Good Ol' Freda Page #3

a song for me or something,

I was in love with Paul that day,

I fancied him that day,

but then the following day,

if Ritchie asked me how me dogs were

(because he knew I

had Yorkshire Terriers,

he'd say "Oh,

how are the dogs?")

I'd think "Oh,

yeah, I fancy Ritchie,"

and then I think, if George offered me

a lift home from work,

I'd be in love

with George that day,

and I'd think "Yeah, yeah,

I definitely fancy George. "

But then if John came in

and started talking about various things,

I'd think "I like his nose,

I like the Roman nose,"

but it would only

be for a day or two.

Did you go out

with any of them?

No.

Pass.

No stories there?

Oh, there is stories,

but I don't want anybody's hair

falling out or turning curly.

That's personal.

It was the end

of a working day,

and Eppy just

came in and said,

"Come on Freda,

put your coat on,

I'm going to

take you somewhere. "

I had no idea where.

And next minute we

were at The Empire,

and then next minute

we were in the box,

I'd never been in the box of The Empire.

It was this one on the left.

He'd managed to

get The Beatles

a spot on

the Little Richard show,

and I think somebody

was sick or something

and he'd managed

to get them on.

And I remember

sitting in the box,

it was just Eppy and I,

and I was to the left,

and then I looked

down on the stage

and the whole theatre and the stage

were in darkness,

except for this light

shining on Paul's face,

and he was singing

A Taste of Honey.

I don't cry,

but my eyes sort of filled up

and I just couldn't believe

that The Beatles were on The Empire,

the biggest

theatre in Liverpool,

and I thought

"This is it. They've made it.

They're going to

be famous one day. "

The Beatles' first hit, as far as I'm

concerned, was Love Me Do, I mean,

I was one of

the ones that bought it,

and I didn't have

a record player,

and there was

loads of girls like me

that didn't have

record players,

but we bought it

just to boost the sales.

You didn't have

pop stations then,

but we had one station

called Radio Luxembourg,

and they used

to do the charts,

and I remember

staying up late,

sitting by the radio,

holding the knob,

trying to keep it on

the same wavelength,

and waiting to hear

The Beatles' record.

And when it got to 17,

that was amazing.

I know it only stayed the week,

I think, but it didn't matter.

They were in the charts.

I was working for Brian Epstein,

doing a normal day-job,

but I also had to do

the fan club overnight.

Silly me, I gave out my home address

as the fan club address.

The postman

knocked on the door

and he said to me,

"Who gave this address out?

You've got 200 letters here. "

And I said, "Sorry,

won't do it again time. "

Little did he know,

within the next

few months The Beatles

became more famous,

and instead of just 200 letters,

they were coming in bundles,

and those bundles came in sacks,

so the van rolled up.

My father wasn't keen

on The Beatles anyway,

and his own

personal mail, you know,

your telephone bill,

electricity bill,

your gas bill,

all in the fan mail.

So he just

looked at me and said,

"You've got to

put a stop to this.

What possessed you to give

our home address out?"

I didn't think at the time.

My mother has never

played the fame game.

If she had, things would be

completely different now,

and she might not be working

six days a week

9 'til 5 o'clock at night,

very stressed,

when other people have retired,

and she hasn't got that joy.

These are all

Christmas decorations.

Oh, success.

I kept a couple of scrapbooks

with theatre tickets in,

and newspaper cuttings in.

A few fan club letters.

Yeah, they're old.

I think it's records,

and, oh, me scrapbook.

Yeah. Cuttings book.

I mean I have a lot of these.

I don't know.

Forty years since

Rachel was born.

I could have been

a very very wealthy woman,

could be a millionairess

if I'd have kept everything.

I had loads of autographs,

photographs,

all the fan club stuff,

Apple stuff, fan club records,

but over a period of time,

I gave it all away.

But I don't regret that,

because I know when I gave

the majority of the stuff away,

I gave it in 1974,

and I actually handed the stuff

to Beatle fans myself,

so I knew the Beatle fans got

all the fan club stuff that was left.

I've got these

four boxes anyway.

I didn't even

think I had four boxes.

As I'm flicking through,

there are so many memories

coming back to me.

I'll just pick something up,

and I'll remember that day.

Oh, this is George

Harrison's real hair.

A few months after Love Me Do,

the lads had their first number one hit,

which was Please Please Me.

We were gradually

getting letters,

from 50 a day,

200 a day, to my home,

and then it worked up

to about 800 a day,

and then eventually

we didn't even count them,

we just threw

the mail in the corner.

I would put loads of photographs

in front of them,

and they would go in to Eppy,

and they would take the photographs

in with them,

and while they

were talking to Eppy,

they were all signing.

But they never complained

about signing things,

never ever.

I think it was

because it was early days

and they were all

excited by it all,

so nothing was a problem.

Out of all The Beatles,

I'd say George

was the best one

for signing things.

He would come in and he'd go,

"Do you want me

to sign anything?

What have you got

in your cupboard?"

The Beatles called

him Eppy, we all did,

but to his face, he asked us

to call him Mr. Brian in the office.

He was the boss

so it was Mister.

He had an aura about him.

I know he was

probably only 27 then,

but he was old. Ten years was

a big difference in those days,

where I'm 17, he's 27.

He came from a well-off family

and he had nice clothes

and spoke with a posh accent,

so you had respect for him.

He threw a few

tantrums in the office,

and you just

kept out of his way.

Well, I did.

Probably that's why

I lasted ten years.

Some people didn't,

or retaliated,

and they were

sacked on the spot.

He was the boss, and he

was the boss.

Brian Epstein was notorious for

his dreadful tantrums.

He would hire and re-fire

his top executives

at the drop of a hat.

Freda was sort of immune,

if you like,

to the temper tantrums.

She was never hurt by them.

We had a new dictaphone,

and he gave me this tape to do

while he was out,

and I'd done about two letters

and the tape got stuck.

So Neil Aspinall

came in and I said,

"Oh God, I've got this tape and

I've got it stuck,

and there's

a load of work on it. "

We pressed two things, and we

erased all the work.

He came in the office,

and I just saw John at the back of him,

and he went to

hang up the coat,

and he said,

"Have you finished the tape?"

and I just said "No.

I'm sorry, no.

I've wiped it by mistake. "

He just looked at me, and then

shouted "You stupid girl!"

and John Lennon saved the day,

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