Ronnie Robertson: The Beatles at Shea Stadium
On August 13, 1965, the Beatles released their ninth American LP, Help! That same day, the group also landed in America for a month-long tour, which began two days later with the infamous August 15 performance at Shea Stadium in New York. 55,600 screaming fans (a number that broke attendance records at that time) mobbed the stadium that night for the Beatles’ twelve-song performance.
After dropping from a helicopter into an armored Wells Fargo van, where John, Paul George, and Ringo all received the gold badges they wore during the show, the group was introduced to the stage by none other than Ed Sullivan. The previous day, the Beatles had taped their final live performances for the Ed Sullivan Show, which aired throughout the rest of the year, and Ed was producing a documentary surrounding the Shea performance.
The band hooked up on a very small stage in the middle of the field, far away from the screaming girls melting into the backdrop behind homeplate, and they tore into “Twist and Shout,” which quickly drowned in the inevitable high pitch drone that was Beatlemania. By the end of the show, John Lennon had famously “lost his mind” to the screams and to the fact that he couldn’t hear himself sing or play, and during the closing number “I’m Down,” he began playing his Vox organ with his elbows and clowning for his bandmates.
Reports of the show from people who were actually in attendance say that it was one of the wildest and most electric atmospheres in history. The fantastic footage probably doesn’t fully capture it, but it has to come close. It shows people standing on top of one another trying to catch a glimpse of the Fab Four, girls running onto the field and being chased by the hordes of security, and it is all in color. The heights of Beatlemania were captured on film by twelve cameras, which all offered a unique view of the band and the audience involved in this legendary show.
Although it was a primitive setup, this show was the first major performance in an outdoor stadium. The crowd was not allowed on the field, and the sound was very limited because PA systems were not yet apart of live concerts. The Beatles couldn’t even hear themselves play, despite the fact that the show was piped through the stadium amplifier used during the Mets baseball games. Yet this show was groundbreaking in that it proved that large-scale stadium shows could be very, very successful. It broke the attendance records and the $304,000 the show earned broke gross revenue records for live acts. Everyone from the Rolling Stones to U2 would follow this trend...
Read entire article at Examiner.com
After dropping from a helicopter into an armored Wells Fargo van, where John, Paul George, and Ringo all received the gold badges they wore during the show, the group was introduced to the stage by none other than Ed Sullivan. The previous day, the Beatles had taped their final live performances for the Ed Sullivan Show, which aired throughout the rest of the year, and Ed was producing a documentary surrounding the Shea performance.
The band hooked up on a very small stage in the middle of the field, far away from the screaming girls melting into the backdrop behind homeplate, and they tore into “Twist and Shout,” which quickly drowned in the inevitable high pitch drone that was Beatlemania. By the end of the show, John Lennon had famously “lost his mind” to the screams and to the fact that he couldn’t hear himself sing or play, and during the closing number “I’m Down,” he began playing his Vox organ with his elbows and clowning for his bandmates.
Reports of the show from people who were actually in attendance say that it was one of the wildest and most electric atmospheres in history. The fantastic footage probably doesn’t fully capture it, but it has to come close. It shows people standing on top of one another trying to catch a glimpse of the Fab Four, girls running onto the field and being chased by the hordes of security, and it is all in color. The heights of Beatlemania were captured on film by twelve cameras, which all offered a unique view of the band and the audience involved in this legendary show.
Although it was a primitive setup, this show was the first major performance in an outdoor stadium. The crowd was not allowed on the field, and the sound was very limited because PA systems were not yet apart of live concerts. The Beatles couldn’t even hear themselves play, despite the fact that the show was piped through the stadium amplifier used during the Mets baseball games. Yet this show was groundbreaking in that it proved that large-scale stadium shows could be very, very successful. It broke the attendance records and the $304,000 the show earned broke gross revenue records for live acts. Everyone from the Rolling Stones to U2 would follow this trend...