Paul McCartney meets Jane Asher

On this day The Beatles topped the bill at the Royal Albert Hall, London, for a concert broadcast live by the BBC.

The event, titled Swinging Sound 63, also featured Del Shannon, the Springfields, Rolf Harris, Kenny Lynch and George Melly, among others. It took place in two parts separated by an interval, with The Beatles taking the stage twice – at 8.40pm and again at 10pm, introduced both times by George Melly.

The Beatles performed just two songs in their first set: ‘Please Please Me’ and ‘Misery’. Neither were taped or broadcast by the BBC. For the second set, which was transmitted live, they played ‘Twist And Shout’ and ‘From Me To You’.

The show’s finale featured The Beatles, along with all the other acts, in an instrumental version of Mack The Knife.

Following the event, Paul McCartney for the first time met Jane Asher, who would become his girlfriend and later his fiancée. The actress had earlier that day posed for a Radio Times photoshoot, in which she was snapped screaming for the group.

I met Jane asher when she was sent by the Radio Times to cover a concert we were in at the Royal Albert Hall – we had a photo taken with her for the magazine and we all fancied her. We’d thought she was blonde, because we had only ever seen her on black-and-white telly doing Juke Box Jury, but she turned out to be a redhead. So it was: ‘Wow, you’re a redhead!’ I tried pulling her, succeeded, and we were boyfriend and girlfriend for quite a long time.