Riots in Vancouver

Red Robinson interrupting the concert

The Beatles concert in Vancouver was the  beginning of wild Beatles concerts in North America.  While prior to Vancouver, the fans screamed, cried and tried to rush the stage----it was a whole new game in Vancouver.

At the very start of the concert, fans that were in the field seats of the Empire theater  rushed toward the stage.  All that stopped them was a flimsy 4 foot barricade, some police, an ambulance and newspaper men and photographers. 

So as fans tried in vane to jump the fence and get onto the stage, they were crushing those who were standing against the fence.  Girls were doing things that were very unsafe in order to see the Beatles amongst the insanity.  One 13 year old fan named Della stacked two benches on top of each other and she and her friend stood on top of them to see the Beatles.   When fans started to run forward, they bumped into the stacked benches and she and her friend came tumbling down onto the ground.  She said in the book Our Hearts went Boom by Brian Kendall, "When I was lying there on the ground, all I could think about was climbing back to my feet so that I wouldn't miss another second of the concert."  That was a common feeling.  Fans didn't care if they were hurt, they just wanted to see the Beatles.  One injured fan was carried away and put into an ambulance while she was screaming, "Ringo, Ringo!  Don't take me away from Ringo!"


At the same time, fans who weren't able to get tickets managed to push the twelve-foot high northwest gate and 12 fans managed to sneak into the concert for free before police propped the gate back up and held it in place.

Also on the south-end, fans were sneaking into the concert and a fist fight broke out!

All of this craziness made Brian Epstein nervous.   Eppy told the D.J. that introduced the Beatles to "get on stage and stop the show.  Tell those kids we won't continue if they don't calm down."    So Red went out on the stage to the surprise of the Beatles.  Paul tried to wave him away, but our dear John was extremely blunt and mixed no words.  He told Red Robinson, "Get the fuck off our stage!  Nobody interrupts a Beatles performance!"

Red explained that Brian had put him up to it, and the Beatles stopped singing and let him try to calm the crowd.   However, it didn't work.  The fans didn't sit down or calm themselves.   Everyone thought that things would get even crazier if the Beatles didn't continue the show, and so back they went to quickly finish up.