LOUISE HARRISON REMEMBERS 'KID BROTHER's' BEATLES CAREER

With a fever of 104 and strep throat, George Harrison took the stage on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and sang. His sister, Louise Harrison, remembers the night of Feb. 9, 1964, well.

“When he came in on the Friday before, he called the hotel doctor, and it turns out he had a temperature of 104 and a really bad sore throat,” she said.

“I was concerned about him, obviously, because I was his sister. But the show must go on,” she said. Actually, two shows went on.

“I was there for two of the shows. They filmed one in the afternoon that was shown on the third week. Most people don’t know that,” Harrison said.

Harrison, who was living in the U.S. (many fans remember that she lived in Benton, Ill., and that George visited her in 1963), recalls that when she traveled with her brother, “it was a matter of scrambling to get through the crowds and make sure you got to the next place safely. I was more concerned about making sure my kid brother was OK,” she said, remembering how people climbed on top of the limousines when she and The Beatles were inside.

“When they were coming out of the hotel, the police used to have to form an archway over us so we could dive down under their arms to get from the door of the hotel into the car,” she said.

Harrison has finished a book, “My Kid Brother’s Band … The Beatles,” which will be published by Acclaim Press in May.

“My parents were so very, very much involved in the early Beatles years, answering thousands and thousands of letters,” she said. “In order for people to understand better about who George was, it’s important to know about our parents.

“When John and Paul lost their mothers in their teens, my mother became a mom for all three of them. And Dad gave them advice. They were an influence on all three of the lads: John, Paul and George.”

Now the Harrisons’ influence continues in the Liverpool Legends, a group of four musicians Harrison selected to perform music by The Beatles. The band performs tonight with Bettendorf High School fine arts students in a “Keep the Music Alive” event at the Performing Arts Center.

“I think it’s wonderful that what The Beatles are all about — good music, try to be kind and considerate, look out for each other and look out for the planet — it’s good to see that message is still being appreciated,” Harrison said. “Among the Beatle population of the world, it’s still ‘love and peace.’

“It’s a great privilege to be part of something that is so positive. It goes back very, very much to my parents’ influence,” said Harrison, who continues to share memories of George and The Beatles on a daily basis. “I consider it my work, my job, 24 hours a day … well, at least 12 hours a day.”

Former Quad-Citian Brad Harvey of Smyrna, Tenn., had an unusual, indirect connection to Louise Harrison. Before Harvey’s parents moved to the Quad-Cities, they lived in Thompsonville, Ill.

“I spent many miserable summers there as a kid, ostracized by the locals who didn’t get my long hair or twin passions for comic books and The Beatles,” said Harvey, who was a musician, journalist and publisher of Oil: the Music Magazine when he lived in the Quad-Cities.

Harvey’s late uncle, Dr. William Harvey, was a veterinarian in Thompsonville.

“For years, Louise brought her animals in for treatment, regaling (the veterinarian) with tales of Liverpool and the Second World War,” Harvey said. "When George contracted the cancer that eventually killed him, my uncle asked Louise’s permission to put him on the church prayer list.”