Here is a photo of Ringo and George answering fan mail backstage in St. Louis (woot! woot!) in 1966. These guys had already performed a concert that day in Cincinnati and then flew on a plane and took a bus to Busch Stadium in St. Louis. I doubt fan mail was on the top of their list of ways to spend their time before doing another concert in the pouring rain. However, as Bob Bonis so wonderfully photographed, they are doing it.
Just the idea that they had to do two shows a day, no wonder why John would lose his voice, shredding "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "Twist and Shout"....these guys didn't know how good they could actually have it! And then they had to talk incessantly to clueless reporters! ugh!
They were the trail blazers, weren't they? They were the ones who cleared the road for the ones who followed, nobody was doing what they did at that level... they were having to figure a lot of things out as they went, (and Brian, bless his heart, didn't always know what he was doing)...and they did finally stand up and say "Hey' enough's enough, here! We're going to do some things differently now..." and good for them! I was at Macca's St. Louis concert in August 2016 at new Busch Stadium, and his sound system was Out. Of. This. World. I think all of downtown St. Louis must have heard him... and I couldn't help but think about the 1966 concert, and how poor their sound equipment was for what they were up against, but the world hadn't seen anything like that yet, so suitable equipment just didn't exist yet... I felt honored to be there, it felt like he (and his mates, if only in spirit) had come full circle...
My initial thought was that they were signing some sort of contracts. I can`t see any piles of fan mail just looks like a couple of documents... and note all those brief cases!! They might just be picking choice of dinner off a menu, or pre-concert contracts ..
Poor guys.
ReplyDeleteJust the idea that they had to do two shows a day, no wonder why John would lose his voice, shredding "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "Twist and Shout"....these guys didn't know how good they could actually have it! And then they had to talk incessantly to clueless reporters! ugh!
They were the trail blazers, weren't they? They were the ones who cleared the road for the ones who followed, nobody was doing what they did at that level... they were having to figure a lot of things out as they went, (and Brian, bless his heart, didn't always know what he was doing)...and they did finally stand up and say "Hey' enough's enough, here! We're going to do some things differently now..." and good for them! I was at Macca's St. Louis concert in August 2016 at new Busch Stadium, and his sound system was Out. Of. This. World. I think all of downtown St. Louis must have heard him... and I couldn't help but think about the 1966 concert, and how poor their sound equipment was for what they were up against, but the world hadn't seen anything like that yet, so suitable equipment just didn't exist yet... I felt honored to be there, it felt like he (and his mates, if only in spirit) had come full circle...
DeleteMy initial thought was that they were signing some sort of contracts. I can`t see any piles of fan mail just looks like a couple of documents... and note all those brief cases!! They might just be picking choice of dinner off a menu, or pre-concert contracts ..
ReplyDeleteThe caption in the book says that they were answering fan mail.
ReplyDelete