From Sheffield working men’s clubs to The Beatles’ final British tour

Born Gerard Pinder in Sheffield, Jerry Stevens was a singer, comedian, impressionist and compère who rose from local working men’s clubs to become one of Britain’s popular variety entertainers of the 1960s. Before entering showbusiness he trained as a pattern maker at Sheffield engineering firm Davy United and briefly pursued careers in football and the Army.

His greatest claim to fame came in 1965 when Beatles manager Brian Epstein chose him to compère The Beatles’ final British tour. Stevens introduced the support acts and presented The Beatles to audiences across the country during the height of Beatlemania.

The Sheffield date was particularly special. As a local performer, Stevens presented The Beatles with two Sheffield Star awards voted for by the newspaper’s readers. He later said the resulting photograph, showing him surrounded by all four Beatles on stage, was “one of my proudest pictures”.