Prince of Wales Theatre, Coventry St. London
The Beatles' famous Royal Command Performance, in the presence of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, with Lord Snowdon. Though appearing seventh on a 19-act bill, they were undoubtedly the night's main attraction.
As they had done on Val Parnell's Sunday Night At The London Palladium on October 13th, the group put all of their tried-and-trusted stage tricks into the performance. They began playing the opening number, "From Me To You", before the curtain parted, then John and Paul simultaneously moved their microphone stands closer to the audience at its end; they bowed at the close of the second song, "She Loves You", Paul, clearly nervous, cracked a joke about Sophie Tucker being their "Favorite American Group" before the third song, "Till There Was You", before the fourth and last number, John and Paul returned their mike stands for the applause to die away before uttering his notorious jewellery-rattling witticism as an introduction to "Twist And Shout", finally, Ringo came down from his drum podium to join John, Paul and George, the curtain closed behind them, they bowed to the audience, then to the royal box, and then to show exuberance, sprinted off the stage.
Historically, telivising of the Royal Command Performance has alternated between the BBC and ITV, this year it fell to the latter. Pictures were networked across Britain by ATV the following Sunday, November 10th, 7:28 to 10:30 pm, with the Beatle's entire four-song performance included. However, when the BBC radio Light Program transmitted hightlights from the show *also on November 10), it omitted "She Loves You".
