| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 14/02/2012 : 00:16:32
In 1966, the Beatles brought a whole new ballgame to Dodger Stadium
Forty-five years ago, the band played before 45,000 screaming fans in Chavez Ravine. It lasted a half-hour, it was the next-to-last concert they ever played — but those who were there recall it vividly.
August 26, 2011|Chris Erskine
Remember who was playing second base for the Dodgers 45 years ago Sunday? If you said John Lennon, you're close. All the Beatles played the infield that night, on a stage set up at second base, draped in blue and white, of course.
Yes, Sunday is the 45th anniversary of the "bigger-than-Jesus" Beatles at Dodger Stadium, the first concert in the history of the gleaming 4-year-old ballpark. The third-place Dodgers were off playing the first-place Giants in San Francisco on the day "Nowhere Man" rang out across Chavez Ravine. The screaming, they say, could be heard all the way to Sunset Boulevard.
Price of a ticket? $4.50, though if you wanted to sit closer, in the loge or field level, you'd have to come up with $6. Walter O'Malley himself approved the inaugural concert, then — ever the conscientious owner — demanded the best seats for his season-ticket holders. Citing a potential PR nightmare, the promoters talked him out of that; O'Malley bought a chunk of seats further back, in the club level.
"It was absolutely magical," remembers Barb Cabot of Long Beach, who attended the concert with friends. "We all looked alike — long straight hair parted in the middle and bell bottoms."
Three opening acts kicked off the warm evening — the Ronettes, the Remains, the Cyrkle. Dead silence followed as the crowd sat waiting for the Beatles, Cabot recalls.
"When they ran out on the stage, the screaming started and never stopped," Cabot says.
"Honestly, I didn't hear one song. . . . It didn't matter."
Bob Eubanks was the concert's promoter, a young radio guy who was staging 100 concerts a year back then. That same year, he would also be chosen to host a little game show called the "Newlywed Game."
Now 73, he remembers the Beatles as being far more jaded than they had been when they played the Hollywood Bowl the two previous years. They were also at the end of a 14-city North American trip — a tour that would be their last. Two nights later the 19-day trek ended in San Francisco's Candlestick Park, and the band would never again perform live in a formal concert setting.
"It was much different because the band was different," Eubanks says. "I believe they were tired of it all. They were different people in '66."
Eubanks, who was scheduled to throw out the first pitch before Friday's Dodgers-Colorado Rockies game to commemorate the show's anniversary, says he paid the band $120,000 for their 11-song, 30-minute appearance. "If they ended up with $4,000 apiece I'd be surprised," he recalls, noting the band's travel expenses and massive entourage.
Among Eubanks' most vivid recollections: the Beatles' near-disastrous escape. Operations folks had several plans to sneak them out after the concert, and wound up covering the band in blankets and whisking them off in an ambulance.
"The ambulance hit a speed bump on the way out of the parking lot and the radiator fell out," Eubanks said.
The Beatles were able to transfer to an armored car, but fans quickly swarmed that. The truck "was just piled with girls" and unable to move without injuring someone, Eubanks said.
"Lord knows where they came from but all of a sudden a bunch of Hells Angels surrounded the truck and got the Beatles out of Dodger Stadium," he says.
"It was the last time I ever saw the Beatles — and the Hells Angels too."
--chris.erskine@latimes.com
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As Lou Reed put it, "Those were different times..." (thx RW...)
It was good to be alive then. I didn't get to see The Beatles, but my friends did...what a time.
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We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.
-Peter S. Beagle 1973
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| 6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 14/02/2012 : 18:25:44
Some more pix and stories....
50 Years of Dodger Stadium:
The Beatles Rock the Ravine
by Stacie Wheeler
There’s only a few things that I love as much as baseball. Cinema and music are two of them. If there was one concert which I could have had the privilege of attending it would have been the Beatles concert at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, August 28, 1966 at 8:00 pm. The Beatles are my all-time favorite band. I even took a Beatles course in college (yes, that in fact exists). A couple lesser known ska bands, Goldfinger and The Toasters, are also on my permanent soundtrack of life. Yet the music of the Beatles influenced those bands and most other musicians to follow. The Fab Four are forever the quintessential boy band. A Day in the Life is my favorite Beatles song, and I have fond memories of listening to my mother’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album on my record player over and over again in high school. It almost sounded better than the CD version I listen to today. Perhaps I am a bit of a flower child at heart.
One of the most memorable moments of Dodger Stadium history through its 50 years is the Beatles concert, which would be the band’s second to last concert. 45,000 fans gathered at Dodger Stadium to experience the British quartet of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr play a 30-minute set featuring 11 songs. The brief set included: 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. The screaming fans, who consisted mostly of teenage girls, made it difficult to hear the music. It has been said that the screaming could be heard all the way down to Sunset Blvd. Dodger Stadium was the Beatles’ 13th stop on their 14-city North America Concert Tour in 1966. The night of the concert the Dodgers were playing the first place Giants in San Francisco.
The Beatles Play Dodger Stadium-Los Angeles Times
Bob Eubanks, future Newlywed Game host and Rose Parade emcee, was the concert promoter. He paid the band $120,000 for their half hour show. Tickets to the concert cost $3, $4.50, $5.50 and $6 for loge or field level seats. Walter O’ Malley reserved the Club Level of the stadium for season ticket holders. The opening acts were the Ronettes, Bobby Hebb, the Remains, and the Cyrkle.
