I was 10 or 11 in 1962 when "Please Please Me" came out. I can remember my feelings at the time very well. Bear in mind that all the "popular" music we heard was on one Radio channel, the BBC Light Programme,and if you wanted non-stop pop you had to tune in to Radio Luxembourg (which came on the air at 7pm from Luxembourg in Europe, and depended a lot on the weather and time of year for signal quality.) There was a great deal of American pop music at the time: Elvis was just about respectable enough for the Beeb, you could hear a lot of US pop on AFN (American Forces' Network, from Germany I think), British "rockers" like Tommy Steele modelled themselves on Americans, and all those musicals -- South Pacicific, Oklahoma, Guys And Dolls -- had hit the cinemas recently.

I'd felt for a couple of years that it was time we got some proper home-grown music, and the Beatles were like a breath of fresh air. Of course, I know now that they modelled their early stuff on Buddy Holly's style, but funnily enough I don't actually remember Buddy. Anyway, it wasn't Art or Music with captial letters -- it was just fab!

Steve