Audio: 'The Beatles first radio interview (10/27/1962)'

(Saturday, October 27, 1962, 8:45 p.m. British Summer Time) — Members of the British rock music group The Beatles were interviewed tonight for Radio Clatterbridge at Hulme Hall in Birkenhead, England, for the radio program Sunday Spin, limited to closed-circuit broadcasting in Cleaver and Clatterbridge, two local hospitals, for broadcast the next day.

It is the group’s earliest surviving recorded interview.

The Beatles were interviewed by Monty Lister, with additional questions from Malcolm Threadgill and Peter Smethurst. Lister presented two shows on the Radio Clatterbridge: Music With Monty and Sunday Spin.

The Beatles had little experience to draw from – just three weeks had passed since the release of “Love Me Do” – and much of the interview was spent establishing basic information about the group.

John Lennon spoke of working on ‘Please Please Me’ in the hope that it would become their second single, and Paul McCartney notably described Lennon as The Beatles’ leader.