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Six things we didn鈥檛 know about the Beatles

One Two Three Four, Craig Brown’s illuminating biography of the Beatles, has been brought to life on Radio 4.

It tells us tales we never knew we needed to know about John, Paul, George and Ringo.

From the theft of Ringo’s hair to auctions of Beatles’ body parts, here are six of our favourite stories.

One Two Three Four: Entertaining and revealing vignettes from the Beatles' journey.

1. A window into the past: The Beatles鈥� link with the National Trust

You might associate the National Trust with grand country homes, manicured gardens and sprawling parks, but two of the buildings they look after are unassuming suburban houses in Liverpool. What sets "Mendips" and 20 Forthlin Road apart from their neighbours is the part they play in Britain’s musical history: they are the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney respectively. 20 Forthlin Road, a post-war terraced council house, was where the Beatles wrote several of their songs, including I Saw Her Standing There.

Yet while today it seems like a mid-century time capsule, appearances can be deceptive. When the National Trust acquired the property, it had been modernised by subsequent residents. To restore it to its prior state, the Trust traded its new windows with a house over the road, who had kept their original fittings.

Paul's childhood home at 20 Forthlin Road, Liverpool. Photo 漏 Getty Images

The drainpipe out the back, which Paul would shimmy up when sneaking back home in the early hours, is still intact. "Mendips", 251 Menlove Avenue, was restored to its 1950s glory after Yoko Ono bought the house in the early 2000s and donated it to the National Trust.

2. Paul had a special escape route in London

When the musician moved to London, he spent several years at his then-girlfriend Jane Asher’s family home. Jane had risen to fame in her own right as a child actress, and Paul lived with her and her family in Wimpole Street. He was given his own attic bedroom, where he stored his gold records under the bed and his MBE on a shelf.

Learning to sneak past his dad via the drainpipe as a teenager stood Paul in good stead when it came to avoiding overwhelming mobs of fans. When they caught wind of Paul’s bolthole and congregated outside the Wimpole Street house, Jane’s father plotted Paul his own escape route from the building.

This involved climbing out of his window onto a parapet, edging over to the window of an old colonel’s flat, where he would be shown to a lift down to the basement. A young couple lived there, and they would escort him through the kitchen and into the garage where he could escape unnoticed.

Jane Asher as a young actress. Photo 漏 大象传媒

3. Ringo had his hair stolen

After their first concert in the USA at the Washington Coliseum, the Beatles were invited to a reception at the British Embassy. Despite being guests of honour, they found themselves subject to some pretty unpleasant behaviour while signing autographs. John was mocked by one guest, and as a result stormed off.

John was mocked by one guest at a British Embassy reception, and as a result stormed off.

Ringo dutifully carried on, but while he was distracted a "mystery assailant" took a pair of scissors to his hair. Rumours abounded: Ringo believed a man had carried out the act, Paul thought there were multiple perpetrators who had targeted all of them, while others claimed a woman had used cuticle scissors from her evening bag to nab a lock of Ringo’s hair as a gift for her daughter.

The truth didn’t emerge for another 40 years. Beverly Markowitz, a Canadian woman who was now in her fifties, admitted that she and her DJ boyfriend had sneaked into the event after the concert. When she couldn’t persuade her boyfriend to take her home, she decided she’d get them kicked out instead. She chose Ringo, the shortest, because his hair was the easiest to reach, and snipped at his hair. Her plan worked – they were evicted. To this day, the lock of hair remains stuck in her autograph book next to Ringo’s signature.

Rarely seen images from the 大象传媒 Archive: a contact sheet of The Beatles backstage at Top of the Pops in June 1966. Mixed portraits of George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon. Photos are likely to have been from their Lime Grove recording subsequent to the release of Hard Day's Night. Roy Orbison has snuck in to one of the images. 漏 大象传媒

4. The hair-raising value of Beatles souvenirs

Ringo's lock of hair could have made Beverly some serious money. In preparation for his role in the film How I Won The War, John’s iconic mop top was cut into a short back and sides by German barber, Klaus Baruck. Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ manager, personally oversaw the incineration of the hair John had had trimmed. Though not all of it, as it turns out. Klaus stashed away a few locks as a rather lucrative pension pot. It sold at auction for £35,000.

Some people are quite literally desperate for a piece of John Lennon… John once gave his housekeeper Dot Jarlett one of his teeth as a present for her Beatles-mad daughter.

Yes, really. When sold at auction, along with a sworn affidavit by Dot that it was legitimate, it made £19,000. The successful bidder, a dentist named Dr Michael Zuk, had more than a professional interest in the tooth. He planned to extract DNA from it and use it to biologically prove that John had fathered illegitimate children. In exchange, he wanted a cut of the inheritance from Lennon Inc. to which any children might be entitled.

The prices people are willing to pay for memorabilia associated with the band are still sky-high today. Two years ago, Paul McCartney’s English schoolbook went under the hammer for £48,800.

George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney photographed after an interview with a member of the 大象传媒 Italian Service on the eve of their departure for a tour in Italy, 18 June 1965. 漏 大象传媒

5. McCartney was a master of disguise

After 1400 live shows, in 1966, the Beatles were exhausted. With no more concerts on the agenda, they decided to spend three months having a much-needed break. Ringo spent the time at home with his wife and baby, George travelled to India to study yoga and learn the sitar, John went to Europe to star in a film (which was when he got that haircut), and Paul decided to go incognito and get a taste for normality.

He got a false moustache (specially colour-matched to his hair), two pairs of fake glasses, and used Vaseline to slick back his distinctive hair. He travelled to France and set off, in disguise, on a road trip. He enjoyed exploring Paris as a tourist, then continued on his journey to Bordeaux. Here, the allure of anonymity started to wear off when he was refused entry to a nightclub. He returned as himself and was, of course, immediately granted entry. At this point, he decided anonymity wasn’t necessarily any better than fame.

6. We鈥檝e been looking for meaning where there is none

In 1967, Stephen Bayley, a pupil at Quarry Bank School (John Lennon’s alma mater), wrote John a letter requesting an analysis of the Sgt Pepper album.

He explained that they had been played the Beatles’ music in class and were asked to analyse the lyrics by their teacher, who would then contribute his own interpretation.

John thought this was hilarious, and – under the influence of LSD – set about writing the most absurd lyrics his mind could conjure, incorporating nonsensical words from a school playground rhyme. “Semolina Pilchard. Climbing up the Eiffel Tower” – try and find the symbolic meaning in that!

The result was I Am the Walrus and, predictably, people have been analysing it ever since.

Listen to One Two Three Four – The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown, read by Mark McGann, on 大象传媒 Sounds.

What The Beatles really sang

What were Lennon and McCartney really thinking when they wrote their hit songs? Thanks to the number crunching power of AI computer algorithms to perform textual analysis, the emotional content of 23 years' worth of their compositions has been analysed. The results are startling. Listen here.

Beatlemania on 大象传媒 Radio