Baltimore Beatles concert memories

I was at this show in the evening, 8 rows from the front. I could not speak for one week. People were passing out. You could not hear one word sung or spoken but I was there. – gina

I was at the second show! I was 14 years old. Sat in the 2nd balcony, 2nd row–great seats, with my girlfriend and her 18 year-old sister who drove us from Virginia to Baltimore that day. I still have the program (that I wrote stuff on) and the ticket stubs taped to the program. I remember John Lennon joking around. No way you could hear them play. Screaming and hysteria everywhere. Somehow I remember the glass doors at the Civic Center getting broken. What an awesome experience! –Chandler E.

I was at the Civic Center at the afternoon show. Couldn’t hear a word The Beatles sang.  I was too busy screaming & crying "George."  WJZ was there filming, I was in row AA, well when I got home I watched the news with my family and low and behold there I am on the news, screaming and crying "George". – Colleen R.

I was there,afternoon show I was sixth or seventh row front. I was seven yrs. old, parents brought us from philly.  You guy’s remember the gap below the curtain?  Before the show, every time there was a shoe, mike stand,or someone bumped it,” Hysteria” ! I do recall hearing the songsn but not positive it was a lifetime ago. I remember Paul kept moving to left stage talking to someone. Also teen girl (braces maybe)right behind me screaming “George” the whole show, (colleen maybe).   Jackie D. wouldn't get off, the Beatles were gone in a flash!!!  best day of my life, never will forget it!!!!!! – Jerry


I also was at the evening show. I was the “mercy date” for a girl at my workplace. At ages 22, Krissy I were among the oldest ones there except for two of the Beatles and the cops. As seen above, the median demographic was a 12-13 year old girl. We were in the last row. Krissy and I entered on duty at a government agency on the same day in June of that year, both recent college grads. Since I was (and still am) a classical violinist, I had marginal interest in the Beatles. Krissy, when she found out that our agency had a ticket counter asked if they had Beatles tickets. The fellow who was giving up our “first day on the job” briefing had no clue, but said she should check during our lunch break…and she indeed got the tickets. I was not friends with her at this point, but later we ended up in the same apartment building and she rode to work with me every day. [There was no romantic interest here at all, I was engaged at the time to my now-wife, but she was still in the Midwest finishing college.] Krissy figured by the concert time she’d have a boyfriend who she would go with to the concert. Well that did not happen and I was the only one she knew with a car…so she provided the tickets and asked if I would take her to the concert. And so I did…not with the greatest of enthusiasm I might add (though in retrospect, I treasure the experience.) As others have described, you couldn’t hear a thing and we were in the dead last row of an upper balcony. I have since learned the tickets in that section cost $2.75. The Beatles themselves only played for about a half-hour. The warm-up acts were dreadful as I remember. I have no souvenirs from the concert as I bought a program and gave it to her. She remained at my workplace for a couple of years and was friends with my wife and I (we married shortly after my wife graduated) and then she resigned and returned to Michigan. I have totally lost track of her. The Beatles soon realized the limitations of three guitars and a drum set a year or two later and limited their activities to recordings and movies until they broke up. The recordings were done at Abbey Road and often had London-based symphonies as backups. (Think “Eleanor Rigby” as an example.) About 5-6 years ago, one of my symphonies obtained these orchestral arrangements from the Beatles’ licensees and did a Beatles set at one of our Pops concerts. As the oldest playing member of that group, I was also the only one who had ever seen the Beatles.  -- John O.

I was there for the second show. I was twelve at the time and my Dad and Mom had driven my cousin Leilani and two of her friends from Bethesda to see them. Loni was the type of person who always just seem to be placed in your life at those moments when you look back, were the most significant and as you might guess, it was her who introduced me to The Beatles music. After checking out the crowd, Dad, to my surprise handed me a ticket. I don’t recall Frogman or Jackie DeShannon too clearly but I do remember that every time Bill Black said the name, Elvis, everyone screamed. My cousin and her friends left me to try and make a rush for the stage. That night was truly a turning point
in my life. Even though you could barley hear them, after The Beatles took the stage and I saw the crowd reaction, I remember thinking to myself something along the lines of, “Now that’s a good job”. I have been a musician for my entire working life largely due to my experiences that evening. I met Dad and Mom out front after the show and Mom went searching for my cousin and her friends. In her search she actually was next to The Beatles as they were escorted across the street. Mom explained to a police officer what she was doing and he asked her if she wanted to go along with them to find my cousin. I could not believe it when Mom told me that she declined the offer. We found my cousin and her friends. Leilani has since passed away and even though I didn’t actually watch the concert with her I have a special treasure and moment in my life that I will always share with her.  – Tim L.

