The Beatles in Australia

RAY CHESTERTON

October 30, 2005

http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,17072613%255E5422,00.html


TOUCHDOWN: The Beatles arrive to a rapturous reception

THE Beatles exploded on Australia as no entertainers had done before or since.

They were approaching the crest of their international appeal when they arrived in June 1964 as the most original, inventive and anarchistic rock group the world had known.

They broke the existing rules, established their own and then broke them as well in their search for musical and personal satisfaction.

In 1964, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and drummer Jimmy Nicol (a substitute early in the tour for ill Ringo Starr) sparked unprecedented scenes as Australia went wild.

From Adelaide to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane fans turned out in their hundreds of thousands to get a glimpse of the long-haired boys from Liverpool who were making the world's hearts race faster.

There were near-riots everywhere they went in Australia and they needed constant protection in public to avoid being swamped.

In unforgettable scenes around the country, weeping, hysterical girls bombarded the Beatles with flowers, gifts and screams so loud they drowned out the music being played on stage.

In Adelaide, 350,000 people lined the 15km route from the airport to the Town Hall.

Experts estimated half the city of Adelaide came to see the Beatles that day.

For a glorious two weeks while the Beatles were in Australia they obliterated everything else.

When the Daily Mirror newspaper in Sydney ran a contest to find 17 girls to come to a birthday party being staged to celebrate McCartney's 22nd birthday, more than 20,000 fans responded.

By the time of the Sydney concerts Ringo Starr was back behind the drums after recovering from a savage bout of tonsillitis that sent his temperature soaring to 40C in a London hospital.

The Beatles even arriving in Australia on tour was one of those blessed showbusiness flukes.

Negotiations for them to tour began in 1963 and Kenn Brodziak of Aztec Promotions signed the group for £1500 ($3000) a week to perform 12 shows a week, two shows a day.

In the meantime, the Beatles became the most popular group in the world, drawing massive crowds all over the world and being paid fabulous sums to perform.

Brodziak always admitted the money he paid the group was "peanuts".

The Beatles concert set in those days was: I Want to Hold Your Hand, I Saw Her Standing There, This Boy, Can't Buy Me Love, All My Loving, She Loves You, Till There Was You, Roll Over Beethoven, Long Tall Sally and Twist And Shout.

It was a momentous time for what would, in hindsight, become a youthful cultural revolution as initially teenagers in America, then England, Europe and Australia openly defied traditions as they protested against the Vietnam War, marched in peace rallies and embraced musical groups some ministers thought were the devil incarnate.

"When they told us how well our records were going in Australia we could hardly believe it," Lennon said. "Naturally we're looking forward to the visit."

The media besieged the Beatles, who usually reacted with stylish wit and a lack of pretension.

Interviewer: "What do you expect to find in Australia?"

Lennon: "Australians."

Interviewer: "Do you have an acknowledged leader of the group?"

Lennon (standing up): "No not really."

Interviewer: "Is it true you originally auditioned for two record companies before you were signed?"

Lennon: "We went to Decca and Pye."

Harrison: "In fact EMI (who later signed them) turned us down first of all."

Lennon: "You can't blame them after hearing the tapes."

In Brisbane, more than 8000 fans greeted the Beatles at the airport as they arrived to play four shows in two nights at Festival Hall.

Not everyone was friendly as the quartet, including Starr who had arrived from England, was pelted with eggs by four youths.

Later, the Beatles met the four men and asked why they had done it.

"They said they were sick of kids screaming at us," Lennon said.

"I said 'Why don't you go and throw eggs at the crowd then if it's Beatlemania you're against?' "

On July 1, the exhausted Beatles, minus Nicol who had gone home earlier with £500, an inscribed gold watch and a lifetime of memories, left Sydney for London.

Lennon said more people had come to see the Beatles in Australia than anywhere else in the world they had toured, including America.

"People said more people came to see us than came to see the Queen," he said. "Well, she didn't have any hit records."

The Beatles in Australia, by Mark Hayward. New Holland Publishers. RRP: $29.95. Available on November 7.

God Bless Australia!

the visit is on video........