The Beatles Last Performance

The trouble of the Beatles last tour all began on July 29th, 1966 when the teen magazine called Datebook printed a quote from a John Lennon interview where Lennon claimed that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The writer’s original interview published in the London Evening Standard didn’t create any controversy after it hit the stands. But it caused great controversy in the US four months later.

The negative limelight cast a dark shadow over the start of the tour. An anonymous telephone caller during the summer of 66 warned that members of the band would be shot at either of their two performances in Texas later that day. When fireworks later went off during the nighttime concert, The group immediately looked at the other three to see which of them had been hit.

But the next night the Beatles were equally on edge when they were about to step onto the open-air stage on Cincinnati’s Crosley Field during a thunder storm. While over thirty thousand audience members sat inside Corsley Field waiting to see the show, the Beatles were fearful of getting an electric shock if they were to touch their mics. McCartney vomited before the show. Luckily, just before the show was set to start the performance was called off and postponed for the next day.

The day after, was the Beatles Last Performance. The Beatles appeared at Candlestick Park on August 29th, 1966. The band was at 2nd second base far away from the audience of 25,000. The stage was raised up five feet above the field and inside a six foot high fence. The stage was guarded by 200 police officers. Songs played at the concert were ‘Rock And Roll Music’, ‘She’s A Woman’, ‘If I needed Someone’, ‘Day Tripper’, ‘Baby’s In Black’, ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘Yesterday’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, ‘Nowhere Man’, ‘Paperback Writer’, and ‘Long Tall Sally’.

When the show was over, the four Beatles drove away from candlestick park in an armored car. All four Beatles knew that this was the end of their touring. John Lennon had taken a camera on stage with him and snapped pictures of himself and the other Beatles in between numbers. Paul McCartney had requested Press official Tony Barrow to tape record the Beatles last performance on a small hand held recorder.

As The group’s airplane departed California, George Harrison proclaimed, ‘Well, that is it, I’m not a Beatle any more.’

The only known film footage of the Beatles last performance was captured by a fifteen year old audience member and appears in a documentary called The Unseen Beatles.

You can see footage of the Beatles Last Concert from the ‘Unseen Beatles’ on Amazon (scroll down a bit to see the video player)….

See Film Footage of The Beatles Last Performance

- Beatles Geek Pete