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Post by pjwstory1002 on Jan 29, 2015 23:57:29 GMT
Hi everyone,
I'm new to this forum and I've looked through a lot of the threads here just in case there were any with regard to those of you who got to see the Beatles when they toured the US in the 60s. Sadly, I didn't find anything.
I'm interested in any show experience, however, I'm particularly interested in anyone who went to the following shows:
Boston Garden - Boston, MA 9/12/64 Cow Palace - San Francisco, CA 8/19/64 I think this is the one where fans rushed the stage Candlestick Park - San Francisco, CA 8/29/66
Also, did anyone go to the closed circuit showings of the filmed 2/11/64 Washington DC show either in San Jose, CA Fox Theater on 3/15/64 or anywhere else it was presented?
I'm looking for first hand stories of those shows. I'm in the research stages of a book idea and the Beatles' shows, especially those above, are pivotal moments in my characters lives.
Short of anyone here having those incredible experiences, does anyone know of any other resource material with first hand stories out there I could use, books, articles, reviews, etc.? That also would be really helpful, but certainly your own personal experience(s) is much preferred! How was the anticipation for you? Where did you sit/stand? Could you hear/see the band? Were you screaming with everyone else or were you just amazed by it all? If you were at the Cow Palace show, when did the fans rush the stage, beginning, middle or end of show? Any other incidents at any of the shows you attended?
Thank you for any help you can lend, and any and all stories are most welcome!
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henryj
For A Number Of Things
Posts: 792
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Post by henryj on Jan 30, 2015 11:41:55 GMT
I saw them in Memphis in 1966. I'll post later in much greater detail. I'm eating breakfast.
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Post by pjwstory1002 on Jan 30, 2015 20:04:32 GMT
That's great, Henry! I look forward to reading your story! Take your time.
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henryj
For A Number Of Things
Posts: 792
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Post by henryj on Jan 31, 2015 4:37:19 GMT
I posted the following on this forum in November 2013:
Well, I got to see the Beatles live. Geezer that I am, I saw the Beatles perform in Memphis, TN on August 19, 1966. Mid-South Coliseum. Their part of the show lasted about 30 minutes.
Official set list: Rock and Roll Music She’s a Woman If I Needed Someone Day Tripper Baby’s in Black I Feel Fine Yesterday (performed as a band!) I Wanna Be Your Man Nowhere Man Paperback Writer Long Tall Sally
Opening Acts: Fashion Show Remains The Ronnettes (backed by the Remains. Not exactly a Phil Spector wall of sound.) Bobby Hebb The Cyrcle
I found the fashion show somewhat boring. Though I had heard of the Remains, I had never heard them on the radio nor seen their records in stores, and 1 have not since.
Equipment: John and George had begun playing brown sunburst Epiphone Casinos. John had not yet removed either the finish or the pickguard from his Casino. Paul was still playing his Hofner bass, despite having been photographed with his Rickenbacker. They played through the big Vox Super Beatle amps (the American versions of the AC-100). Don’t know about the PA system. George played a Ric 360-12 new style, not the old style such as he had played in A Hard Days’ Night, on his song “If I Needed Someone.”
Before the Beatles came on, an announcer said that anyone seen taking pictures would be removed from the Coliseum and their camera confiscated. We saw a number of girls seen carried off crying by security guards carrying the confiscated cameras.
You could hear the Beatles singing over the girls screaming. Barely. One cool thing about the Beatles’ live performances was the fact that they did not go near a mike unless they were actually singing. When Paul started singing “She’s A Woman,” the mike was dead, and you could not hear him at all, so he calmly strolled over to the mike John was supposed to sing into.
John was wearing rose-tinted steel-rimmed glasses. I had never seen him wearing glasses before.
This was the afternoon show that we saw. Reportedly, at the evening performance, someone threw a firecracker on the stage, making a gunshot-like sound. When John did not hit the floor, the Beatles continued playing. This was not long after John’s “more popular than Jesus” comment. Another 10 days and their touring days would be over.
And that what it was like to see the Beatles in August 1966.
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Post by mrmustard on Jan 31, 2015 12:51:45 GMT
This was the afternoon show that we saw. Reportedly, at the evening performance, someone threw a firecracker on the stage, making a gunshot-like sound. When John did not hit the floor, the Beatles continued playing. This was not long after John’s “more popular than Jesus” comment. Hi Henryj. Given you where around at the time and American (the only nation that really took offence - well some of the people) what where your feelings about Lennon's Jesus remark? What did you feel about your fellow Americans you reacted in the way that they did?
