The Beatles concert in Lyon, France

Alf Bicknell had this to say about the concert on June 22, 1965:   "Flew to Lyon this afternoon and the boys have done two shows at the Palais D'Hiver.  The crowds here are very different than the British ones.   There are more men than girls and they don't scream as much.  They seem to want to listen more to the songs.  It could be that they have difficulty with the language.

The concert in Lyon in color

You don't see very many photos of the Beatles in concert in color, so these are really nice.   

The Beatles live in Paris 1965

Love notes and autograph books

Fans that were close enough would often throw autograph books and love notes onto the stage while the Beatles were performing in hopes of getting them scooped up and read or signed and returned.   I am not sure how well that planned worked, but as you can see in this photo, there were a lot on the stage!

Dark Hoarse

Rrrrrrrock show!

Twistin' and Shoutin' in Washington D.C.

The Beatles concert in Washington D.C. on February 11, 1964 has to be one of the most energetic concerts ever given.   The Beatles were rocking and the fans were loving it all.   I am so glad that this concert was captured on film so that we can taste a small bit of what it was like to have been there in person.  

The wave that helped cover the sins of the Beatles

"We'd get to the point where it was particularly bad, and then we'd do our 'Elvis legs' and wave to the crowds, and they'd all scream and it would cover that. As Paul has said, the screaming did cover a lot of worrying moments." --George Harrison in the Anthology

Walthamstow

The Beatles were still hard at work on October 24, 1964 when they did another two shoes at the Granda cinema in Walthamstow.

There aren't really any photographs that I could locate of the Beatles on this date, but I did find information and stories of fans.   So I am going to post some photos that are believed to have been taken during the 1964 UK tour, but the exact dates are unknown. 

The guys made it to the theater in a van that took service roads to sneak the Beatles into the Granada Cinema.  Once the guys made it inside safely, they ate a meal and got ready for the show.  Meanwhile, the fans began to que up to get inside.

Once the show began, at least one girl tried to rush the stage when the Beatles were performing.   Mostly fans at this venue were into throwing things onto the stage.   The fans made sure to attach tags that said things like "To Ringo with Love" on the gifts they were hurling at high speeds at the Beatles.   Up in the balcony, four or five girls raced to the front railing and for a while there was some fear that they might fall over the railing.    As with many of the other shows during this tour, fans were waving scarves and of course screaming.   24 girls were treated by the St. John's volunteers for hysteria.  

In Creasy's book, Beatlemania, he has documented a great story from this night by one fan named Janice:

My friend, Maggie had lined up all night and one of the first, if not the first in line for tickets. I am not sure if her parents knew where she was that night but Maggie bought a few tickets for us and some friends.  Maggie and I made banners to hang around our necks.  Hers declared her love for Ringo and mine was for Paul.  We each made extremely tall top hats wit pictures of the Beatles to wear.  We also made a banner of sheets that stretched across the front of the seats.  It declared our dedication to and love for the Beatles.  the banner was pulled out of our hands by other crazy girls not long after the show started!  When the Beatles came onstage the theater was alive with screaming which did not die down at all. I was rather annoyed because I could barely hear the Beatles, even in the front row, although I hasten to add I must have been screaming as well!  We stood on our seats and were in awe.  At one point I looked at the girls I was with and there was only Maggie in  the seat next to me.  The others had been carried out  by St. John's Ambulance Brigade people because they had fainted.  Then Maggie threw her cardboard, movable puppet she had made of George onto the stage.  George picked it up and put it on his amplifier and so I turned to Maggie to say something, but she had collapsed in a heap in her chair.  They had to carry her out!  So I was the only one left and I decided I didn't want to miss the show and was there until the end.   When the Beatles finished, Maggie came rushing back down the aisle but the Beadles had gone.  We rushed outside to see if we could watch them leaving, but they were not in sight.  So we tried to storm the backstage, but we were sent back.  We hung around for quite a long time waiting for the departure of the Beatles, but never saw them.  The newspaper the next day stated that they had left the theater over a wall right after the show.

 

A few other memories:

I was at that concert too. It was October 24 1964, my 12th birthday. I sported a Beatle haircut and jacket - must have looked really silly. I remember too, when the Beatles came on, people pushed the seats into the 'up' position - as in when they were not being used, and stood on them to see. No Health and Safety considerations in those days! Some people threw jelly babies, because one of the Beatles - don't recall which one - had said he liked them. – Peter

“The concert was amazing, although we couldn't hear anything just all of us screaming. We stood on the seats and waved scarves - anything to attract a Beatle's attention." – Lesley

Styling in a sweater

I am just posting this photo because I know so many of you out there enjoy seeing Paul wearing his various sweater vests, so here is a new one to me. 

The Beatles play Leeds

The Beatles traveled back to England for a performance in Leeds on October 22, 1964.   After the riots in Glasgow the day before, they were ready for some peace and quiet.   Well---they weren't going to get it in Leeds!    No one is sure how many fans were in the streets that evening, but estimates say that it was 1,000 screaming girls.   

