had only been confirmed in the morning, which meant quite a rush for the staff.

Next day he reported that none of the other guests had complained about the rumpus and most of them seemed to be quite excited about it all.

The Beatles’ management also praised the way the hotel had coped with the arrival of the star guests, and described the hospitality as ‘absolutely wonderful’.

The next stop for the magical mystery coach was supposed to be Widecombe-in-the-Moor where the famous fair was taking place. But to the disappointment of waiting fans, the coach never made it after becoming stuck on a narrow bridge – some said it was Holne Bridge on Dartmoor, but one local after examining photos, insisted it was ‘100 per-cent the New Bridge at Spitchwick’.

Apparently the driver knew a short-cut to beat the traffic! It took some time to free the coach, and they moved on to Plymouth instead.

Moira Birtwistle was 19 when she rushed down to the Royal after a tip-off from her mother, Marion Elkington who was secretary of the hotels and caterers association, and had heard on the news that The Beatles had arrived at Teignmouth.

She recalls:?‘I managed to say hello to Paul, who was quite friendly, but said he had to go because John was calling him.

‘It is something I have never forgotten. When I told my friends at college, they did not seem that impressed and were quite cool about it. They probably thought The Beatles were for 14-year-olds.’

Moira has been liaising with Simon Mitchell, a Brit living in Germany, who is organising the tour of the towns featured in the film, and will be greeting the fans when they arrive in Teignmouth.

Simon is probably the world’s number one Beatle fan. At the age of seven he was cast as an extra in the film.

He has a mass of memorabilia and recordings, and is in the middle of restoring what he believes is the original coach used in the film.

‘After over 30 years of collecting, I have one of the most extensive Magical Mystery Tour collections in the world,’ he claimed.

Alfred Ebeling, the organiser of the German tour, said: ‘From the beginning of 1964, I was grabbed by Beatle fever and never let go again. Since then I have been collecting all I can find to do with the Fab Four.

‘After visiting Liverpool and London, the idea hit me about doing something to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film, and to follow the route.

‘The planning has been going on for over a year. I am glad that we have found 30 other people who wish to join me.

‘The highlight of the tour will be meeting up with other people who took part in the making of the film, as well as others who met The Beatles in the 1960s. I still find the film fascinating.’

His wife Ilona added: ‘I am a huge Beatles fan.

‘Something similar will never happen again.

‘Magical Mystery Tour is a crazy film, and to follow the route even after 50 years is something really special.’

Not everybody in town at the time was a Beatles fan, however.

The late Cllr Arthur Bladon, chairman of the then urban council, entertained the press in the bar, and admitted: ‘I have no wish to decry their fame, but personally they leave me cold.’

He could not hang around because he was going across the road to the former Carlton Theatre to watch a production of The Desert Song by the Teignmouth Operatic Society, which was much more his cup of tea!

The Beatles’ stay was given front-page treatment by the Teignmouth Post that week, however, like Cllr Bladon, the editorial team thought the musical should be the lead story.

The film had mixed reviews, but the album of the same name sold millions worldwide, with such numbers as Fool on the Hill, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever.

As an aside, I also reviewed some early Beatles’ gigs for a music magazine, but even standing at the front could hardly hear a note because of the screaming by the girls.

Amplification was somewhat primitive in those days and no match for the noise from excited fans.

They could have been singing Three Blind Mice for all anybody knew ­– or cared!