Aug. 28, 1964 - The Beatles scored a screaming success tonight at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens.
After repeated delays, attributed to the Liverpool rock ’n’ roll quartet’s arrival by helicopter, they went on stage at 9:55 p.m., although the concert had been called for 8:30. A series of other musicians filled the gap.
An overflow audience of more than 15,000 persons, mostly teenage girls, shrieked their approval. They continued their frenzied, nearly hysterical screaming as the quartet sang a number of their fabulously successful hits.
It was virtually impossible to hear the singing over the shrieking, which often reached the threshold of pain.
It would be ridiculous to evaluate music-making in a situation such as this. The performance sounded like a flock of transistor radios blaring in a bull ring.
The Beatles left the stage after 25 minutes of pandemonium. They will return tomorrow night to the Forest Hills Stadium.
Before tonight’s concert, the Beatles held a brief press conference at the Delmonico Hotel, where they are staying, with Paul McCartney serving more or less as group spokesman, John Lennon defending his honor, George Harrison dodging the subject of marriage, and Ringo Starr occasionally stifling a yawn. It went something like this:“Do you consider yourselves a public menace, with all the crowds and everything?” Answer, in chorus: “Roobish.”
“What do you think of Barry Goldwater?” Several of the Beatles made faces, McCartney piping up: “I don’t know much about ‘im, but he says somethin’ about bein’ for extremism, and I’m against that.” And President Johnson? “He’s our second choice after Ringo.”
There was one flash of anger. A female reporter asked what rumors about the Beatles disturbed them the most. Snapped Lennon: “The ones about my wife having more children than I can account for.”
Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s
Comments