The Big Freeze: Winter '63

[Lord Reith]

https://tinyurl.com/expires-july-11th (mp4 download)

I watched this last night and found it interesting. I knew that the UK winter of 62/63 had been bad, but didn't realise just how apocalyptic it was. The Beatles get a mention along the way. It gives you an idea of what they faced when they were first trouping up and down the country in an unheated van in those early days of 1963. Sweet Jesse, they must have been cold!

[Phil_Lip]

Thanks for the heads-up. 'The big freeze' sounds like it could be an album title!

[jpgrjd]

Remember it well, snow everywhere!!

[Kwai Chang]

And you wonder why 1 out of every 8 Americans live in California!
I live in the desert. I think I disappeared from this forum last Thursday and wasn't back on until Monday. That's because we had an intense electrical storm on Thursday evening. It had been 100 degrees that day and at 2AM on Friday morning it hailed here like a son of a bitch! 3/4" balls with ZERO warning or rain. It was the craziest weather I've ever experienced and the lightning was violent. It was also the LOUDEST weather ever...NO water in advance of the hail! It lasted for 30-40 minutes. Friday was about 99% humidity...and only about 90 degrees. But THAT is savage when you consider the means and extremes. An hour to the West (near Ventura) sits Santa Paula. It is one of the mildest climates in the country(based on means/extremes). Their average top/bottom in 24 hours is a difference of only around 8-10 degrees! The animals were taking a beating from 100 degrees to freezing cold in a couple of hours!
I can tolerate the heat as long as nobody shows me a thermometer. But anything below 50 degrees, I want to wear a Parka and a quilt-lined pair of Filson jeans! I was born on Vandenberg AFB! I haven't gone very far. About 100 miles to the East from Point Conception.
I have always believed every word of the Beatles travels and the vicious cold. I think once, the windshield got knocked out of the van and Mal drove home anyway. DAMN!
KC

I've lost computers to lightning before. This time it was only a HDMI cable. 10 seconds to disconnect...3 days to reconnect and troubleshoot/purchase...but that fixed the problems!

[AllTogetherNow]

Thanks for the heads-up. 'The big freeze' sounds like it could be an album title!

Leave it in the hands of Lord R He probably fills the album as well

[ToddS]

It already is a title for a Bob Dylan Tape at the " Big-Ozine " Site . Its about how he spent late 1962/early'63 in London performing a few songs for a play titled " Madhouse on Castle Street " . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhouse_on_Castle_Street . https://www.google.com/url?esrc=s&q=&rc ... qFEd_9SrVl

[MrMurphMcgee]

I wonder how it compared with the lake-effect snow winters I grew up with the the American Midwest?

[Lord Reith]

People always point out how much luck The Beatles had, but they sure had a hell of a lot of BAD luck too. Imagine just as you start to get traction in the charts and are venturing outside the north for the first time, the whole country is wracked by blizzards and the worst winter in 200 years? You'd feel not a bit put out I would think!

In fact, just thinking about the whole period, that was a pretty rough time all round:

- Failed Decca audition
- Failed to get any other record company auditions
- Stu died
- First recording session yields nothing usable
- George Martin says their drummer is crap
- George Martin says their replacement drummer is crap too
- George Martin says their songs are crap
- George Martin says their amplifying equipment is crap
- The fans are up in arms because they sacked Pete
- Forced to record a single of a song they hate
- Sent back to the Grosse Freiheit just as Love Me Do is beginning to take off
- Come back to England to find the winter from hell
- John gets a bad cold on the eve of recording their first album
- John nearly kills Bob Woller with a shovel in front of several hundred people

Pretty grim stuff eh.

[walrus gumboot]

If youre feeling cold, this should wartm you up....

[Ziggy C]

...we had an intense electrical storm on Thursday evening....

I recall one exciting spring afternoon/evening in the late '90's making the drive to Vegas on the I-15. We drove through the lightning storm to end all lightning storms. Visibility dropped to nada and we had to pull over. All the while, multiple bolts of lightning were striking ground all around us simultaneously. Hundreds. It was the freakiest storm ever. But it was a good Vegas trip nonetheless.