Beatles’ humble needs

Victoria Ward, New York

A 1965 contract unearthed by a US website reveals the Fab Four were easy to please when they toured the United States at the height of their fame.

The backstage request for a stop in Portland, Oregon asked for nothing more than a trailer with electricity and water, mirrors, four cots, an ice cooler, a television and clean towels.

As for transport, they requested “two seven-passenger Cadillac limousines (air-conditioned if possible), with chauffeurs”, according to the contract published on the Smoking Gun website.

Meanwhile, a US journalist who accompanied the Beatles on every stop on their 1964 and 65 North American tour, claims the band once even travelled in a fish truck. Larry Kane said they travelled in what was “really a fish truck and it smelled like a fish truck”, almost all the way from Atlantic City to Philadelphia before transferring to a limousine.