It must have been ‘64 when myself and David’s sister, my now sister-in-law (we were just friends at the time) toddled off into town because The Beatles were there that Saturday. We’d have been 12 because we were both born in 1952. We stood outside the City Hall at the back entrance and just shouted and bawled “we want The Beatles” for God knows how many hours.

I can’t tell you, it was absolutely packed. I just remember standing there shouting all the things everybody else was shouting: “we want the Beatles”, “we love the Beatles”, “I love you Paul”.

It was all very impromptu. In those days we were allowed to go places when you were 12. You wouldn’t have kids now jumping on the bus into town and standing outside the City Hall for three or four hours, but we were allowed to go anywhere.

So I got up that morning and spoke to my friend; we couldn’t even phone each other, I had to go and see her, or she came to me, and we said “what shall we do today? Shall we go into town and see if we can see the Beatles?”

[Interviewer: Did you get dressed up?]

It was brilliant because it was all short skirts and mini skirts and things like that. Even at 12 you thought you were absolutely the bee’s knees. You put on whatever was fashionable that you were allowed to wear at the time, and probably not makeup, I don’t think, but maybe a bit of lipstick or something, spit black on my eyes [mimics applying mascara].

We were there all day, stood outside at the back entrance, the stage door. I think we were probably there until about six o’clock before we realised there was no chance we were going to see them. I’ve no idea how they got in or where they got in, but we weren’t lucky enough. I think we probably went home very hoarse.

God knows how many people were round the back, or whether they were just surrounded, but we were definitely at the stage door. I was talking to a friend this morning, we always go for girls’ breakfast on a Wednesday, and Sue said it must have been ‘64 because she’s a year younger than me and got tickets to see The Beatles for her 11th birthday. She was given two tickets and could pick a friend to go with her. She said she was the most popular girl imaginable, being able to pick a friend to go and see The Beatles at the City Hall.

No, I didn’t actually see them. I just stood there screaming and shouting. To be honest, I didn’t really like them — I was more into Northern Soul.

It was just something exciting, something to do. Sheffield city centre was always packed on a Saturday afternoon anyway. You couldn’t walk up and down the street without rubbing shoulders with people. It was unbelievable — everywhere from the markets right down to The Moor was packed with pedestrians. There was always a real buzz about Sheffield, so you can imagine what it was like with all those teenagers there as well.