![\"We](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/22We-want-Roy22-The-night-Roy-Orbison-blew-The-Beatles-off-the-stage-with-14-encores-Far-Out-Magazin.jpeg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Bent Rej \/ \tJack de Nijs for Anefo)<\/p>\n
Fri 17 April 2026 20:30, UK <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s a Beatle, anyway?\u201d Such was the question rhetorically asked by Roy Orbison<\/a>, once he arrived in Britain for a tour in May of 1963 with the Fab Four. <\/p>\n Having been asked to replace the American guitarist Duane Eddy on this tour, which would be his first in the UK, Orbison was under the impression that he would receive top billing with The Beatles, just as they were on the cusp of Beatlemania that would spread across the United States the following year. <\/p>\n Orbison had been convinced to join the tour by the president of the Roy Orbison Fan Club, who wrote the musician a letter claiming that a tour with The Beatles<\/a> would be a great idea, getting him more exposure in the UK. Despite the tour selling out in one afternoon, he had never heard of his tourmates, and his question was met with a tap on the shoulder from John Lennon and the simple reply, \u201cI am\u201d.<\/p>\n Orbison\u2019s curiosity towards the then-up-and-coming Beatles was, in a way, justified. For the last four years, Orbison was the top-selling American artist in music, becoming one of the biggest names globally, with his emotive country-tinged version of early rock \u2018n\u2019 roll that would come to define the genre. As he co-wrote nearly every top ten hit he achieved, the Texas-born musician<\/a> was soon known for the sensitivity that coursed through his lyrics, in an era where traditional masculinity projected a contrasting bravado, sung with a singular voice. With his monochromatic look of dyed black hair and all-black clothing, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses, Orbison was not an average musician, but was undeniably a foundational presence.<\/p>\n The Beatles, then, idolised Orbison and his songbook. For their debut live radio performance on the BBC programme Teenager\u2019s Turn the year prior, on March 8th, 1962, they played their Paul McCartney-led rendition of Orbison\u2019s single \u2018Dream Baby\u2019 (originally composed by songwriter Cindy Walker), which he later received on tape. They\u2019d also modelled \u2018Please Please Me\u2019 after Orbison\u2019s \u2018Only The Lonely\u2019, in what Lennon called his \u201cattempt at writing a Roy Orbison song\u201d (quoted in The Beatles Anthology). By May of 1963, they had the success of \u2018Please Please Me\u2019 and \u2018Love Me Do\u2019 to their credit, the slow rumblings of their soon-to-be sensation bringing them to the headline slot of a tour shared with Orbison. <\/p>\n On the opening night of their tour on May 18th, 1963, in Slough, Buckinghamshire, Orbison went on stage first, opening for The Beatles in a surprising twist. \u201cThey asked me, could they close the show?\u201d he recalled on Late Night With David Letterman in 1988, \u201cI said, \u2018Why?\u2019, and they said, \u2018You\u2019re making all the money\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n Allowing them to close the show, Orbison opened with a six-song set, including hits like the aforementioned \u2018Dream Baby\u2019, \u2018Only the Lonely\u2019, \u2018Running Scared\u2019 and \u2018Candy Man\u2019, as well as a cover of Ray Charles\u2019 \u2018What I\u2019d Say\u2019. He closed his set with a newer song, \u2018In Dreams\u2019, which would go on to chart in the UK for five months during this tour. <\/p>\n Orbison\u2019s performance was met with such a raucous response that the audience demanded an encore. Chants of \u201cWe want Roy!\u201d were met with one encore, followed by another, and another, spiralling into a total of 14 encores. According to legend, when the audience continued to chant for his to return to the stage, Lennon and McCartney grabbed and held the musician back, so they could begin their set.<\/p>\n \u201cI was held captive by The Beatles,\u201d Orbison once remembered, quoted in Ellis Amburn\u2019s Dark Star: The Roy Orbison Story. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was an opening night to end all opening nights. I walked on stage with my sunglasses on, and all over Europe we were an instant success. Big time.\u201d<\/p>\n Roy Orbison<\/p>\n Ringo Starr later recalled the intimidation he and his fellow Beatles felt at being preceded by such an act. \u201cIt was terrible following Roy. He\u2019d slay them, and they\u2019d scream for more,\u201d he admitted, quoted in The Beatles Anthology. <\/p>\n Starr remembered a particular night when the fanaticism for him reached a peak: \u201cIn Glasgow, we were all backstage listening to the tremendous applause he was getting,\u201d he recounted, \u201cHe was just standing there singing, not moving or anything. As it got near our turn, we would hide behind the curtains whispering to each other, \u2018Guess who\u2019s next, folks. It\u2019s your favourite rave!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Surely, with Beatlemania<\/a> already taking shape across the UK, there were plenty of thrilled, and often hysterical, fans waiting to get their glimpse of the four Beatles. Such was a fandom that, from Orbison\u2019s point of view, had the potential to become something unprecedented in its success. <\/p>\n \u201cThese boys have enough originality to storm our charts in the US with the same effect as they have already done here, but it will need careful handling,\u201d Orbison told NME, in the midst of their 21-date tour, adding, \u201cYou see, they have something that\u2019s entirely new, even to us Americans, and although we have an influx of hit groups at home at the present time, I really do believe your own boys could top our charts as frequently as they seem to be doing here.\u201d<\/p>\n By NME\u2019s account, Orbison and the four Beatles became great friends on their tour, often eating together after the shows and travelling on a shared coach bus. In The Beatles Anthology, McCartney recalled moments when Orbison\u2019s proficiency as a songwriter<\/a> prompted the four Beatles to feel a sense of positive competitiveness. \u201cHe would play us his song, and we\u2019d say, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s great, Roy. Have you just written that?\u2019 But we\u2019d be thinking, \u2018We have to have something as good\u2019. The next move was obvious: write one ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n In The Beatles, Orbison found a sense of excitement about where music\u2019s trajectory could shift, into somewhere both rooted in tradition and freshly original. \u201cIt\u2019s a change to see new stars who are not just watered-down versions of Elvis Presley<\/a>,\u201d Orbison told NME, \u201cThis seems to be a sound they have made famous all on their own, and I really think it is the greatest.\u201d<\/p>\n In a prophetic moment, consciously or not, Orbison foretold the oncoming fanaticism for The Beatles, which few others could anticipate. \u201cThough you know it as Merseyside music,\u201d Orbison said, \u201cI am sure this will be hailed as the new British sound in America\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"Listen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Listen-to-the-isolated-vocals-of-Roy-Orbison-on-In-Dreams-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Credit: Jack de Nijs for Anefo<\/p>\n![\"Beatlemania](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Beatlemania-The-Beatles-Copenhagen-1964-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>(Credits: Bent Rej)<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n