I CAN inform Tony Butcher that if he queued for the Beatles at Lydney Town Hall and didn't see them, he was there on the wrong date.

They appeared on Friday, August 31 1962. The Beatles were unknown at the time to national audiences, they had only just released their first hit Love Me Do.

We knew that they were going to be big because our local experts Pete (Fiddy) Lane and Max Jenkins were present and gave a positive verdict on their abilities.

Melvyn Case was from Mile End, not from Lydbrook. When I moved my family back from Wiltshire in 1973, we lived in Forest Road, Mile End for three years and every day the sound of Melvyn practising came from his home nearby.

His band was a familiar sight in Forest venues for many years.

– John Belcher, Drybrook.