The planning and logistics involved with this first ever concert at Dodger Stadium took months. Many preparations had to be made to contain the Beatlemanics. The fire department allowed a 8-foot chain link fence to be erected around the entire field. The blue and white 6-foot stage was set up at second base.
Allowing for a quick and safe exit for the band was of the highest concern. The original plan to drive the Beatles off in limos through opening gates in center field didn’t work amongst the chaos and climbing fans, so they instead turned the limos around and they retreated back to the dugout and the team’s dressing room.
“Lennon was furious. Just furious,” Eubanks said. “They wanted to go to a party. It got nasty, it really did.”
Security got them out by covering them with blankets and putting them in an ambulance, and they exited Scott Avenue. The Beatles then had to be transferred to a Brink’s truck when the ambulance overheated after its radiator fell out when it hit a speed bump in the parking lot as the driver was trying to steer clear of the mob. Dozens of fans were injured, and 25 were arrested. There was a large amount of people who stayed lingering at Dodger Stadium well after the concert had ended..
The Beatles went on to conclude their tour at Candlestick Park the next night. This would be their last live public concert they would play together.
What a magical summer night in Los Angeles August 28,1966 must have been.
Were you one of the lucky few who attended this historic concert? Share your story with us! --Lasorda's Lair
These pix are all tagged as Dodger Stadium....I guess because it is Dodger Stadium's 50th, all events including the FAB's are being honored. The above was at the Dodgers (baseball) blog.
[url=http://www.uploadhouse.com/viewfile.php?id=15597186&showlnk=0] [/url]
Bob Eubanks (Newly Wed Game-tv game show) was the promoter.
Sunday Feb. 12, 2012 celebration.
Setlist
You can play each song...of course these are NOT from Dodger Stadium but they are fun to see anyway!
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-beatles/1966/dodger-stadium-los-angeles-ca-63d67e1f.html
1. Rock and Roll Music
(Chuck Berry cover)
2. She's a Woman
3. If I Needed Someone
4. Day Tripper
5. Baby's In Black
6. I Feel Fine
7. Yesterday
8. I Wanna Be Your Man
9. Nowhere Man
10. Paperback Writer
11. Long Tall Sally Play Video
(Little Richard cover)
________________________________________________
We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.
-Peter S. Beagle 1973
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| lemonade kid |
Posted - 14/02/2012 : 18:09:08
quote:
Originally posted by bob f.
thanx, lk, for that photo (i think that's from Dodger Stadium(?), because for some reason, there is very little written about and photos released of, that concert, ....mostly Shea Stadium, and anywhere else, and i'm glad to see some attention on that amazing day at Dodger Stadium!      
...what the world needs now...
Yer welcome, bob. I was hoping you'd weigh in, knowing you had been there! I don't suppose there are many more memories since the music itself was drowned out with all the screams! Just one long blur of euphoria!!
I bet that when you got Revolver, you waxed happy with those memories. Was it announced yet that the Beatles would never tour again when Revolver was released, or did you already know you had witnessed the last waltz at Dodger Stadium?
What a time!
________________________________________________
We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.
-Peter S. Beagle 1973
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| rocker |
Posted - 14/02/2012 : 18:02:32
hey bobby you actually heard them????????????????????????... |
| bob f. |
Posted - 14/02/2012 : 02:07:50
thanx, lk, for that photo (i think that's from Dodger Stadium(?), because for some reason, there is very little written about and photos released of, that concert, ....mostly Shea Stadium, and anywhere else, and i'm glad to see some attention on that amazing day at Dodger Stadium!
...what the world needs now... |
| bob f. |
Posted - 14/02/2012 : 01:53:47
LK......I'll never forget being there at Dodger Stadium that day! Me and my brother, Richard, were truly blessed that day!
I remember The Beatles walking fast on the field to the stage, with their guitars....everyone screaming, I couldn't hear my own screaming over all the screaming! Flashbulbs and screaming, Beatles looked like tiny things down there, it was a real wild magic day ...I saw them escape, kids and cops running , limo, ambulance running in circles on the field, .....it was my first rock concert! not a bad start!
...what the world needs now... |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 14/02/2012 : 00:21:16
...& talk about jaded times. The grammy's were (what I caught of it) mostly just awful--like watching an overproduced high school skit. The only true highlights (I saw) were The Beach Boys and Paul McCartney...Plus the only contemporary act I REALLY enjoyed, & that mattered for me: The Civil Wars (60 seconds of their great song), introducing the next BORING top act (was it Taylor Swift? Yawn...)....blahhh.
I heard the Springsteen opener was the highlight....what a legend.
The Grammy's needed more acts that were "IT" (& still are!), that we loved 45+ years ago (& still DO!), to give the show any sense that it wasn't just a phony awards show, featuring a bunch of trivial acts that will NEVER be remembered in another 50 years!
....and the Beatles and Beach Boys will STILL be the acts that are remembered, 50 years on!!!
At least the lifetime wards are relavent to me.
But then, I only caught the segments with the acts that matter!! There may have been a few segments that I missed that also had value (and featured more 45 year old acts!).
I guess I didn't give it a real chance, and I'm just a little jaded (& a bit closed minded) when it comes to many mainstream, top 40 acts; though they mostly confirm my prejudices.
Beatles forever....guess that's just who I am.
________________________________________________
We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.
-Peter S. Beagle 1973
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