storm and the hurricanes were the headlining group at the first "beat night", in the orrell park ballroom, in march 1961. they were also invited for a season at the butlins camp in skegness in lincolnshire. sam leach (a liverpool promoter) arranged a series of dance nights at the palais ballroom in aldershot, starting on 9 december 1961. the first saturday featured the beatles, but as the local newspaper forgot to run the advertisement only 18 people turned up. the second saturday was arranged for rory storm and the hurricanes to perform, and as it was advertised this time, 210 people paid to get in. leach's idea was to attract london agents to watch the series of concerts, but when he realized they would never travel out of london he abandoned the idea.