45th Anniversary

Today marks the 45th anniversary of one of my favorite Beatles concerts, the 1966 Cleveland show. A really great book was actually written about the concerts the Beatles did in Cleveland, and it is well worth reading! But I am not quoting out of that book this time, instead I am quoting out of another awesome book called "We're going to see the Beatles!" And I am quoting someone that I actually know in person and I hope she doesn't mind me using her story, Betty Taucher telling about the Cleveland show.

The Day before the concert they stayed at the downtown Sheraton. And we were at my girlfriend's house. There were about a dozen of us girls, and of course we were all going to the concert the next day, and her mother called all of our mothers while we were at her house, on the pretext of swimming in her pool, and said, 'We're going downtown." In those days there were no seat belts, so you just piled in the car -- all of us girls in the back seat, and we rode downtown, alternating spaces so nobody died. And Cheryl's mom dropped us off at the Sheraton and said, "Okay I'll be back in about three hours, you girls just have a good time." And there were like thousands of people out there, we were all screaming to get into the hotel. We tried to get in a million times. We go as far as the elevator, and got thrown out. We were dying 'cause we knew they were up there. It was just the thought that they might show up or somebody might come by, or just the feeling. There were things you'd do for them that would would never think of doing for anybody else. I like lots of other groups, but you wouldn't do that for them the way you would do it for the Beatles. The concert oneself was only half an hour. Paul did most of the talking, which I think he generally did.

I remember the limousine coming onto the filed with the whole bunch of motorcycles. The stage was set diagonally, and nobody was sitting behind it in the stands. They only sold 25,000 tickets. The stadium could hold 80,000 people, but they only sold 25,000 because back then stadium concerts were new and a novel thing. Nobody thought stadium concerts were gonna work. they thought 25,000 was an enormous amount of people, so that was all they were allowing. So everyone was sort of at the farther end, facing them. the trailer that they stayed in was behind them.

I was in the second tier of the stadium right in the front row, so I was happily draped over the wall, and my mother was just holding my feet. The people that were down on the first level - because the stadium being as old as it was, it was real easy to get on the field. you could just go right over the railing and get on the field. Well, all these people that were on the first level went over the railing and ran out onto the field. And most of them lost their shoes in the running. The next day in the paper the picture was of this huge pile of shoes and the caption was "Beatle fans, here are your shoes."

There were no huge towers of sound equipment and stuff like there is now. now you could have 100,000 fans screaming and you could still hear the concert. Then you only heard bits and pieces, but that wasn't the idea. We knew we weren't going to hear anything. It was the idea that you were there and they were there. you were in the same place with them, and you were close to hem and could look out and see them. And that was the neat thing. They were just was energetic, just as much into it, they were really doing it for the fans. They cared a lot about the fans, which I think we felt.

The programs were a whole dollar, which nowadays seems insane. The tickets were $3.50 and $5.50 for the concert. And $5.50 was considered a high ticket price back then, considering what you'd pay for a movie or whatever. An album was only $2.98. A 45 you bought three for a dollar.

The trailer behind the stage was independently owned. The Beatles stayed in it while Cyrkle and Bobby Hebb played. and when the fans went onto the field, they went into the trailer for awhile, while the people sent the fans back. The fans left there shoes in a heap and went back to their seats, and then the Beatles came out again.