Towards the end of 1963, the sanity of the younger generation was being called into question. “Many young people these days complain that adults tend to condemn them,” wrote one irate newspaper reader. “But when one sees the disgusting behaviour now occurring up and down the country under the name of ‘Beatlemania’ it is impossible not to draw certain conclusions.”
A columnist in York’s Evening Press echoed this sentiment: “Ask any teenager in York and they could name the four Beatles. Now ask those same teenagers for the names of a few other well-known personalities. The secretary general of the United Nations, for example, or even our own prime minister. The answers, in many cases, will not slip so easily off the tongue. Such is