While staying at The Palace Court Hotel in Bournemouth, George Harrison wrote his first solo-written song, Don’t Bother Me. This was during a period in which he had contracted a mild case of the flu and was resting up.
But Harrison was not very enthused; he simply composed the song as a test to see if he could come up with something.
He even said it was a “crappy song” and he forgot about it once it had been recorded.
Don’t Bother Me appeared on The Beatles’ second album With the Beatles released on November 22, 1963.
The Beatles were in town at the time when he wrote the single as they were playing six nights at The Gaumont.
Love Me Do had hit the charts in the previous October, getting to number 17, followed by Please Please Me - their first big success in the charts - and the title of their first album.
One of the Fab Four’s first live performances of She Loves You took place on one of the evenings - it was their upcoming single. It is even rumoured it was the very first live performance of the well-known song.
Also on the bill were Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, Tommy Quickly, Gary and Lee and the Sons of Piltdown Men.
The Beatles were then at the Winter Gardens that November and at the Gaumont again the following year.
Paul McCartney came back a decade later to play the Winter Gardens with Wings in 1973.
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