It was just after The Beatles had played on Top of The Pops when John Lennon caught Sue Mautner’s eye and said ‘see you in Germany kid’.
The teenage music journalist pulled a face and said: “No you won’t, (editor) Sean’s covering the tour now, not me.”
Lennon looked at her meaningfully and said ‘See you in Germany’.
Sue Mautner (left, back) with the all-female team at Boyfriend Magazine. (Image: Courtesy of Sue Mautner) Looking back six decades on, she says: “When I heard I was going on tour with The Beatles I was beyond excited. Then Sean said he was doing it.
“I don’t know who John spoke to, but the next morning I was called into the office and told there was another change of plan. I was going.”
Sue’s editor insisted on covering the first gig in Munich and booked her on a flight that arrived too late for the show.
Sue with The Beatles at At Thank Your Lucky Stars at Birmingham studios 1964. (Image: ABC Television) But when she got to the hotel there was a note from the road managers inviting her to the band’s suite for the after-gig party.
“I had my own back because Sean wasn’t invited,” she says gleefully.
Working for The Beatles Monthly, she ate with the band, stayed in a schloss, and travelled by luxury train to Essen and Hamburg.
She recalls: “Paul (McCartney) was Mr PR, everybody had to be happy and he would come and chat to the journalists on the train.
“All the fans did was scream. In Essen I was standing at the back when the show ended and there was a stampede to get to The Beatles as they got in the cars.
“There were police with big boots and Alsatians, who opened the tear gas on these young kids, it was awful, there were shoes and clothing left everywhere.”
Sue grew up in quiet Hampstead Garden Suburb and attended Henrietta Barnett School, then Hornsey High.
But for three heady years from the age of 18 she was a journalist with Boyfriend Magazine, Rolling Stone Monthly and the NME at the epicentre of the swinging sixties.
In her early teens she and friend Marilyn would sneak into clubs like Whiskey A Go Go and Les Enfants Terribles to jive to Ray Charles and Ben E King.
“We were rebels – my headmistress once caught me coming out of the Whiskey A Go Go at 13 and told my mother, who pretended she knew where I was.
“I couldn’t wait to get out so we left at 16 to do modelling, but you needed something to fall back on. So I went to secretarial school with all the naughty debs who had been kicked out of finishing school and it turned out I had a bent for it and did well.”
Her entry to the music business came when she was asked to mime to a record while wearing a bikini on Ready Steady Go. Afterwards she was offered a two-week temp job on the TV show.
“We used to love dancing and who knew it would save my life?” she says.
“On one of the two weeks it was The Beatles’ first time on. I thought ‘this music business is for me’.”
The Rolling Stones in 1964 when Sue Mautner got to know them. She says they were often dressed in jackets and ties and drank cups of tea. (Image: PA) Her first job as the editor’s PA on Boyfriend Magazine involved answering letters from “teenyboppers” on beauty, fashion and music and ghosting a column by The Rolling Stones.
She said: “I never spoke to anyone for it, I just made it up, but the Stones were in the office all the time making cups of tea – always in a jacket and tie.
“They were incredibly normal and accessible. They were all living together in Edith Grove and were always around, shopping in Carnaby Street or at parties.”
From there she landed an £11 per week job at Rolling Stones Monthly, followed by an offer of a job by NME editor Andy Gray
“He asked ‘do you want to come to work for £20 a week?’ I was ‘when do I start?’ I was the only girl and I was 19 years old.
The Rolling Stones perform on TV in 1964. (Image: PA) “I did all the interviews with the new groups. I remember Tom Jones the first day he walked in, he had a little ponytail and a black velvet collar and he was quite shy.”
She adds: “I had really nice friendships. I wasn’t a serious journalist, I was a teenybopper; they talked to me and knew it wouldn’t go any further. I never spilled the beans.”
While she “had her moments” with Brian Jones, they were “basically friends” and she did a piece for NME on his new flat in Chelsea – turning up at the door.
“I thought it was harmless,” she recalls. “It was a very nice piece, Brian was very houseproud, but when it came out I got a horrible abusive call from (manager) Andrew Loog Oldham. He absolutely wiped the floor with me. He was a control freak and I hadn’t asked.”
After that she made sure to be invited, driving out to Keith Richard’s new house Redlands, and up to (promoter) Eric Easton’s office to hear the band’s latest single.
“Mick was really nice,” she recalls. “They played Paint it Black, then David Bailey walked in and we were all sitting there drinking tea.
“People ask if I noticed a big change as they got famous but I didn’t. We all started at the same time and grew up together.
“I could see the tensions, the chip on Brian’s shoulder because he didn’t write songs, but he was nice company, and could be really charming.
“I’m sure I used to see Brian smoke and for all I know he could have been taking drugs but I never saw anything – there was a lot of booze – but everybody always drank tea.”
By contrast, the Beatles led a more “orchestrated” life due to their fame.
She said: “They were very nice to me and looked after me. John was my favourite, he was very cynical and intelligent and had a quick, cutting wit, but he was quite shy in a strange way.
“He was very tasty, I found him attractive, but he was married to Cyn. He had this sexy slitty-eyed thing going on – mainly because he was blind as a bat.”
Her final job before leaving London for Marrakesh was at a talent agency where she had to find a new star.
“I said ‘I don’t care if he can sing, I want someone cool and pretty’,” she recalls.
When a package arrived with a demo tape and photo from “a guy called Steven with a Greek name who wrote his own songs,” she said: “This is it.”
“He was just lovely so we sent him to record at Lansdowne Studios and to Ron White at EMI, who turned him down as sounding too similar to Donovan.
“Then on New Year’s Eve we were all made redundant. We didn’t want to give this guy up but we couldn’t help him.”
That singer – Cat Stevens – ended up signing with Decca and years later when he ran into Sue at a Marrakesh hotel he introduced her as “the lady that discovered me”.
After years in LA, she’s now back in London and says: “People ask how I feel about it all now and I am so nostalgic.
“When I watch docs on TV or see a photography exhibition it’s ‘Oh I worked with them!’
“Oh my God this was such a special time. Wasn’t I lucky that I came up with those wonderful people? We were all young. We took the piss out of everybody and we laughed.”
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