Think the height of Beatlemania cocktailed with a stadium full of 56,000 Beatle thirsty Americans. The 15th of August 1965 wasn’t just a concert… it was a full scale music revolution.
After a scurry between helicopter, limousine and armoured truck, John, George, Paul and Ringo arrived at a stadium anthropomorphised by the sound of screaming fans. A miniature army consisting of 2,000 security personnel (including the NYPD) lay in wait ensuring the band weren’t eaten alive by thousands of pubescent American girls (despite numerous attempts).
John Lennon described the noise as “louder than God” dubbing the original idea of playing with specially altered (much louder) Vox amps obsolete. It came to be that the Stadiums own p.a. system was hijacked in a futile attempt to allow the band to be heard at all.
It was the first date on the American tour and through immense planning and promotion the highest earner for a concert in history at the time. The Beatles effectively tapped in to a new medium through which music could be enjoyed… and money could be made.
Floodgates were now open for future bands to fuel there fans with the new aura that surrounded stadium rock (not to forget the added fuelling of a bands’ ego). Improvements in sound systems coupled with quieter fans ensured the foundations were set for stadium rocker’s to come.
It’s difficult to pick out a seminal event in a bands’ career and even more so with a band like The Beatles. Amongst the plethora of pioneering musical advances that seemed to spawn from the most famous four musicians in the world, what happened at the Shea Stadium, and how it changed the way popular music is consumed, is mind bogglingly incredible.
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