Not a whole lot is known about what the Beatles did backstage, but we do know that John doodled on the back of a photograph some ideas for the cover of the 'Beatles for Sale' album.       And apparently, the lads had some drinks and popcorn while posing for photographers.

The first concert was wild!   When the Beatles came on stage, fans ran up to the front of the stage and all 2,500 there tried to cram into the area in front of the orchestra pit  (well...maybe not EVERYBODY).    Security interviewed afterwards said that they never had seen anyone as determined to get on stage as much as these fans.  Six brave girls broke through the line of security and climbed over the organ and jumped up onto the stage.  One of the six was just an inch away from Paul before one of the security men dragged her away.    She was kicked out of the concert, but she ran around to the front of the theater and begged one of the police to let her back inside.     Fans were hurling all sorts of items onto the stage, including a cigarette lighter than bonked Paul right on the head.

Four unhappy concert going adults were outraged by the fact that they could not hear or see the Beatles because people were jumping in front of them and screaming.  They refused to leave the theater and the management allowed them to stay in a circle aisle seat for the second show.

Here are a few memories that I found.   The first one is funny.

I remember attending that concert. I was only 11 and my elder sister had to take me with her, in order that my mother paid for her ticket! I remember not being able to hear them at all for all the screaming. Also remember getting bored towards the end of the concert.

--Leo

I was lucky enough to play for a rugby club who's members acted, as the crowd control in those day. I was only 16 when I attended the first concert.  Wonderful memories of being pushed, screamed at and cursed by the young girls trying to get onto the stage.

--John B.

At the City of Discovery

The Beatles had played in Dundee, Scotland year prior to this performance and the fans were excited to have them back for another set of concerts.  The Beatles arrived in Dundee and went to the Caird Hall where they were interviewed and photographed.

One visitor they had backstage was Margaret, the Countess of Strathmore.   The Countess was in the minority of the day because she spoke out about how much she disliked the Beatles concert .  She wrote a letter to a newspaper saying how the Beatles fans were "appalling and bad mannered for screaming so hard that she couldn't hear the music." 

The concert itself must have been quite a scene.  40 large men, many of them national wrestling champs were standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the stage to block any young Beatlemaniac from trying to get onstage with the boys.  There were another 35 on stand-by at various places around the hall just in case things got really out of control.

The fans were warned of all of this and things started out nicely with chants of "We love you Beatles" that turned into all out screaming by the time the boys hit the stage.  The newspaper reported that in the first  5 minutes of the Beatles performance 50 (!) fans fainted or were crying hysterically and had to be carried away.   Wow!

At the end of Long Tall Sally someone came on stage and tried to get the fans to call the Beatles back onstage for an encore, but us Beatle fans are smart and they already knew the routine of the show.  So when the Beatles were trying to leave the venue, at least 1000 people were blocking their way.  The police had to use their cars and dogs to try to get the Beatles into the car.   And even then, fans were flinging themselves onto the car while screaming uncontrollably.    No injuries occurred and it was just another regular night for the Fab 4.

Edinburgh 50 years ago

After a few days off, the Beatles traveled by plane to Scotland for three performances there, the first one in Edinburgh.   When they got to the ABC cinema, where the two performances where to be held, the Beatles and Brian Epstein got pushed into the crowd of screaming fans and things got a bit scary for the five of them as they were pushed up against the glass windows of the cinema.    One of the security guards saw John Lennon's face smushed up against the window and rushed out to help the Beatles, leaving poor Brian out in the mob.    Eventually someone got Brian safely inside.  It was a close call and it amazes me that the Beatles never got seriously hurt at any of these concerts.

Once they were safely inside it was the usual questions and photos for the press including some goofy photos of Ringo doing an impression of a mother entertaining a small boy (??????)

One fan who saw the concert was then 16 year old Chris Warbrick, who attended the 8:30pm show.  Here are some of his memories from Martin Creasy's book:

"Mary Wells was so good.  'My Guy' was a terrific song and it sounded so good, but I didn't recognize the other songs she sang.  Tamla Motown was only just starting here and Mary-- apart from 'My Guy' was not that well known to a lot of people.  They were just there for The Beatles.  People just wanted Bob Bain (the compere for the show) him off really -- let's have the Beatles.  But of course that's about the last we heard -- him introducing them and then the noise went up.  I couldn't really hear anything and we had a loudspeaker at the end of our row.   It was just constant screaming, but it didn't really matter.  It was just a matter of being there--to be part of the occasion." 

The Red Cross said that over a dozen fans fainted during the Beatles concert and they were carried out of the cinema (boo!).    Fans who were waiting outside while the first show was going on to go in for the 2nd show passed the time by singing songs about how much they loved the Beatles.  At least three girls missed the show because they had passed out while waiting to into the 2nd show.   People said that the screams during the 2nd show was so loud that you could hear them out in the streets outside of the cinema.