June 14, 1964: The Beatles were put on a flat-bed truck after their arrival at Essendon Airport where over 5,000 screaming fans we waiting to see their idols. Melbourne. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
FIFTY years ago this week, thousands of teenage girls flooded the streets of Melbourne as the Beatles arrived in town. We revisit Mikey Cahill’s feature on the band that were bigger than Jesus who rocked Melbourne over four days in June 1964.
June 14, 1964: The crowds line the roads near Essendon Airport where the band touched down. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
‘GEORGE HARRISON LOOKED RIGHT AT ME’
HOW THE BEATLES CHANGED MELBOURNE
MY DAD GOT ME TICKETS WHEN I WAS JUST 11
IN just four years, The Beatles went from being a small Liverpool band to “Bigger than Jesus”, receiving a frenzied welcome Down Under.
Granted, John Lennon didn’t utter those (in) famous words until August 1966, but in 1964, Australia was gripped with Beatles fever as the Fab Four arrived for a national tour of Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, facing one of the biggest welcomes the band would ever receive.
June 14, 1964: The Beatles and fill-in drummer Jimmie Nicol were put on a flat-bed truck so they could wave to the thousands of fans waiting to greet them at Essendon Airport. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
They stayed at Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne, but it’s a wonder they got any sleep.
Herald Sun pop music writer at the time Scott Palmer was among many who braved the Exhibition Street crush, amidst the biggest throng the city had ever seen. The mop-tops looked suitably chuffed.
MELBOURNE, THEN AND NOW: MERGING AMAZING STREET SCENES
PHOTO ESSAY: EVERYDAY LIFE IN MELBOURNE IN THE 1930s
PHOTO ESSAY: 1940s, A CITY IN WAR TIME
PHOTO ESSAY: OLYMPICS, TV & MELBOURNE IN THE 1950s
“The entire Exhibition Street was absolutely jam-packed,” Palmer recalls.
“I couldn’t get up onto the balcony. There was just a tirade of screaming.
“It was like a bunfight. I don’t think the pop writers of that era knew it would be that big.
“The Festival Hall show was just noise, you didn’t hear much. They were wonderful boys. We did a press conference. They were sensational. They were so young and anxious to talk to everybody.
“After The Beatles I switched to sport, it was all a bit much.”
June 14, 1964: Police help one distressed fan waiting at the airport. Picture: Herald Sun Image library Source: HeraldSun
Australia’s frenzied reaction to The Beatles’ tour was such that John Lennon made jokes about hundreds of fans waiting in a bin.
Ringo Starr was getting his tonsils out (perhaps knowing how important his future career as the narrator on Thomas the Tank Engine would be) and fill-in drummer Jimmie Nicol played the Sydney and Adelaide shows before flying out of Essendon Airport.
While groupies like the eccentric Jenny Kee, only 17 at the time, slept with John Lennon, other fans weren’t quite as kee(n).
June 14, 1964: Fans flock to the Southern Cross Hotel where the band appeared on the balcony. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
“In ‘64 I was 15. The Beatles were everything. My brother drove my girlfriend and I down from Ballarat and we went to the airport to wait for them,” says Joy Burns, Beatles fanatic.
“They got on a flat bed truck and drove past the screaming fans. There was a girl next to us and she said, ‘We’re all going to jump the fence when the truck drives past’.
“I watched her jump over the fence but we stayed put. My brother was on strict orders to drive us straight back. The other girls got up close so they could see their faces.”
June 15, 1964: The Beatles welcome at the Southern Cross Hotel was front page news in The Sun. Source: Supplied
“Paul McCartney was my favourite, he was the only handsome one. They were a healthy group. I remember my mum saying their long hair was disgusting, it was for girls not guys.
“There wasn’t anything dodgy about them. The Rolling Stones were the opposite,” says Burns. “I loved The Beatles’ folk song messages and their psychedelic music. The Beatles were one of the only bands I learnt all the words to.”
June 14, 1964: Mounted policeman face a hopeless task trying to control 10,000 people who flooded Exhibition Street to catch a glimpse of The Beatles at the Southern Cross Hotel. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library. Source: HeraldSun
“My first date with my husband was to see The Beatles’ movie A Hard Day’s Night.”
The only way you could get people out is if they rolled the bloody bodies across the crowd.
Senior Herald Sun journalist Alan Howe was but a wee pup.
“I was only eight years old. They did two shows a day but they weren’t too tired. The shows only went for 27 minutes.
June 14, 1964: Many of the screaming teenage fans had made their own welcome signs. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
“Halfway through the last song John Lennon stopped playing because a bloke ran on stage and shook his hand. You’d get kicked out now.
June 14, 1964: The Beatles with stand-in drummer Jimmie Nicol at their Melbourne press conference. Picture: Laurie Richards./Supplied Source: Supplied
“Only six people in the world can claim to be members of The Beatles. Years later I took Pete Best to the roof of Southern Cross Hotel and got a photographer to take a picture of him.
Stand-in drummer Jimmie Nicol later flew out of Essendon Airport after playing in Sydney and Adelaide. Ringo Starr joined the tour in Melbourne. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
“Jimmie Nicol flew out from Essendon Airport. It’s unthinkable now a huge overseas act would get someone to fill in. They only paid 2000 pounds a night. Kenn Brodziak booked them, he’s no longer with us.”
Even after the huge crowds greeted their arrival at the Southern Cross Hotel, some fans remained outside in the hope of seeing the Fab Four. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
The Beatles with security and hotel staff at the Southern Cross Hotel. