This Show Souvenir unofficial tour programme by Valex dates from summer 1964, and will have been on sale outside venues on the Beatles' July and August 1964 UK concert tour and the Rolling Stones' August - October tours. 

It would also be on sale during this period at venues played by other artists pictured inside, including the Kinks, the Hollies, the Animals and Manfred Mann. 

While both the Beatles and Stones have a full page photo inside, and both are also pictured on the front cover, the Stones loom large on the back. Why? The Beatles were still the pre-eminent band at the time, but the programme designers had evidently done the maths: the Beatles were scheduled to play just 7 UK summer shows, while the Stones would be touring relentlessly, playing 12 shows in August, and - thanks to a 2 shows per venue per day policy for the next couple of months - 64 in September and early October. 

For the Stones shows, the booklet would be presented with the back cover facing up to make it look more Stones-centric... for the Beatles and other bands, it would be displayed the right way round, or opened and flipped over to show the relevant band on the new 'front'. 

Condition: Some creasing and wear to edges, and some fading to colour top edge of front cover.

International postage quoted is for USA & Australia. For Europe it would be £12. Other territories also differ. Either ask for a revised invoice if you win or pay the full amount and I'll refund any significant overpayment when I mail the item. If I occasionally forget... remind me!

Info:

In the 1960s, and on into the 1970s, it was common to find people selling booklets like this outside UK concert halls. Even though some of them (not this one) had 'not a programme' in small lettering on the front, that's exactly what the sellers hoped the inexperienced, unwary and over-eager fans queueing to get in would think they were. Only when those fans got inside and saw the official tour programme would they realise that what they had just bought wasn't it.

There were three main titles and three main producers... Show Number, initially by JK aka Joe Smith. He was based in London and started printing and selling this kind of programme in the trad jazz era. He maintains he was the first to do so, and that the others copied him... This is probably true, as those others have suspiciously similar titles and design: Show Souvenir - like this one - which was produced by Jack Vale of Blackpool, also responsible for Valex postcards, the images from which were simply reproduced inside; and Show Book, by Mybry of Pegwell House, London... who later switched the name of their programmes to Show Number, too, just to really irritate Joe Smith. See my other items.

For all that they were cynical cash-ins, these booklets often had more content than the official items... though not all of it strictly relevant to the show taking place at the venue that night. Joe, Jack and Mybry would choose as many of the most popular artists of the day - those who could be guaranteed to have hits, plus those scheduled to play the UK circuit over the next couple of months - as they could cram into 10-20 pages, and source free or cheap photos of from record companies, publicity departments or direct from photographer contacts. Every few months, they would update the list of artists included to reflect what was happening on the concert circuit at the time. Sometimes the photos of the artists that kept their place would be updated, too. But not that often...

Please see my other items. I try to list items of Beatles memorabilia / merchandise every week or two, so if you're a collector, why not add me to your saved sellers list? 

I will combine postage where possible.