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Post by pjwstory1002 on Feb 1, 2015 0:10:19 GMT
Henry, thanks so much for your post. I actually did see this when I was searching through the threads, but I appreciate your reposting it here. I'm glad you were able to hear the guys even over the screaming though not that well. Where were you sitting/standing at that show? How old were you at the time, if you don't mind my asking. Did you go with friends, siblings? Did your parents have any objections or were they cool with your attending? How much were the tickets? How did you pay for those tickets, if I may ask that, too? Odd jobs, other resources? Did you have to stand in line before the show? How long? Any incidents there? What was the anticipation like for you? I realize it's been a long time, but do remember how people dressed, hair styles, etc.? Those kinds of details are important to a story. Did you smell anything funny being smoked? ;-) Anyone freaking out (possibly drug related) aside from the screaming? Any other impressions, emotions, thoughts you had would be greatly appreciated, too. It seems you were favorably impressed with the band, not disappointed. Yes? By today's standards, 30 minutes for a set was really short. Do you wish they'd played longer? Oh duh, dumb question, that? ;-) Who wouldn't wish that, right? Glad that they stayed cool through whatever problems arose (dead mike, firecrackers, etc.). Thanks again, Henry! Anything you could add to your experience would be most helpful.
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henryj
For A Number Of Things
Posts: 792
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Post by henryj on Feb 2, 2015 4:17:35 GMT
Alright, in reverse order:
For pjwstory1002--
This may sound rather strange. I was 18 and have two younger brothers. The whole family rode up from Louisiana in our car to see the concert. We had ordered four tickets for my two younger brothers and our mother(!). Then my dad (a Baptist preacher)(!!!) wanted to see what the fuss was about, so after we got there, HE wanted to see it to, so the got a ticket also. Our ticket was between halfway and 3/4 back, but not so far back that a Jumbotron screen was needed. In fact, Jumbotrons were not invented yet. Daddy got a better ticket than we did, much closer to the front. Don't remember standing in any long lines since we already had the tickets. Don't really remember the anticipation, just remember that during the concert I realized this moment would not last forever.
I didn't see any incidents, other than the police escorting crying girls out up the aisles for having photographed the Beatles. I didn't smell anything funny that I remembered.
Hairstyles: guys had they hair over their foreheads like the Beatles. With not hair dressing, or perhaps sprayed. Years earlier, we all put Vitalis or Wildroot in the hair and either slicked it back or parted on the side and combed it over to the other side, usually with the front sort of pushed back. Actually, at the time the Beatles hit, I had a flattop with white sidewalls (in other words, without the combable sides).
For mrmustard:
Actually, about the Lennon Jesus remark, I had just wished he hadn't said it. I was more offended by the Unfinished Music Part One album cover. I suspect the people who protested the loudest were those who were either too old to appreciate rock, or liked other genres, like country and western. It may be surprising that a Baptist preacher would attend a Beatles concert during their 1966 tour, but Baptists and southerners are natural music lovers anyway.
From what I understand, Mary ("Aunt Mimi") and George Smith were church-goers who took young John Lennon to church every Sunday, where John became familiar with the stories of Jesus, how the crowds followed Him, wanted to touch the hem of His garment and be healed. I think John identified with this, once Beatlemania hit.
In the Hunter Davies Beatle book from 1968 (IIRC, since I haven't read it in several decades), there is an account of Beatle press conferences where, near the end, handicapped people, mainly children, would be wheeled in to see the Beatles. Paul would say "Cripples, Neil!" and Mr. Aspinall would end the press conference right there and send the Beatles away.
In the Beatle Anthology video, Ringo tells the story of going to Australia. The Beatles greeted their admiring throngs from their hotel balcony. and a young man on crutches made his way to the front of the crowd, looked up at the Beatles, dropped his crutches... and fell on this butt!
So I suspect the Beatles were under the impression that the sick and afflicted thought they could be healed by the Beatles. And the Beatles were not qualified to heal people. Brian Epstein and George Martin, for all they had done for the Beatles, had not trained the boys on the healing arts.
I suspect that if one reads the Gospels and then reads several books on the Beatles, one may understand the context which John people stated that he was taken out of.
How did I feel about the protesters? They had their right to their opinion and meant well. Maybe just over-reacted. If they had read their Bibles more closely and realize that John was raised as a church-goer, they might have taken him in proper context.
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Post by pjwstory1002 on Feb 3, 2015 1:27:57 GMT
Hi Henry. Thanks so much for filling in your story. I really appreciate it. Wow, so your whole family went to the Memphis show! That must have been a rare thing, but very cool! And especially for your Dad - good for him, with a closer up seat, too! You all experienced a solid bit of music history (and you were aware of it at the time, it seems) and it's wonderful that you can share that with each other. So you ordered your tickets. TicketMaster wasn't around at that time, was it? Did you or your folks call the venue to place the order? Do you remember how much they were and what that process was - credit card, tickets sent to you by mail, or did you pick up at the venue? Or did they hold them for you and you paid when you got there?
