That Was the Sizzle of the Sixties

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Byline: KEITH WATERHOUSE

As PHILIP LARKIN put it: 'Sexual intercourse began in nineteen sixty-three . . . Between the end of the Chatterley ban and the Beatles' first LP.' Nineteen sixty-three was the year of Please Please Me and the birth of Beatlemania and 'Swinging London' of which the Fab Four were the ambassadors.

Whatever the obituaries may say, to the wider public the Beatles went into history as John, Paul and 'the other two' (told that Ringo was claiming to be one of the four best drummers in the world, Lennon snarled: 'Listen - he's not even one of the four best drummers in the Beatles.'). But at that time they were corporately joined at the hip as the Four …