Good Ol' Freda

Hello, this is John

speaking with his voice.

We're all very happy

to be able to talk to you

like this on this

little bit of plastic.

This record reaches you at the end of

a really dear year for us,

and it's all due to you.

I'd like to say thank you to all

of the Beatle people

who have written to

me during the year.

I'd love to reply personally

to everyone,

but I just

haven't enough pens.

This is Paul here.

We're all dead pleased by the way

you've treated us in 1963,

and we're trying to do

everything we can to please you

with the type of songs we write

and record next year.

Well,

I'm running out of my time

and people are

telling me to stop...

Stop! Stop! Stop!

Stop shouting those animals!

So I'll finish now

with wishing everyone

Happy Crimble,

and a merry new year.

Ya Ringo!

Hello, Ringo here.

As you know,

I was the last member

to join The Beatles.

I started to play

gongs in the group 1962.

Thank you Ringo, thank you Ringo.

We'll phone you.

I'm George Harrison!

Nobody else has

said anything yet

about our secretary,

Freda Kelly in Liverpool.

Good old Freda!

So on behalf of us all,

I'd just like

to say a great

big "thank you"...

I was just

a secretary then,

and, funny enough,

I'm still a secretary now,

and who would want

to hear the secretary's story?

Millions

of girls around

the world wanted

this dream job:

they wanted to

be the secretary.

She epitomized all their dreams

and all their hopes,

and all these girls wanted

to be Freda Kelly

and to be that

close to The Beatles.

Well, I didn't expect to talk,

maybe grab one of them,

but I wouldn't hurt 'em,

I wouldn't hurt 'em,

I'd just talk to them maybe,

but I wouldn't, you know, grab...

like,

everybody says they're gonna

cut their hair

and everything...

we wouldn't do that.

If you look

at what is history now,

The Beatles were

together ten years.

Freda worked for

The Beatles for eleven.

She was there right

before they made it,

and right after they finished,

so that says it all,

basically.

Tell me, when you hear

a Beatles record,

what thoughts run

through your mind?

Beauty, sheer beauty.

The Beatles bring

joy into the world:

they're happiness; we forget our cares

when we hear Beatle records.

Freda was far more than

a secretary to the Beatles;

she was a family member.

She's never had

the same recognition

that a number of people

within the inner circle have had,

simply because she

never pushed herself,

she never wrote a book,

she never agreed to do interviews,

she's always kept a very very

confidential existence.

We came

here at 6 o'clock

in the morning,

5:
30, to see them,

and all they do is push you

farther and farther away

and then they don't even

let you see them!

A lot of people didn't take

these girls seriously,

but I did, because, you know,

I was one of them...

I was a fan me self.

So I knew where

they were coming from.

We grew up with them.

You know, they started

when they were younger

and we were younger.

And all through

these years, we've just

developed with them

and grown up with them,

and they belong

to us, you know?

But there could

never be another Beatles.

Never.

She's one

of the last survivors

of the whole Beatles era,

and you know,

this story of Freda Kelly's

will be, surely,

one of the last true stories

of the Beatles

that you'll ever really hear.

I've been a secretary

for half a century,

fifty years,

and that's quite frightening.

This job is interesting,

but it's not as exciting as my last job.

I don't get the phone calls

that I did in the 60's,

like, you know,

an invite to a premiere,

you know, "Roy Orbison's

having a party

and we've managed

to get a few tickets,

do you want to

come to that Fre?"

And I'm like "Yeah, okay,

I'm on the next train!"

I left school

when I was sixteen,

and my first job was

at a firm called Prince's.

I was in

the middle of a typing pool,

which is rows of secretaries

just typing away.

The lads from

different levels of law

would come down

and give me work to do,

but most of my day was just

spent typing contracts,

typing letters...

it wasn't the most glamorous of jobs,

but I was a working woman now.

One day,

two guys from upstairs

came down and

came over to my desk

and just said "Come on Freda,

we're going to take you out for lunch. "

I didn't know where I was going,

and I ended up in The Cavern.

Now, I'd never been

to The Cavern before,

I didn't even know what I was going into,

because it was a cellar.

It had a unique smell:

there was no ventilation,

and sometimes the toilets overflowed,

and it was

opposite a fruit market,

so it was probably a mixture

of disinfectant,

rotten fruit, and sweat

all rolled into one.

There was three archways,

and in the middle archway

was wooden seats,

all different

types of wooden seats,

they weren't all in rows

and all the same.

There was a little

wooden stage at the back,

and The Beatles were playing on the stage

when I first walked in.

And I'd never experienced

anything like that...

it was everything about them,

it was just the way they dressed,

with all this leather gear,

they were larking about,

and dancing on stage,

and mucking about

with the audience,

and on top of everything else,

there was the music.

It was just unlike anything

I'd ever heard.

I was hooked.

I just was amazed

by everything I saw,

and I thought "That's it,

I'm going to go tomorrow. "

Well I think

it's put down that

they played something silly

like 294 times.

Out of that, I would say,

I probably saw them about 190 times.

Freda was definitely

a staple of The Cavern,

she was always there,

and she always

sat in the same seat.

I used to like the second arch

on the left hand side,

because it was

just that handy.

You could pop in and out the

band room all the time.

There was about two

rows in the front,

they would leave

their rollers in

until before

the lads would come onstage,

and then they'd

take their rollers out

and doll

theirselves up and everything.

It was conversation all the time

with the audience.

Somebody came in, a different hairstyle,

they'd pick on them.

They'd go "Have you been

the hairdresser's?"

or "Who got you up this morning?"

But he answered them back.

They liked the razzmatazz

between you and them.

People used to

write down a number,

give it to them, and ask them

would they right play that number.

Now, if you gave it to John,

Paul always went over to John

and leaned over his shoulder

and read the request out.

I thought "Can

John read, or...?"

He looked pretty arrogant,

to be honest...

he'd look at

the crowd like that

as if he was going to kill

everyone in the crowd.

And then I

mentioned it to somebody

and they said "Oh, no, no,

John's as blind as a bat.

He wears glasses and he

never wears his glasses,

so he can't see further

than his nose. "

I liked George singing Three Cool Cats,

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