The story of why this unassuming Nottingham pub turned down the Beatles

As home to the legendary Rock City, it’s easy to see why Nottingham has a rich musical history. 

Since opening in 1980, the iconic city centre venue has hosted some of the biggest names in music. 

Over the past 44 years, bands including Nirvana, Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys have taken to Rock City’s famous stage. 

But it would be wrong to assume that Nottingham’s only began with the opening of Rock City. 

In the mid-1960s, as rock and roll travelled across the Atlantic from America and swept across the UK, Nottingham was as good a place as any to be. 

By the end of the decade, the city’s music fans had been treated to three performances from the Beatles, two from the Rolling Stones and one from Led Zeppelin. 

Not bad going, but the Fab Four could have made their first appearance in Nottingham in very different circumstances had it not been for a shrewd pub landlord. 

After opening in 1958, the March Hare pub, in Carlton Road, became well-known for hosting live music and entertainment. 

In the 1960 and ‘70s, the March Hare hosted several household names, including Shane Fenton before he became Alvin Stardust and Gerry Dorsey before he was Englebert Humperdinck

Such was the popularity of the pub’s live music scene that, as the story goes, in the early 1960s the then-agent of a little-known Liverpool band called the Beatles was keen on a performance there. 

However, the pub’s landlord, George Dove, was not prepared to pay the band’s performance fee of £25. 

The fee was, in Mr Dove’s opinion, unjustified given he could fill the pub by hiring a far cheaper performer.

Despite this missed opportunity, it’s fair to say that both parties went on to achieve success in their respective fields. 

Mr Dove, alongside his wife Maragret, oversaw the pub’s operations until his death several years ago, while the Beatles became the biggest band of all time. 

In 2016 the March Hare was awarded protected status by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for being an asset of community value.