The night up and coming band The Beatles played Shrewsbury Music Hall in the early sixties

David Wiseman, bass guitarist with The Deltas, didn’t think that much of the Liverpool foursome on the bill with them at the Music Hall in Shrewsbury on December 14, 1962.

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By Toby Neal

Published Dec 2, 2023

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No pictures have turned up of The Beatles at their first Shrewsbury gig, but they were to return to play the Music Hall a few months later, as in this picture courtesy of Dave Wallace

“I thought ‘I can’t imagine this scruffy lot getting very far’,” recalled David in an interview in 2018. “How wrong could I be?”

This poster reveals the names of the support acts

That Liverpool group were The Beatles, performing at the county town for the first time. They had had a minor hit a few weeks beforehand with Love Me Do and, although nobody knew it that Shrewsbury night, were about to explode on the music scene as a global phenomenon.

David was 76 when we spoke to him, living in West Sussex, but at the time was living in Oakfield Road in Copthorne and worked at Shrewsbury’s big Maddox department store, doing window dressing and helping in the shop.

Roger Francis, pictured in 2018, with some mementoes

The Deltas were a Shrewsbury band with a strong local following and were one of the supporting acts for The Beatles, who topped the bill.

“My memories are a bit vague, but I can remember doing the show. In the dressing room we were in a bit of a huddle one end and they were in a huddle their end. There was a smart-looking gentleman with them, who might have been Brian Epstein, but I’m not sure.

“I was vaguely having a chat with Paul McCartney because he had this amazing guitar that looked like a violin. I thought it was a bit odd.