Montreal Beatles fans ... get ready for a great nostalgia trip with "The Beatles in Montreal" exhibition

George Morris used to rule the local Top 40 airwaves as the popular deejay “Buddy Gee” on CKGM radio during the 1960s. On September 8, 1964, he shared the enviable task, along with Dave Boxer of CFCF and Michel Desrochers of CJMS, of being the MCs at The Beatles’ two concerts that day at the old Montreal Forum, which they performed in front of a combined audience of about 20,000 screaming fans.

“When I heard about 12,000 14-year-olds scream (when I introduced the Beatles), I thought the Forum roof would cave in!” said Morris in a video taped testimony that is part of “The Beatles in Montreal”, a brand new, not-to-be-missed exhibition that is now featured at the newly-opened Mariners’ House of the Pointe-A-Calliere museum of archaeology and history in Old Montreal, and runs until March 30, 2014.

The exhibition commemorates the upcoming 50^th anniversary of the Fab Four’s first – and only – concert performance in Montreal, and shows how Montreal’s brief flirtation with actual Beatlemania (John, Paul, George and Ringo were in Montreal for a total of only 10 hours) helped to shape Montreal’s rock music scene, not to mention influence the creation of a whole slew of Quebecois rock stars.

“The Beatles in Montreal” is an exhibition that generations of Beatles fans should not miss, and serves as a wonderful nostalgia trip back to those heady days of the spring and summer of 1964, when Montreal Beatle fans were getting ready to see their favorite lads from Liverpool perform live onstage at the Forum.

The story is told through some 360 pieces of artifacts, including memorabilia, never-seen-before photos, rare film footage and audio recordings that have been generously donated from newsroom archives, as well as private collections. Two of the gems that amazed this visitor during a special press tour of the exhibition that took place prior to the official opening were the rare black and white film footage of Beatle fans camping outside the Forum on May 14, 1964 (the night before tickets for the two Beatle shows went on sale at $4.50 and $5.50 per ticket) and the pandemonium that went on at Dorval Airport and outside the Forum on September 8; and the extremely rare, never-heard-before recording of one of the Forum concerts in its entirety, which is played on a continuous loop in one wing of the exhibition that’s dedicated to the Beatles’ actual 10-hour stay in Montreal.

And there is plenty of rare Beatle merchandise and memorabilia for fans to gaze upon in amazement (including an actual copy of the Polydor 45 rpm single of “My Bonnie” that was done by the Beatles with Tony Sheridan (pictured above); it was a request for this single that sparked the interest of Liverpool record store owner Brian Epstein, who checked out one of the group’s shows at the Cavern Club … and the rest is history, as they say).

One item that is sure to attract a great deal of attention is John Lennon’s 1965 Rolls Royce Phantom V automobile (pictured above), which is best known for its psychedelic exterior paint job that was done on the car in May of 1967. The museum was fortunate to get Lennon’s car on loan from the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. And by the way, it was this car that transported the Beatles to Buckingham Palace on October 26, 1965 for the ceremony that awarded them their Members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) medals.

The exhibition also has an interactive aspect to it. Visitors can be in the same league as Pete Best, Brian Epstein or Neil Aspinall and become “the Fifth Beatle” in their own right. This can be accomplished by a special karaoke presentation, as you can join the Fab Four (there are life-sized cutout photos of the group shown as if they are in concert), and sing along with the Beatles by choosing one of the nine or so songs that they performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” during their two historic appearances on the show in February of 1964 (I tried it out and did a pretty good rendition of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” with the group, and here I am being the "Fifth Beatle" with John).

Finally, the souvenir companion book to the exhibition makes for a great keepsake, which sells for only $9.50 a copy at the museum’s gift shop. The book itself is shaped like a 33 1/3 LP album cover (and is stored in an album cover-shaped slipcase). The book contains many of the rare photos of the Beatles in Montreal and in concert at the Forum that are featured in the exhibition, along with a hour-by-hour timeline of the events of September 8, plus plenty of interesting facts (such as how many Montreal police officers were on duty during that Beatlemania-filled day, which was 400), and an article dealing with the Quebecois rock groups that sprouted up as a result of the Beatles’ influence (such as Les Baronets, which included a young Rene Angelil).

The Pointe-A-Calliere museum gets an enthusiastic “yeah, yeah, yeah!” for the remarkable job they did in putting together “The Beatles in Montreal” exhibition. It vividly recalls that exciting time when a rock group from Liverpool was in the midst of forever revolutionizing rock music, and how that revolution made a brief stop in Montreal nearly 50 years ago that created a lifetime of unforgettable memories.

For more information about this exhibition, go to www.pacmusee.qc.ca.