Jokes between the head John Lennon and the public. A gracious “thank you” to Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr’s ranting (George Harrison was hoarse that day and couldn’t utter a word). But also many other things, such as the arrangements that the band perfected during their show in Hamburg a year earlier, their own songs which was released two weeks earlier on the album “Please please me” and, of course, the coexistence of four working-class children from Liverpool with 500 pupils at a private boys’ school. How much cultural history can fit into an amateur band’s record? It is a lot if the group is on the threshold of its world fame and is called The Beatles.

The recording was discovered in late March by BBC producer Samira Ahmed. Ahmed attended Stowe School in northwest London as a journalist because she knew that 60 years ago, on April 4, 1963, the Beatles had been invited to perform there. Stowe’s current director, Anthony Wallersteiner, has tried to find some of the Institute’s alumni who have attended concert, but only one responded – retired John Bloomfield. And what a coincidence: that evening, the then “viper” Bloomfield put his new tape recorder in front of the stage. The quality of the recording did not satisfy him, and he buried the reel at home. Meanwhile, The Beatles were preparing to conquer the world.

Shortly after the Beatles counted “1-2-3-4” and entered with the exciting opening chords of “I saw her standing there,” the students let go of their inhibitions.

“I felt my body vibrate with their unbridled power,” Samira Ahmed told the Guardian of the recording, who, upon learning of its existence, asked Bloomfield to listen to it. Bloomfield first introduced her via video call, and Ahmed felt like she was time travelling. Shortly after the Beatles counted out “1-2-3-4” and entered with an exciting opening chord of “I saw her standing there,” the schoolchildren got rid of inhibitions and began issuing orders. In the background, the few girls who were lucky enough to watch (daughters of the staff) screamed. “It must have been like a hurricane hitting the school,” Ahmed said.

The Beatles also played “Love me do”, “From me to you”, “Please Please Me”, etc.” Medley and Russell and a few others. Bloomfield is already in talks with experts and institutions to restore the recording, which appears to be is the earliest known recorded live performance of the Beetles in the UK.

Ahmed played a small role in the BBC show Front Row. In the series, Wallersteiner is heard to say that the school authorities probably didn’t know exactly what they were allowing students to do and what effect it would have on them. Bloomfield knew this: “When they said ‘4’ instead of ‘1-2-3-4’,” he said on the show, “they completely changed my life.”