Still going through my archives, I found this old recording from The Beatles infamous show at Shea Stadium in 1965. Their first tour of the USA, the year that Beatlemania exploded across the world … the year music would be changed for ever.

So while all us lounge room rockers get excited about the upcoming The Beatles: Rock Band game and being able to perform like the Fab Four at Shea Stadium (yes, it is one the stages). So take this recording as some practice, listen and enjoy.

Setlist

Twist and Shout
I Feel Fine
Dizzy Miss Lizzy
Ticket to Ride
Can’t Buy Me Love
Baby’s in Black
A Hard Day’s Night
Help!
I’m Down

Download: The Beatles – Live at Shea Stadium 1965

The history of The Beatles at Shea Stadium

The Shea Stadium concert on August 15 was record breaking and one of the most famous concert events of its era. It was the first concert to be held at a major outdoor stadium and set records for attendance and revenue generation — promoter Sid Bernstein said, “Over 55,000 people saw the Beatles at Shea Stadium. We took $304,000, the greatest gross ever in the history of show business” demonstrating that outdoor concerts on a large scale could be successful and profitable.

The Beatles were transported to the roof of the World’s Fair by a New York Airways Boeing Vertol 107-II helicopter, then taking a Wells Fargo armoured truck to the stadium. At the stadium itself were 2,000 security personnel to handle crowd control.[1] The crowd was confined to the spectator areas of the stadium with nobody other than the band themselves and security personnel allowed on the field. As a result of this, the audience was a long distance away from the band while they played on a small stage in the middle of the field.

“Beatlemania” was at one of its highest marks at the Shea Concert. Film footage taken at the concert shows many teenagers and women crying, screaming, and even fainting. The crowd noise was such that security guards can be seen covering their ears as the The Beatles enter the field.

The sound was so deafening that none of The Beatles could hear much of anything. Vox had specially designed 100-watt amplifiers for this tour and it was still not anywhere near loud enough, and so the Beatles used the house amplification system. John Lennon described the noise as “wild” and also twice as deafening when the Beatles performed. Not being able to hear each other or even themselves, The Beatles just played through a list of songs nervously, not knowing what kind of sound was being produced. At the end of the show (during “I’m Down”), John Lennon saw the whole show as being so ridiculous that he just began playing the keyboard with his elbows while the whole group laughed hysterically. The Beatles section of the concert was extremely short by modern standards (just 30 minutes), but was the typical 1965 Beatles tour set list, with Ringo opting to sing “Act Naturally” instead of “I Wanna Be Your Man.”

Taken from wikipedia

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