Sounds like the crowd was fairly well behaved aside from the girls with the cameras. No other incidents, no funny stuff being smoked. Perhaps that was because of the location, do you think?
LOL All those hair tonics the guys used to use. I remember that stuff as my dad used Brilcreme or whatever it was called. By the end of the decade, his hair was long (and combed over his bald spot) with bushy sideburns! How about the girls? Were they still wearing Gidget flips, or pixie cuts like Twiggy, or long and straight? What were the clothes like? Mini skirts, denim or cord bellbottoms? Fringe vests? Maybe too soon for those styles.
Thanks again, Henry! So glad you got to see the boys back in the day. Very cool! :-D
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henryj
For A Number Of Things
Posts: 792
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Post by henryj on Feb 3, 2015 1:59:46 GMT
Thanks, pjwstory. Just the other day I was observing that the young ladies are wearing their hair like they did when I was young, back in the '60s and '70s, long and straight, parted on the side and combed over in one direction or the other. Not like that big hair of the '80s and '90s. I might be remembering it wrong. Maybe the long a straight was later in the '60s and there were more of what you called Gidget flips. Mod clothing had not caught on just yet with the general public. No fringe vests just yet. That would be more like the 1969 pop festivals. (I went to the pop festival in south Louisiana in August 1969, at a racetrack between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. No parents this time. I don't think ANYBODY'S parents were there. Unless one of the girls had a baby there, making her a parent.) No credit cards then. We "sent off" for the tickets; that is, we mailed a check to, I guess, the venue in Memphis and got them by return mail. Well, four of them. How Daddy got the seat he did I have no idea. Don't really remember how much the tickets were, but here is a link that purports to have the information. www.rarebeatles.com/photopg7/memph66.htmAt $5.50 apiece, each ticket cost not much more than the price of a stereo LP, which went for $4.79 undiscounted. Apparently they were $5.50 regardless of where you sat, and that was probably determined by when you ordered the tickets.
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henryj
For A Number Of Things
Posts: 792
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Post by henryj on Feb 3, 2015 2:20:24 GMT
Also, if you Google Beatles Memphis August 1966 you can find any number of YouTubes. All of them have poor quality. I think the sound came from the wrong side of the PA system. But you can see what people looked like in those days.
On one of these, a commenter says he was there with his dad and siblings. That was not me. So several people must have had their parents there.
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Post by Bobber on Feb 3, 2015 10:20:03 GMT
The End, do you remember Djinn from DM's? He was convinced he was with The Beatles all the way and even had recordings of The Beatles at the Indra Club in Hamburg.
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Post by The End on Feb 3, 2015 14:11:12 GMT
The End, do you remember Djinn from DM's? He was convinced he was with The Beatles all the way and even had recordings of The Beatles at the Indra Club in Hamburg. Yeah I think I do recall something about that - never did hear those Indra Club tapes - I wonder if he still has them!!! ;-P
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Post by mrmustard on Feb 3, 2015 23:32:27 GMT
For mrmustard: Actually, about the Lennon Jesus remark, I had just wished he hadn't said it. I was more offended by the Unfinished Music Part One album cover. I suspect the people who protested the loudest were those who were either too old to appreciate rock, or liked other genres, like country and western. It may be surprising that a Baptist preacher would attend a Beatles concert during their 1966 tour, but Baptists and southerners are natural music lovers anyway. From what I understand, Mary ("Aunt Mimi") and George Smith were church-goers who took young John Lennon to church every Sunday, where John became familiar with the stories of Jesus, how the crowds followed Him, wanted to touch the hem of His garment and be healed. I think John identified with this, once Beatlemania hit. In the Hunter Davies Beatle book from 1968 (IIRC, since I haven't read it in several decades), there is an account of Beatle press conferences where, near the end, handicapped people, mainly children, would be wheeled in to see the Beatles. Paul would say "Cripples, Neil!" and Mr. Aspinall would end the press conference right there and send the Beatles away. In the Beatle Anthology video, Ringo tells the story of going to Australia. The Beatles greeted their admiring throngs from their hotel balcony. and a young man on crutches made his way to the front of the crowd, looked up at the Beatles, dropped his crutches... and fell on this butt! So I suspect the Beatles were under the impression that the sick and afflicted thought they could be healed by the Beatles. And the Beatles were not qualified to heal people. Brian Epstein and George Martin, for all they had done for the Beatles, had not trained the boys on the healing arts. I suspect that if one reads the Gospels and then reads several books on the Beatles, one may understand the context which John people stated that he was taken out of. How did I feel about the protesters? They had their right to their opinion and meant well. Maybe just over-reacted. If they had read their Bibles more closely and realize that John was raised as a church-goer, they might have taken him in proper context. Thanks for this reply HenryJ. When you see old footage of the protests you tend to see young kids protesting, obviously led by the non-appreciators of rock. I find these images quite sad. Was it just another example of Lennon shooting his mouth off or did he know exactly what he was saying? I tend to think the latter. It is curious that in the UK, no one could care less about the remark, so much so that Lennon's statement was publicly supported by a senior member of the church. Wheeling out the afflicted before The Beatles in the hope of some kind of cure must have been pretty horrific for them.
