The Beatles' 1965 USA Tour
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| The Beatles 1965 USA Tour | ||
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| Cover of the tour booklet | ||
| Tour by The Beatles | ||
| Start date | August 15, 1965 | |
| End date | August 31, 1965 | |
| Legs | 1 | |
| Shows | 11 | |
The Beatles staged their second concert tour of the United States (with one date in Canada) in the late summer of 1965. At the peak of American Beatlemania, they played a mixture of outdoor stadiums and indoor arenas, with two historic stops on this venture.
Contents |
[edit] The Shea Stadium show
The Shea Stadium concert on August 15 was record breaking and one of the most famous concert events of its era. It was the first concert to be held at a major outdoor stadium and set records for attendance and revenue generation — promotor Sid Bernstein said "Over 55,000 people saw the Beatles at Shea Stadium. We took $304,000, the greatest gross ever in the history of show business"[1] — demonstrating that outdoor concerts on a large scale could be successful and profitable.
The Beatles were transported to the roof of the World's Fair by helicopter, then taking a Wells Fargo armoured truck to the stadium. At the stadium itself were 2,000 security personnel to handle crowd control.[1]
"Beatlemania" was at one of its highest marks at the Shea Concert. Many teenagers and women were seen crying, screaming, and even fainting. The sound was so deafening that none of The Beatles (or anyone else) could hear anything. Vox had specially designed 100-watt amplifiers for this tour and it was still not anywhere near loud enough, and so the Beatles used the house amplification system. John Lennon described the noise as "wild" and also twice as deafening when the Beatles performed. The Beatles were overwhelmed by the experience. Not being able to hear each other or even themselves, they just played through a list of songs nervously, not knowing what kind of sound was being produced. At one point, John Lennon saw the whole show as being so ridiculous that he just began playing the keyboard with his elbows while the whole group laughed hysterically. The show itself was extremely short and utterly disappointing. The crowd's behavior would scare The Beatles later on in other concerts, because the people were unpredictable.
A documentary using twelve separate camera crews was created by Brian Epstein and Ed Sullivan, named The Beatles at Shea Stadium.[1] This helped depict the great height of Beatlemania in America in 1965.
[edit] The Hollywood Bowl shows
Two shows were played at Los Angeles' high-profile Hollywood Bowl; the second, on August 30, featured one of the group's better performances and provided much of the material for the officially-released 1977 live album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.
[edit] Set list
The typical set list for the shows was as follows (with lead singers noted):[2]
- "Twist and Shout" (John)
- "She's a Woman" (Paul)
- "I Feel Fine" (John)
- "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (John)
- "Ticket to Ride" (John and Paul)
- "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" (George)
- "Can't Buy Me Love" (Paul)
- "Baby's in Black" (John and Paul)
- "Act Naturally" or "I Wanna Be Your Man" (the Ringo slot)
- "A Hard Day's Night" (John and Paul)
- "Help!" (John)
- "I'm Down" (Paul)
[edit] Tour dates
- August 15 - Shea Stadium, New York
- August 17 - Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto
- August 18 - Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta
- August 19 - Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston
- August 20 - Comiskey Park, Chicago
- August 21 - Metropolitan Stadium, Minneapolis
- August 22 - Memorial Coliseum, Portland
- August 28 - Balboa Stadium, San Diego
- August 29 - Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles
- August 30 - Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles
- August 31 - Cow Palace, San Francisco
[edit] Instruments & Equipment
The Beatles had plenty of instruments on the tour, shown here for each member of the group.
John
- 1964 Rickenbacker 325 Guitar
- 1964 Gibson J-160 E (spare)
- Vox organ
Paul
- 1963 Hofner violin bass
- 1961 Hofner (backup)
George
- Gretsch Tennessean Guitar
- Rickenbacker 12-string
- Gretsch Country Gentleman
Ringo
- Ludwig 22-inch-bass kit (drum)
- Number 5 drop-T logo drum logo (drum head)
[edit] Amps
- Vox AC-100 (guitar)
- Vox AC-100 (bass)
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Roy Carr & Tony Tyler, The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, 1976, p. 46
- ^ Nicholas Schaffner, The Beatles Forever, 1977, p. 45
