Beatle Watching Can Be Fun (San Diego 1965)

 Beatle Watching Can Be Fun

By Jim McLain

Record Searchlight (Redding, California)

September 4, 1965

Jim McLean, a Record Searchlight reporter, attended a performance of The Beatles in San Diego during his vacation. Here are his impressions.

 

It was what was happening, baby, or at least that's what all of us had been told. “Everyone who was anyone was going to be there,” the men on the radio kept saying, and how could we even think of missing it?

And it was one of those great Southern California evenings that are so typical of this city. It was neither too hot nor too cold. A thin, misty fog hung low over the horizon of the ocean, and the stars were out above, but they didn't seem to matter to the people I saw here that night. The stars that were on the ground were the only ones who counted. They were John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. They are the Beatles.

The Beatles, various columnists and writers have reported, make movies, records, and money, not necessarily in that order. They are a phenomenon. And a college journalism instructor once told me that every young reporter should see a phenomenon if he gets the chance.

I had the chance, but I was a bit dubious about it: phenomenon or no phenomenon. The Beatles have somehow lacked appeal where I have been concerned. And then there are all those stories you see in the papers: rioting and overselling of outrageous price tickets, so that the audience is crushed together. The teenage girls scream so loud that you can't hear anything.  The traffic jams are a mess.

 Well, not all of those things were true at the group's San Diego concert. Concert is the word the promoters used. It was held in the city's spacious Balboa Stadium. Only about 80% of the seats were filled, so there was plenty of room for everybody, and the screaming girls weren't so loud that you couldn't hear what was going on on the stage if you wanted.

Actually, a Beatles performance can be kind of fun if you pay more attention to the people around you than you do to the Beatles. This one started out with a rock and roll combo, somewhat sour and shaky rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. It would have brought tears to the eyes of any member of the John Birch Society.

 It ended with the Beatles doing something called “Help”, the title of their latest movie and their most recent record release. In between, there was a parade of radio station disc jockeys. Southern California teenagers idolize them, and several more or less minor groups with names like Sounds Incorporated (they're guaranteed to make it big someday, because they were discovered by Brian Epstein, the man who found the Beatles) and Cannibal and the Headhunters.

 And there was the shrieking, teary eyed girls.  Most of them were clad in bell-bottom trousers and brightly colored blouses. The thing to wear to a Beatles show.

We got the most inexpensive seats we could at $3.50 each, and found ourselves in the end zone of what is usually the San Diego Chargers football field. The performers were on a stage set up at what was about the 20 year line near the other end of the field. From that distance, the Beatles looked like bed bugs. They were on stage for only about 30 minutes, probably because that's all some of the young ladies could take.

“Hello”, said one of the mop tops after the group took the stage, and it seemed as though the screaming might begin to subside. A high-pitched roar filled the big bowl all over. Girls were frantically waving signs to proclaim their love and lifelong devotion to the British stars.

And the vendors, doing their best to shout loudly enough about the wonders of their wares so they could be heard over the crowd, were having a field day. What they said were autographed pictures of Ringo were going quickly at $2 each, and there were programs, Beatle buttons, cheap binoculars and other souvenirs that were being snatched up by the enthusiastic crowd.

The disc jockeys, who were running the show, repeatedly said they would stop it if anyone tried to get on the field, but they didn't hold true to their promise. Several young boys scampered out to the grass and were immediately tackled football style by the fleet-footed San Diego police. You could hear mutterings of police brutality.

If the Beatles return to San Diego someday, they will probably hope for a more successful show. Not all the tickets available for this one were sold, and something else was wrong. There was no tossing of jellybeans. Why people would want to throw jellybeans at anyone seems a little beyond comprehension. But that is supposed to be the custom at a Beatles show, the singers say that they like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.