Beatles 1966 Tour

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by jwb1231970, Nov 8, 2017.

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  1. beatleroadie

    beatleroadie Forum Resident

    Given how they'd rehearsed in January of that year, and some of the material circulating at the time Get Back and Abbey Road sessions, I can imagine the band performing quite well in a short set at Woodstock in August of 1969, if they'd taken a week off from recording to bare down and rehearse a live show.

    Maybe something like this:

    Electric set:
    1. Revolution
    2. Get Back
    3. Don't Let Me Down
    4. I've Got a Feeling

    Acoustic:
    5. Yesterday
    6. Here Comes the Sun
    7. Hey Jude
    8. Give Peace a Chance
     
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  2. DrBeatle

    DrBeatle The Rock and Roll Chemist

    Location:
    Midwest via Boston
    By the time of Woodstock they were in the final stages of recording Abbey Road...the week after the festival was the cover shoot and final recording session all 4 were present at. The confluence of these events happening at the same time are kind of symbolic of the 60s drawing to a close, aren't they? Crazy...
     
  3. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Going back to the initial discussion here, and for me the added question being since The Beatles themselves were not into touring BEFORE the 66 tour began, why did they do it?

    Clearly the one who most wanted to do the tour was Brian Epstein. From various sources I gather that he considered that part of the band's management to be very much his sort of thing, meaning he thought he was very good at it. George Martin by contrast was the most important person outside of the four of them when it came to recording, about which Epstein had very little to do with.

    So they go ahead and tour in 66, and on the whole there were so many problems they never went again. I don't know that they specifically blamed Epstein for how it went, but my implication he was not able to manage it in a way that avoided all those problems. In hindsight surely the Philippines dates were a mistake to have agreed to. In any event this period was followed by one where Epstein had less and less to do with managing the band, and ended with his death.
     
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  4. Mike Visco

    Mike Visco Forum Resident

    Location:
    Newark, NJ
    [​IMG]
    How about a last live appearance on Sullivan late fall 69 to promote Abbey Road-instead of sending a video. I didn't think it merited opening another Beatle thread, thus the brief digression.
     
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  5. DrBeatle

    DrBeatle The Rock and Roll Chemist

    Location:
    Midwest via Boston
    Brian had apparently already started booking dates for 1967 during the '66 tour. When the band found out, they put the kibosh on it pretty quickly.
     
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  6. John B

    John B Once Blue Gort,<br>now just blue.

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Another lacklustre live performance from an artist who was sick of touring.
     
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  7. John B

    John B Once Blue Gort,<br>now just blue.

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    The above poster is not being serious. It is merely an attempt to harass Mr. Arnold Grove.
     
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  8. MarcS

    MarcS Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Realistically, they could have done 2 numbers at the NME Concert that year like the Stones did the year before
    I thought it would be cool if they did a 2 song surprise show at the NME Pollwinners concert in May 69; maybe Get Back/Don't Let Me down. The Stones did the same thing the year before.
     
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  9. andrewskyDE

    andrewskyDE Island Owner

    Location:
    Europe
    Would've been interesting to hear that Lennon-solo track performed by the world's most famous foursome!
     
  10. andrewskyDE

    andrewskyDE Island Owner

    Location:
    Europe
    By the way, at the time when Woodstock was going on, bands played a setlist of at least one hour. The Beatles' last gig was under 30 minutes long.
    Would've been interesting if the Fabs were there on stage but I doubt they were any keen of performing that long. And the crowd surely would've wanted lots of encores.
     
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  11. Dodoz

    Dodoz Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    Listening to it now, I don't think it's the case at all, it seems to be recorded quite far away on the bleachers or something (seems to be a quite big cavernous venue), but definitely inside; The crowd can be heard reacting to the band, to the songs and banter, and, yes, they cover the music, which is not surprising. We can only imagine how bad the Beatles shows sounded in person if you were far away. Woefully inadequate PAs at the time! If anything, this audience recording must be quite faithful to what it was being there...
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2018
  12. MarcS

    MarcS Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    If they would have advertised it as their last tour, I'm sure they would have sold out.
     
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  13. Dodoz

    Dodoz Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    I really like Candlestick Park, the other 66 shows sound very shaky in comparison.
     
  14. Dodoz

    Dodoz Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    Interesting because it still was the way, at the time. However, on the Shea Stadium 66 tape, a girl says "I hope next year they make it longer, they have to". So some people were complaining about the short sets!
     
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  15. jwb1231970

    jwb1231970 Ordinary Guy Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Excellent
     
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  16. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    Why Wasn’t John Lennon at Woodstock?

    Lennon reportedly wanted to play, if only himself and the POB.
     
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  17. andrewskyDE

    andrewskyDE Island Owner

    Location:
    Europe
    Some fans eventually came 'too late'. The Beatles played long hours during their Hamburg days.^^
     
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  18. Siegmund

    Siegmund Vinyl Sceptic

    Location:
    Britain, Europe
    I think they played the standard time for a headlining act in this period. The bill was made up by two (or more) support acts.
     
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  19. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    Getting Back to '66, the Beatles could have been a little more proactive in getting their own sound system together and traveling with it. Dylan had put together a traveling PA for his May 1966 dates in Australia and Europe. The Grateful Dead had their sound people starting to build big rigs. I don't know who was on the forefront of PA and concert technology in the UK, but all they had to do was build the stuff to spec. It just took someone to realize the obvious.

    But a touring sound system would require a slightly larger entourage - I believe they were only traveling with Epstein, two roadie/tour managers (Mal/Neil), and maybe a secretary and a publicist - that was it. They could have adjusted to more people touring with them, well enough, but they were still operating within the old showbiz theater system (Epstein's heart was in in the theater and really never left) of just showing up for the performance with their instruments and personal amps. The overall 'sound' for the venue was someone else's problem.

    However, an enhanced sound system would also require them to rehearse more and put more into the live show if they could be heard with hi-fidelity sound in any venue with any amount of kids screaming at them. Were they willing to put in the work? Maybe not at that point playing that particular set of live material. Would they have been willing to extend the show to 45 minutes? That seems like it could have easily been done.

    Seems that Magic Alex came along a year or two too late.
     
  20. Mike Visco

    Mike Visco Forum Resident

    Location:
    Newark, NJ
    Which was already a released hit single...
     
  21. Kim Olesen

    Kim Olesen Gently weeping guitarist.

    Location:
    Odense Denmark.
    6 or 7 to my recollection
     
  22. MarcS

    MarcS Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    When Epstein appeared on the Tonight show the night before the 66 Shea show he mentioned that they had gotten a better sound system for the 66 shows to address the sound issues from the 65 tour.
     
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  23. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    Epstein is probably talking about upgrades (more gear) at the various venues - speakers in the field and what not. All the photos from the tour show various speaker setups and placements from show to show. I don't believe they traveled with anything extra themselves.

    At Shea '66 it looks like there's a couple speakers on the ground in front of either corner side of the stage. They still look small compared to the barricade horses and the people near them, even if they probably seemed gigantic compared to what they'd had before - ie., nothing.

    [​IMG]

    And then there's this bank of tilted side speakers flanking, which might be the major improvement Epstein was talking about:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2018
  24. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    Shea '65 for comparison - a desert between.

    [​IMG]
     
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  25. jwb1231970

    jwb1231970 Ordinary Guy Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    It's hard to understand what the Beatles didn't end up playing shows with better sound...I just think they simply didn't care about it, they were from the old school of plug your guitar into your amp and play for the club patrons, they never seemed to get beyond that and then they didn't care anymore.
     
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