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henryj
For A Number Of Things
Posts: 792
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Post by henryj on Feb 4, 2015 1:17:06 GMT
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Post by pjwstory1002 on Feb 4, 2015 1:42:41 GMT
Hi Henry. Thanks so much for more details of your story. I really appreciate it! I think, from the videos you linked in the girls hairstyles varied quite a bit from long and straight to the Gidget flip and even pageboy cuts. Yeah, the clothes were still on the conservative side for both sexes at that point.
Thank you very much, too, for sending me to YouTube as in some of the comments on the videos, I found some people who were at the shows I'm principally interested. We'll see if I get any responses. I hope so. I've got a list of questions, most of what I asked you already.
I guess in my mind, the parents that went to these shows with their kids must have been very cool people. Even if it was just about keeping their kids safe, that they got a hit of the most phenomenal, influential band of rock, they got in their blood for the rest of their lives! Even the squarest parents probably got rounded at the edges a bit. ;-) Wouldn't you agree?
$5.50 for a Beatles' show!? OMG, those days are so long gone. What a shame we'll never see that again. And ordering tix by mail??!? LOL Wow, it's insane how unthinkable that is now. We are from an era, I suppose. I just hope I don't reminisce like some old codger!?
Thanks again, Henry! :-D
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Post by ROCKY on Feb 4, 2015 3:47:35 GMT
The End, do you remember Djinn from DM's? He was convinced he was with The Beatles all the way and even had recordings of The Beatles at the Indra Club in Hamburg. Yeah I think I do recall something about that - never did hear those Indra Club tapes - I wonder if he still has them!!! ;-P I don't want to hijack this thread, but this is interesting. I remember awhile ago reading somebody saying they had a tape from the Indra Club-1960. I just checked and it was someone named Kerry8 from a post in 2008 on the DM Forum. Never heard anything else about it though.
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Post by Bobber on Feb 4, 2015 12:04:43 GMT
Yeah I think I do recall something about that - never did hear those Indra Club tapes - I wonder if he still has them!!! ;-P I don't want to hijack this thread, but this is interesting. I remember awhile ago reading somebody saying they had a tape from the Indra Club-1960. I just checked and it was someone named Kerry8 from a post in 2008 on the DM Forum. Never heard anything else about it though. Checked it. He even claimed he had a FILM of the Beatles at the Indra Club. Among other claims, like that John personally gave him a lot of handwritten lyrics. He e-mailed me some of those, but the same thing could be found anywhere on the internet. I couldn't find a Kerry8 in the members list.
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henryj
For A Number Of Things
Posts: 792
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Post by henryj on Feb 4, 2015 12:13:23 GMT
pjwstory1002: " And ordering tix by mail??!? "
Commerce has come full circle. Mail order used to be big, then brick-and-mortar, now ordering things to be delivered is back, except now you order them online instead of snail mail. I remember driving to a Werlein's music store in New Orleans to buy tickets to a concert over 40 years ago. Now I just print them up on my own printer.
"I guess in my mind, the parents that went to these shows with their kids must have been very cool people." Rev. Billy Graham once said he attended a 1969 rock festival in disguise to see what it was all about. My parents were not too overbearingly strict, but then my brothers and I were not juvenile delinquents anyway. We just had to have our hair cut with white sidewalls.
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Post by Mr Kite on Feb 4, 2015 14:56:29 GMT
The End, do you remember Djinn from DM's? He was convinced he was with The Beatles all the way and even had recordings of The Beatles at the Indra Club in Hamburg. I remember him very well .
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henryj
For A Number Of Things
Posts: 792
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Post by henryj on Feb 5, 2015 0:07:13 GMT
Pjwstory, as far as "cool" parents go, my dad had played guitar in a group that did a lot of Jimmie Rodgers songs when he was young. I think he realized how any (young) generation is connected to its music.
There are Bob Dylan songs that sound somewhat like Jimmie Rodgers songs. And Dylan influenced the Beatles.
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