The Dutch travels of The Beatles 1960/61/62 (by Mark Lewisohn and Piet Schreuders)

On March 11, 2023 the Dutch Beatles podcast Fab4Cast celebrated its 10th anniversary with a special event in Hilversum, The Netherlands. Special guest that evening was the world’s leading Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn. Together with his good friend, designer and author Piet Schreuders, he gave an exclusive presentation about the travels of the then unknown Beatles through The Netherlands in 1960, 1961 and 1962. You are about to watch the wonderful and dynamic slides from this presentation, accompanied by the audio from that memorable evening. Enjoy this deep and unknown Dutch Beatles story…
Listen to more Mark Lewisohn in Fab4Cast:
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[@GrahamCluleyCom]

I could listen to Lewisohn for hours...

[@PeasGraveny]

Really excellent presentation.Mark has a very George-esque sense of humour which I always enjoy, along with his forensic eye for detail.

[@jrh11254]

Always a pleasure to hear/see Mark Lewisohn; thanks for sharing.

[@michaelharrington75]

13:25 I like how Ringo is on the other side of the street, in his Hurricanes suit looking at the Beatles are doing.

[@piershemmingsen3937]

This is fascinating. Well done and many thanks to you both, Mark and Piet.

[@Peter-pb8jg]

Always terrific!

[@beatlejim64]

Well done....Nice work!

[@bigboxbobby2]

Brilliant as always thanks guys

[@jdeztube]

Absolutely Awesome!

[@irvinepanda]

Great!

[@happyron]

So much are went into this, thank you

[@jprg1966]

The visuals really do help tell the story -- seeing the passport photos was quite something.

[@loartedolz]

Very interesting.

[@Ihy744ppp]

Mark, the real fifth Beatle

[@timburr4453]

could it be John was the one who took that picture at the Netherlands cemetary?

[@harpman1876]

Barry Chang, a pal of Paul and George's at the Liverpool Institute, snapped the famous photo.

[@ivanconnolly7332]

The aircraft is a Lockheed Constellation.

[@Extreme_Rice]

7:22 I can’t read Dutch but is “Volkswagenbusje” a generic term for that type of vehicle, even though the Beatles van was a different marque?

[@mhwg888]

Probably. The VW van ("busje" or "little van" in Dutch) was probably the standard at the time in that category. The only competitor I remember (having grown up in the '70s in the NL) is the Citroen H Van (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_H_Van). I don't think British car brands were all that present in the NL at the time, possibly simply because of cost of transportation across the chanel; possibly as a result of the proto EU organizations, which were aimed at Coal & Steel in Europe to prevent Germany and France from going to war (again). Of course, the two most prevelant vans at the time were German and French as described.

[@mhwg888]

I imagine the journalist who wrote the article didn't fact-check things all that well and simply assumed it was a Volkswagenbusje, just as he assumed that Ringo was with them (see at the end of the article where he imagines the famous four standing in front of that war memorial in Rotterdam).

[@Extreme_Rice]

Thanks, that does make sense. Oddly enough those Citroën H vans (or replicas) are very popular with street food vendors in the UK now, but there wasn't enough demand at the time for them to make a right-hand drive version. I did notice the van in the stock photo of the garage was a Volkswagen one.

[@mhwg888]

@@Extreme_Rice Oh, of course, another hurdle: the continent driving on the right side of the road, and the UK on the other right side.

[@Eyeluvlola]

Why would Stewart be your favorite Beatle?

[@PeasGraveny]

That's just Mark's sense of humour.