At the peak of Beatlemania on Sunday 15 August 1965 The Beatles invented stadium rock. Their record-breaking performance at New York’s Shea Stadium was the highlight of the group’s 1965 tour and became a milestone in popular musical history as the first major stadium concert. The concert watched by 55,600 fans, marked the beginning of the group’s second full US concert tour. The sound of the group was completely dominated by the screaming of the audience.
Despite the fact that The Beatles couldn’t hear themselves play, (there were no monitor speakers) and the sound was being pumped through a tannoy system more regularly used for making baseball announcements, the four musicians are in sync throughout. Ringo Starr once said he was able to keep time at the show by watching the other musicians’ bottoms move.
The Beatles had hoped to land on the field by helicopter, but the idea was blocked by the New York City authorities so they travelled by limousine from the Warwick Hotel to a heliport, from where they were flown in a New York Airways Boeing Vertol 107-II helicopter, over New York City, to the roof of the World’s Fair building in Queens. From there they boarded a Wells Fargo armoured van, where they were each given a Wells Fargo agent badge, and were driven to the stadium. The Beatles were positioned on a rickety stage on an infield diamond, thousands of bright camera flashbulbs greeted the Beatles as they entered, making the field look like a wild electronics laboratory.
The event which was promoted by Sid Bernstein set a world record for attendance figures, and also for gross revenue. The Beatles pocketed $160,000 of the $304,000 box office takings. To control this huge crowd, over 2,000 security personnel were enlisted to stop fans from running onto the field towards the stage.
Interestingly, among the screaming, worshipping fans were two future Beatles wives. Both Linda Eastman and Barbara Bach (the future wives of Paul and Ringo, respectively) were sitting amongst the other adoring fans.
Other acts on the bill were, in order of appearance, Brenda Holloway and the King Curtis Band, Cannibal & The Headhunters, Sounds Incorporated, and the Young Rascals. The Beatles were introduced on stage by TV host Ed Sullivan.
In 1970, John Lennon recalled the show as a career highlight: “At Shea Stadium, I saw the top of the mountain.” Starr of the Beatles described the concert in the 1995 documentary The Beatles Anthology, which featured extensive clips from the concert film: “What I remember most about the concert was that we were so far away from the audience. … And screaming had become the thing to do. … Everybody screamed. If you look at the footage, you can see how we reacted to the place. It was very big and very strange.”
In 2008, Paul McCartney played the last concert at Shea Stadium with Billy Joelbefore the stadium was closed and demolished. The concert was documented in the film The Last Play at Shea.
The 30 minute setlist:
“Twist and Shout”
“She’s a Woman”
“I Feel Fine”
“Dizzy Miss Lizzy”
“Ticket to Ride”
“Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby”
“Can’t Buy Me Love”
“Baby’s in Black”
“Act Naturally”
“A Hard Day’s Night”
“Help!”
“I’m Down”
Important Dates In The Life Of The Beatles:
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14 Nov 2024
English studio guitarist Vic Flick died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at a care facility in Los Angeles at the age of 87. He is best known for playing the guitar riff in the ‘James Bond Theme’. Flick played the riff on a 1939 English Clifford Essex Paragon Deluxe guitar plugged into a Fender Vibrolux amplifier and was paid a one-off fee of £6 for the recording. He also played a pastiche of the “James Bond” guitar part for The Beatles’ film A Hard Days Night – Ringos Theme (1964).
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5 Jul 2024
US singer Sabrina Carpenter broke a UK chart record when she became the first female artist to hold both the No.1 and No.2 positions on the singles chart for three consecutive weeks. ‘Please Please Please’ remained in the top spot on this week’s chart, while her previous single “Espresso” held on at No.2. The Beatles achieved the same feat in the 60s, scoring the chart double on two separate occasions.
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14 May 2024
Jamaican-British soul singer Jimmy James died at the age of 83. Known for songs like ‘Come to Me Softly’, ‘Now Is the Time’ and ‘I’ll Go Where Your Music Takes Me’ he performed as the lead singer of Jimmy James and the Vagabonds from the mid-1960s. During the 60s Jimmy James and the Vagabonds supported The Who, Rod Stewart, Jimi Hendrix, Sonny and Cherand recorded at Abbey Road Studios being there at the same time the The Beatleswere recording.
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7 Apr 2024
American rhythm and blues singer and pianist Clarence “Frogman” Henry died at the age of 87. He is best known for his hits ‘Ain’t Got No Home’ (1956) and ‘(I Don’t Know Why) But I Do’ (1961). Henry was married seven times, with all his marriages ending in divorce and had ten children. He opened 18 concerts for The Beatles across the US and Canada in 1964.
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22 Feb 2024
English pianist John Lowe died age 81. In the late 1950s, he played piano for The Quarrymen, the group who would evolve into The Beatles. Known to his friends as “Duff”, Lowe had known Paul McCartneysince 1953, and was invited to play piano with The Quarrymen by McCartney in February 1958. He was there when the band recorded two songs for a vanity disc at Percy Phillips’ home studio in Liverpool. The two tracks cut that day were ‘That’ll Be the Day’ and ‘In Spite of All the Danger’.
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3 Jan 2024
The Beatles had the biggest-selling vinyl single of 2023 in the UK with their record-breaking ‘last’ song, ‘Now and Then’. With over 33,000 copies sold since its release, they broke several records including the longest time between an artist’s first and last No.1 and the UK’s fastest-selling vinyl single of the century. The ballad that John Lennon wrote and recorded around 1977 as a home demo was completed by his surviving bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, using overdubs and guitar tracks by George Harrison from the abandoned 1995 Anthology sessions.
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