Getting back to Beatlemania!

HELP! . . . this woman almost lost her dress which ripped as fans climbed over each other to reach their idols (that's Paul McCartney, left) and bouncers pulled them back into the audience

A new wave of Beatlemania is sweeping the nation as 14 revamped albums by the band are expected in the charts this weekend — 45 years after their first hit LP.

The group are also expected to top the video game charts with the newly developed Beatles Rock Band.

Bookies are already predicting that John, Paul, George and Ringo will top the album charts once again, with “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” favourite to be the biggest seller, according to bookmaker William Hill.

And 46 years ago Oldham experienced its own outbreak of Beatlemania when the Fab Four appeared at the Astoria Ballroom, Star Inn.

They were on their first national tour, which began in Bradford and was headed by Helen Shapiro, with the Beatles fifth on the bill.

But their single “Please, Please Me” shot to number one in the UK charts in February, 1963, and by February 12, when they travelled to Oldham, Beatlemania had taken hold.

The Evening Chronicle was there to record the history-making night as 2,000 teenagers stormed the Astoria.

The newspaper recorded next day: “As hundreds of fans swamped the ballroom entrance in a bid to see their idols, the steel pedestrian guards collapsed, spilling dozens into the Star Inn road junction, and holding up traffic.”

Only 800 were let in, many were turned away, and excited fans rushed the stage. One woman’s dress was ripped in the melee, as the Beatles sang their hits “Love Me Do” and “Please, Please Me.”

l Are you one of the star-struck fans in these photographs, or the girl who nearly lost her dress?

Tell us what you remember of the night Beatlemania hit Oldham by e-mailing janbarker@oldham-chronicle.co.uk