The Beatles are Putting on the Ritz

On Friday 15 February 1963 the Beatles appeared for the first and last time at the Ritz Ballroom in Birmingham. Originally they were due to play there on 11 January 1963, but the bad weather (blizzards!) made it impossible for them to reach the concert hall.

One month later, they were a hot item (Please Please Me was storming up the charts and would be an "unofficial" number one in the NME charts. Still, The Beatles honoured their original contract and did not demand and additional fee because of their popularity. As you can imagine, the concert was sold out in no time.

Incidentally, the expression "putting on the Ritz" refers to the Ritz Hotel in London and means "to dress very fashionably"