Paul McCartney films the Rolling Stones at the Palladium

“Sunday Night at the London Palladium” was a British television variety show that was hosted from the London Palladium Theatre. The Beatles participated in this show on October 13, 1963 and January 12, 1964.

On this day, the Rolling Stones participated for the first time in the show, creating some outrage by refusing to join the finale roundabout with the other participating artists.

According to Mick Jagger in 1967, the performance was videotaped by “Paul Asher”, which might be a mix-up of Paul McCartney and Peter Asher. However, Bill Wyman later claimed that Paul McCartney was in the audience and recorded the performance.

[…] The following day we had to be in London for an early afternoon rehearsal for Sunday Night At The London Palladium. We had succumbed and were going to appear on that bastion of British light entertainment. To this day, I’m not sure why we agreed to do it.

Mick sang and the rest of us mimed. We were paid £1,500 to perform ‘Ruby Tuesday’, ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’, and ‘Connection’ to 9.25 million people. It was a big audience for the time.

We refused to go onto the roundabout at the end of the show. All the performers and the show’s host, Dave Allen, were supposed to grin inanely and wave as the stage revolved slowly. Andrew Oldham wanted us to do it but we refused and he and Mick had a furious row. Our appearance on the programme generated a torrent of letters to the press.

Perhaps the times weren’t a-changin after all. ‘Personally, I didn’t want to do it,’ reasoned Charlie in Melody Maker, ‘and I’m not sure why we did. I suppose it was a challenge. It’s always done more harm than good to anybody I’ve ever seen on it.’

The row rumbled on for weeks. You would have thought we had committed a major crime. The older half of the nation felt insulted, while the younger half couldn’t care less. Paul McCartney videotaped the show and Mick and Keith watched it at Peter Asher’s place. They all had a good laugh.

Bill Wyman – From “Rolling With The Stones“, 2003

Were you able to see the show afterwards?

Yes – Paul video-taped it for us on his machine and Keith and I went round to his place to see it.

Paul McCartney?

No Paul Asher! I thought it was a very funny show.

Mick Jagger – From New Musical Express – January 28, 1967

From Wikipedia:

Tonight at the London Palladium is a British television variety show that is hosted from the London Palladium theatre in the West End. Originally produced by ATV for the ITV network from 1955 to 1969, it went by its original name Sunday Night at the London Palladium from 25 September 1955 until the name was changed to The London Palladium Show from 1966 to 2 February 1969. […]

The regular hosts of the show were Tommy Trinder (1955–1958), Bruce Forsyth (1958–1960 and 1961–1964), Don Arrol (1960–1961), Norman Vaughan (1962–1965, 1974), Jimmy Tarbuck (1965–1967), Jim Dale (1973–1974) and Ted Rogers (1974). Other guest comperes were: Hughie Green, Alfred Marks, Robert Morley, Arthur Haynes, Dickie Henderson, Dave Allen, Des O’Connor, Bob Monkhouse and Roger Moore.

The first ever show was compered by Tommy Trinder with Gracie Fields and Guy Mitchell being the night’s big guests. The programme was one of ITV’s most watched, reaching its biggest audience in January 1960 while Bruce Forsyth was the host, in an edition featuring Cliff Richard and the Shadows, watched by more than 20 million people.

However, according to the book Television’s Greatest Hits written and researched by Paul Gambaccini and Rod Taylor the biggest viewing audience was 9.7 million in 1964 (although this would have been homes, rather than viewers, as this was the way British television viewing figures were recorded at the time). This was on Sunday 19 April when Bruce Forsyth introduced the Bachelors, Hope and Keen and Frank Ifield with the Pamela Devis Dancers.

After the Tiller Girls and the lesser acts in the first part was a game show imported from America, Beat the Clock, the format of which was rather like Bruce Forsyth’s later hit in The Generation Game. […] The second part of the show was where the big stars shone. It featured many top people over the years including Bill Haley rocking around the clock, Chubby Checker who introduced the “new dance” the Twist to the country with a whole stage full of people dancing the Twist and Sammy Davis, Jr. met the Tiller Girls in 1961. Other star guests included: Judy Garland, Bob Hope, Johnnie Ray, Liberace, Petula Clark, the Seekers, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Italian mouse puppet Topo Gigio came back a number of times.

The Beatles’ publicist Tony Barrow said that after the band’s first appearance on the show on 13 October 1963, Beatlemania took off in the UK. […]

STONES IN A PALLADIUM ROW – We won’t join roundabout, says Mick

A BITTER row flared at the London Palladium last night when the Rolling Stones broke a show business tradition by refusing to “revolve’’ at the end of the Sunday night TV show.

The rumpus began at rehearsals, two hours before the show was due to go out to millions of viewers. And it lasted until the show began.

“They are insulting me, and everyone else,” shouted the show’s director, Mr. Albert Locke, when the Stones refused to join the other artists for the “roundabout” finale.

Singer Mick Jagger, Stones manager Andrew Oldham and Mr. Locke became involved in a heated argument. Andrew Oldham held a hurried conference with Mick, but the singer refused to give in. Then Mr. Locke called on compere Dave Allen to rehearse an ending without the Stones.

Mick Jagger told me: “Anyone would think that this show is sacred or something. That revolving stage isn’t an altar. It’s a drag.”

Mr. Locke commented: “Who do the Stones think they are? Every artist that’s ever played the Palladium has done it.”

But the Stones didn’t. At the end of their act, they walked off as the “roundabout” began.

Jagger scorns critics

WHY DID YOU REFUSE TO GO ON THE REVOLVING STAGE FOLLOWING THE FINALE OF THE PALLADIUM SHOW?

“I thought we’d gone far enough by doing the show,” he said happily. “Anyhow, Andrew and I had a great row about it which made an excellent front page in the ‘Daily Mirror’ which I was very pleased with. The only reason we did the show was because it was a good national plug – anyone who thought we were changing our image to suit a family audience was mistaken. There was no question of our having to change the lyric of ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together.’ Let’s face it, the BBC are playing it and you can’t get much ‘Auntier’ than them – we had to change it for America because the Ed Sullivan Show was the one plug we were doing on the record and they wouldn’t let us perform it without changing the lyrics.

DON’T YOU THINK SOME OF YOUR REMARKS MIGHT HAVE ANTAGONISED THE AUDIENCE?

“I only yelled out things like ‘Hello Fruity’ because there were two girls waving a huge poster with ‘Fruity Mick’ written on it.”

WERE YOU ABLE TO SEE THE SHOW AFTERWARDS?

“Yes – Paul video-taped it for us on his machine and Keith and I went round to his place to see it.”

PAUL McCARTNEY?

“No Paul Asher! I thought it was a very funny show. All those strange people making pathetic remarks about pop stars. Dave Allen’s remarks about us weren’t funny – they were pathetic and they all take it so seriously. You should see them practising back stage. I thought the sound we got was better than any other group has achieved but the camera angles were terrible. Someone accused us of ruining the show – how can you ruin a show with two camera shots. Do you know they had four cameras there – two of them must have been out of action. I see someone wrote that Shani Wallis was the star of the show. I remember her – she’s in the shampoo ads isn’t she?”

From New Musical Express – January 28, 1967

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