Sadly, you can’t give the gift of a Beatles reunion to Fab Four fans this Christmas, though an AI or holographic meeting of the original members surely can’t be far off.
And, every year, as regular as the clocks going back and the shops playing Happy Xmas (War is Over) the Beatles organisation will find some new material, or repackage some not-quite-new-material, to give the world’s biggest music fandom something in their stockings.
But, can you do better than that?
We think so.
You can get something closer, more personal, more meaningful, and probably look forward to increasing value, if you shop for original Beatles collectibles and memorabilia.
Why you should give Beatles memorabilia this Christmas?
What is fandom all about?
Far too big, sprawling and amorphous a question, of course.
But it’s one you can answer yourself if you are or have ever been a fan.
For myself, it’s about closeness with your heroes. And identification with them in some sense.
And we’ve known this for centuries and centuries.
Medieval scammers sold items that they represented as being personally connected to saints, perhaps even to Jesus.
His hand might have touched this. She might have worn this item.
It’s personal.
And when it comes to gifts, it’s meaningful in a way nothing else can be, because each item is unique.
Give Beatles artefacts this Christmas
Here are items with a close, personal connection to the greatest phenomenon in entertainment history, an explosion of youth and joy that probably will never be repeated.
How about bed linen?
The sale of items like this during the first flush of Beatlemania in the US became a measure of a world going mad at the feet of four lads from Liverpool.
In fact, these very sheets from the Whittier Hotel in Detroit are the original examples of sheet sales.
The Beatles trip to Detroit was significant. A PR stunt claiming that the city wanted to “stamp out the Beatles” led Paul McCartney to quip the group had a plan to “stamp out Detroit” and led to some fun headlines.
In reality, Detroit was something of a pilgrimage for the Fabs. It was the home of Motown, whose records had been such an influence on the band.
One of the enduring and revolutionary appeals of the Beatles to young America was their refusal to indulge the nonsense of segregation.
The line-up for their tours were multiracial. New York Black group The Exciters, for example, were playing in Detroit. The Beatles refused to play to segregated audiences in the south, and when the Exciters’ place on the bill was threatened by racist stadium policies in Florida, the Liverpool band threatened to withdraw and the band became the first Black group to play at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville.
Their enthusiasm for Black American music, particularly soul and R n B, helped break colour lines in US music markets. Many US listeners were introduced to the wonders of their own, rich musical world by covers performed by The Beatles and then other British Invasion bands.
And Detroit, with a significant Black population drawn from the south to its auto factories, was very much on the front line of the Civil Rights movement.
In June 1963, The Detroit Walk to Freedom, was the largest Civil Rights demonstration yet seen, and at it, Doctor Martin Luther King debuted his "I have a dream" concept.
These were momentous times.
And a piece like this connects you directly to that history and to the four people who made it, in that time, in that place.
An item replete with significant historical associations. And an attractive display piece too. It's well known: I'm a Beatles fan, the "bedsheets" episode is mentioned in many biographies - it's a real barometer of their unprecedented and undefeated dominance.
And, there’s every reason to believe it will have an enduring legacy of value too.
How well the Beatles slept in Whittier is not recorded. Their two shows may have been good, but it was reportedly drowned out by an audience going wild in true Beatlemania ‘64 style.
Buy Beatles memorabilia now
