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The Beatles at the Bladensburg Firehouse? It never happened, but you can read about the attempt to have the Fab Four’s initial American concert there in Robert W. Embrey Jr.’s new fanzine, D.C. Monuments, which highlights the area’s rock scene from the ’50s to the ’70s. The 17-page premier issue focuses on the Beatles’ Feb. 11, 1964, stateside debut at the Washington Coliseum. Monuments also features a short interview with concert MC Carroll James, the first U.S. radio DJ to play “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” as well as ads for the show (tickets were $2-4) and excerpts from a post-appearance interview conducted at the British Embassy. Embrey recounts his own ninth-grade memories of how the first guy in his class to get a Beatles haircut “would have to run and hide” because “the girls would scream when they saw him in the halls.” While Embrey himself didn’t get to see the Beatles live, he did manage to catch local rockers Link Wray, Roy Buchanan, the Chartbusters, and the British Walkers, all of whom he promises to spotlight in upcoming issues. He may also illuminate a little-known 1956 Elvis Presley concert on the Wilson Liner, a tour boat that traveled from D.C. to Marshall Hall, near Mount Vernon, as well as the Rolling Stones’ early Coliseum shows. Noting that he has been researching and collecting ephemera relating to these artists and events for years, Embrey asks, “Why keep this information and not share it with everybody?” Issue No. 1 is available for $3 from D.C. Monuments, c/o RoBoCoE Publishing, P.O. Box 750, Manassas Park, VA 22111. CP