On this day 60 years ago, 4 young lads from Liverpool arrived in Wellington on a plane to commence a week long tour of New Zealand. And they changed everything.

It was the Beatles.

It wasn't like we weren't warned. The week before was chaos as they toured Australia. 250,000 youngsters welcomed the band in sleepy old Adelaide. But the older generation were not prepared for the excitement, the hysteria and disorder that followed the band wherever they went. They were agog.

It was the beginning of the generation gap. It was the beginning of the rise of youth culture.

The Beatles opened New Zealand's eyes. The advent of international travel and of television meant they were the world's first international superstars and they were here.

Andrew Dickens chats with listeners who remember the day and the week. The adventures are legendary. Most were extraordinarily young and yet the time is burnt into their memory. Take a trip.

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When We Was Fab: Inside the Beatles Australasian Tour 1964 (Woodland Press). Andy Neill has ticketed book launch events at Unity Books, Wellington, June 21; Hedley’s Books, Masterton, June 22; Big Fan, Auckland. June 25.

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So I went to a party at the weekend. Quite a swanky one. Negronis and burgers and all sorts of people. Judges and doctors and advertising people and even musicians.

An old mate was there, a card-carrying lefty.

We're chatting and he says he's part of an urbanism group. Studying and advocating for urban development, and he says, "you right-wing ZB types would hate it."

So I said, "I beg your pardon?"

What part of having a well-designed and functional city is either left-wing or right-wing? It's not about politics it's about practicality. Who doesn't want a functioning public transport system? Who doesn't want accommodation solutions for the poor and the young so they don't have to leave the cities for a house? By the way right-wingers love trains. Mussolini made them run on time.

The politicisation of city designs is why nothing ever happens anymore and our cities just get worse and worse.

So it was good to open the paper on Sunday and see the Auckland mayor talking about that city's abortive light rail plans.

He said it was good that the Government killed Labour's plan off because it was disastrously handled.

The main problem with it was the cost which had been calculated at 400 million dollars a kilometre. Mayor Brown said he was recently in a town in France, the size of Christchurch, who have built a very successful light rail, at a cost of 50 million a kilometre. Nearly 90 per cent cheaper?

Then he went into all the reasons big projects cost so much in New Zealand. The gold plating of design, the contracts granted to constructors who are also suppliers who have no reason to contain costs, and then there's the politics. What idiot wanted to put a light rail into a tunnel? Michael Wood, that's who.

But the problem with all of this is that a good idea is thrown away because of bad management.

When Labour came in in 2017, AT had a 6 billion dollar light rail plan, ready to go. But Labour and then the New Zealand Superannuation Fund thought they could do it better and suddenly it was 15 billion because of the tunnelling and it stalled and then National killed it.

Much was made of the 228 million spent with no track laid which shows us how little people know of projects. That money was spent on geo-tech reports and surveys and buying land and planning. It's still all valid now and to throw it out is a blatant waste of taxpayers' money.

Light rail is not left wing. Light rail is not a bad idea. Labour was just a bad government that cocked it up.

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A report from Auckland Council's boarding house inspectors shows out of 44 properties suspected to be breaking the law, 40 were “operating unauthorised transient accommodation or boarding houses.”

Many had issues with fire safety breaches, growing numbers of gang-affiliated guests, and owners questioning council authority.

Andrew Dickens had two callers today who discussed their situations.

The first, Jamie, lives in a boarding house with his son.

Jamie told Andrew Dickens “There’s one room here that’s $500 – the guy’s killing it,”

Jamie said “You’re living with alcoholics and drug users. I’ve had to send my kid to his mum’s because it’s no place for a kid.”

The second, John, owns two boarding houses and lives there himself.

John told Andrew Dickens “When they come here, they are lost. When I give them a room, they sleep for a week - they are that exhausted.”

John said “It’s an ideal situation to get these people off the street and give them independence.”

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