Jane Asher and Paul McCartney (English Version)

WHAT YOU'RE DOING?

In June 1964, Paul went on tour again.

Philip Norman: The Beatles' on-the-road sexual activities were well-known to the large media contingent who travelled with them, at close quarters that today seem extraordinary. But no newspaper or TV reporter would have dreanmed of dishing the dirt on the sacred Fab Four, any more than of delving into their murky Hamburg past. The media were as complicit in preserving the illusion as White House correspondents during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. The same rule also held good when, as inevitably happened, figures from their past began to pop up, seeking a share of their supposedly unlimited wealth either for having contributed to their success or suffered wrongs at their hands. In this second category, the most potentially ruinous were from the ranks for young women they'd carelessly had sex with when they were nobodies.

Two of the earliest such claims involved Paul, threatening to unravel all the positive PR he had worked so hard to create. They came at the worst possible moment, both at the start of his idyllic relationship with Jane and the apogee of the Beatles triumph as ambassadors for Britain and Liverpool. The first was by a former Reeperbahn club waitress named Erika Hubers, who'd allegedly dated Paul throughout the Beatles' intermittent spells in Hamburg between 1960 and 1962. In January 1964, she came forward, claiming he was the father of her 14-month-old daughter, Bettina. The story reached the London Daily Mail early in February, during the band's all-conquering first trip to America. The Mail's New York bureau chief, David English, joined their media-packed train journey to Washington DC and, in a quiet moment, put the allegation to Paul. No clarification was forthcoming, however, and the Mail decided not to risk running the story.

The Beatles' first feature film, A Hard Day's Night, premiered at the London Pavilion on 6 July 1964. The premiere was attended by the Beatles and their wives and girlfriends, as well as a number of important guests, including Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon. Nearby Piccadilly Circus was closed to traffic as 12,000 fans crowded in to see the group. It was a charity event held in support of the Variety Club Heart Fund and the Docklands Settlements, and the most expensive tickets cost 15 guineas (£15.75). Four days after the world premiere of A Hard Day's Night in London, the Beatles arrived in Liverpool for the first screening in the north of England.

The only unfortunate incident was due to the uncle of a girl named Anita Cochrane, who placed thirty thousand leaflets in Liverpool, telling the story of his niece's love affair with Paul and its aftermath.