My dad took two of my friends and one of the friend’s dad to Baltimore to see the Beatles. I was 14 at the time, and i ordered the tickets thru the snail mail – they were $5.00 each and couldn’t believe when they arrived in our mailbox. we sat on the very top and last row, so they were very small on stage, but we had a speaker right above us and we could hear them like we were on the stage w/ them. needless to say, we screamed like everybody else – just couldn’t help it!! I’ll never forget that day – Sept 13, 1964. –Donna

I was there with two good friends (we were 13 years old) .... so exciting! It was actually quiet enough at a few points between songs that John was talking and I whispered to my friends, "Hey, on the count of three, everybody yell 'Ringo'!" (He was my favorite.) So we did, and he looked over toward us (close to the left of the stage, several rows up), and we were too stunned to respond at all, even with a wave, haha. So glad I got to see them

Our local radio station, WGH in Hampton, VA, got a block of tickets that they made available to their listeners at cost: $2.50. I got the maximum, 2 tickets, and a friend of mine and our moms drove to Baltimore for the Sunday afternoon show. Jackie DeShannon was the last act before the Beatles, and I remember how restless the crowd got during her set. I always thought the Beatles should start their show with A Hard Day’s Night, because of that awesome opening chord, but they had their own order of songs. It was an awesome show, despite the screams. I have always been extremely proud to say I saw the Beatles in concert. Thanks, Mom. After they dropped us off, our moms went around the back of the Civic Center and saw a lot of commotion with some guys with long hair running from the adjacent Holiday Inn into the building. Wow!

Because of the block of seats, we were surrounded by others from the Peninsula/Tidewater area of Virginia, and 2 of my cousins were sitting right behind us. They had driven up the day before and had gotten a room at the Holiday Inn. After the show we all went to visit with them – couldn’t even get into the lobby without showing a key – their room was on the floor right below the Beatles. No, guards at the doors prevented anyone from getting onto that floor. But my cousins said they could hear the Beatles practicing the night before (no, not The Night Before). My friend had a Beatles haircut; when he stood at the window facing the front of the hotel we could hear the crowds scream.

Before we drove back home, we went to dinner at the revolving restaurant on top of the hotel. This is the same restaurant that Larry Kane wrote about in his book, Ticket To Ride. The Beatles reserved it for a late dinner for the entire crew after the last concert. So one of the Beatles may have used the same dinnerware that I had used earlier!I still have the program and ticket stub (they kept the part that had “The Beatles” on it, so all we got back really was the stub), and a picture of Ringo I bought for $3 because that was all the money I had. I was 14, and this was my first concert.  –Peyton C.

I was 10 years old at the time when my dad took me to see them at the Civic Center as it was known back then, our seats were way in the back, their first song was Twist And Shout which really made all the girls you know Twist And Shout lol, 50 years ago and now that I’m 60 years old I still kept part of the ticket stub and the program, sadly my father passed away in 1994 30 years after taking me to the Civic Center I will never forget that September day, they looked very tiny on the stage since our seating was very far away and it was quite impossible to hear them even with the Vox Amplifiers it wasn’t enough to make them hear themselves play over the screaming teenage girls. I even remember which matinee I attended, it was the afternoon show at 4:30 as I remember can’t really remember the exact time but I think it was around 4:30 cause I know that the evening show started at 8:30. Now Baltimore Civic Center today is known as The 1st Mariner Arena. All I can remember was I was so grateful for my dad giving me the opportunity to see the most greatest and most popular band in The History Of Rock N Roll The Fab Four Beatles. –John B.

I was at this show with a girlfriend. Her dad drove us from Monmouth County, NJ to Baltimore on Saturday night, we stayed at her aunt’s house. Our tickets were for the evening show. It was amazing. We had to go home that night because we had school the next day! Don’t think either one of us could talk for two days! –Linda