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N0KFQ > TODAY 19.08.15 15:24l 70 Lines 2949 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 64279_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Aug 19
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N0KFQ
Sent: 150819/1421Z 64279@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1964
The Beatles kick off first U.S. tour at San Francisco's Cow
Palace
The Beatles took America by storm during their famous first
visit, wowing the millions who watched them during their historic
television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964.
But after the first great rush of stateside Beatlemania, the
Beatles promptly returned to Europe, leaving their American fans
to make do with mere records. By late summer of that same year,
however, having put on an unprecedented and still unmatched
display of pop-chart dominance during their absence, the Beatles
finally returned. On August 19, 1964, more than six months after
taking the East Coast by storm, the Fab Four traveled to
California to take the stage at the Cow Palace in San Francisco
for opening night of their first-ever concert tour of North
America.
Although in retrospect it would seem a laughable underestimation
of their drawing power in America, Beatles' manager Brian Epstein
chose venues like the 17,000-seat Cow Palace for the 1964 tour
expressly because he feared that the Beatles might not sell out
large sports stadiums like San Francisco's Candlestick Park,
where they would play their final official concert in 1966.
Suffice it to say that the Beatles had no difficultly filling the
Cow Palace, which was packed with 17,130 screaming fans when the
group bounded to the stage shortly after 9:00 p.m. on this day in
1964 and launched into "Twist And Shout."
The Beatles' set that night and throughout the tour that followed
featured only 12 songs, most often in this order:
"Twist and Shout"
"You Can't Do That"
"All My Loving"
"She Loves You"
"Things We Said Today"
"Roll Over Beethoven"
"Can't Buy Me Love"
"If I Fell"
"I Want to Hold Your Hand"
"Boys"
"A Hard Day's Night"
"Long Tall Sally"
At other stops on the tour, the Beatles' performances would last
approximately 33 minutes, but the show that night in San
Francisco lasted some five minutes longer_not because of any
difference in the Beatles' performance, but because of police
intervention to stem the growing pandemonium. Within the first
few seconds of the first song that night, at least one radio
journalist traveling with the Beatles had been trampled to the
ground along with a young female fan who broke a leg in the
melee. And thanks to an offhand comment by George Harrison about
the group's favorite candy in the days leading up to the show,
the Beatles themselves were pelted with flying jelly beans
throughout that night's set. Though John, Paul, George and Ringo
were uninjured, they left the Cow Palace that night by ambulance
after their limousine was swarmed by berserk fans. It was a scene
that would become familiar to them as they continued on their
first historic tour of America in the months ahead.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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