Reader contacts us with postcard sent from the Beatles in Tenerife 60 years ago

Two weeks ago we wrote about how it is 60 years since The Beatles visited Tenerife on holiday, their last trip away as ‘normal’ young men before Beatlemania hit and they became a global phenomenon. Imagine our surprise this week when we were contacted by someone saying “I have a postcard from George Harrison on that trip as my mum was dating him!”

Ali Rodd told us that, aside from growing up around Merseybeat, his parents went on to build The Beatles Story exhibition in Liverpool, but it all began around the time of that trip to Tenerife. As Ali explained to Canarian Weekly:

“My mum (maiden name Bernadette Farrell) was a regular at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, and first saw the Beatles perform in 1962 when they were supporting Faron's Flamingos, who despite having a lack of success remain an important part of the Merseybeat history.

As soon as she saw the fab four she was sold. She said that she’d never seen anything like them and she and her friend, Joan, soon started reading Mersey Beat every week to see where they were playing.

Bernadette started going to The Cavern Club every lunchtime as she worked at a hairdressers nearby, and some evenings when they were performing, and soon got to know The Beatles, as many regulars did. Eventually, Paul McCartney asked her out on a date, which she went on, but it was a one-off and they just became friends.

Not long after, in December 1962, George asked Bernadette out and this developed into a relationship that lasted over 6 months, just as The Beatles were becoming more well known, and she recalls people starting to recognise him when they were out at the cinema or in bars.

There was an occasion when they left a show at The Floral Hall in Southport in April 1963, and George's arm got trapped in the car door as they were chased by hoards of screaming fans. Bernadette was in the back of the car with George's mum and recalls it was pretty frightening and George was quite angry about it.

It was during that April, that The Beatles (minus John) went on holiday to Tenerife after long recording sessions, and he sent my mum this postcard when he was there”.

We wrote about it in the book “The Birth of the Beatles Story” as follows:

Bernadette recalls: “At the end of April 1963, George went on holiday to Tenerife with Paul and Ringo. They stayed with their friend, Klaus Voorman, whose family had a villa there, and Astrid joined them. At the same time, John Lennon went away with Brian Epstein to Barcelona (controversially just a few weeks after Cynthia, his wife, had given birth to their son, Julian).

I was pleased that George had managed to get a break after such a busy and chaotic few years, and in hindsight, this was the last time they were able to get away and really relax, without being recognised. He sent me a postcard from their trip, addressing it to ‘Bernydet’, which was his pet name for me. He was keen to inform me that they had seen “many bullfights and onions, but not a senorita anywhere!”

He signed it from George [A BAND] – his tongue-in-cheek joke in case I wasn’t sure who it was from!

I was very happy to receive such a nice postcard from George, and we had arranged to go out on May 10th, which was the night after he got back. They had a couple of nights off before they were back out on the road again. But to my surprise and embarrassment, he decided to come and see me as soon as he got home. I was sitting in the living room, with my hair in rollers, hoping to look my best for his return the next day. My younger brother answered the door, and without any warning, showed him straight in.

I can still picture him now, walking in with a nice tan and wearing a lovely beige suede jacket that he had bought on holiday. He took one look at me and said, “So… this is the Face of Beauty!”

He was referring to a weekly article called ‘The Face of Beauty’ that Bill Harry had decided to run in Mersey Beat. It featured girls who went to popular music venues and dance halls around Liverpool. While George had been away, Bill chose me to appear, and George’s mum had spotted it and told him about it. I was absolutely mortified and though I was very happy to see him, ran straight up the stairs to take my rollers out!”

Ali continued: “Bernie doesn't recall their relationship coming to an end, it simply got harder to see him with his hectic schedule, and they drifted apart.

Fast forward to the 1980s and Bernie and her husband (my dad) Mike got involved in Liverpool tourism. Bernie became a Beatles tour guide and Mike became the manager of an ill-fated exhibition called Beatle City. After this closed, they embarked on their own journey to build a permanent Beatle exhibition in Liverpool. After many trials and challenges, they opened The Beatles Story in 1990, and it's still going strong today, 33 years on, having welcomed over 5 million visitors through its doors.”

The postcard from Tenerife is now on show at The Beatles Story in Liverpool, along with some of Bernadette's other items.  You can see from the postdate that it was sent on May 6th, 1963. So that's 60 years in a week!

If you’d like to read more about this, the book is available online from Amazon here: “The Birth of the Beatles Story”.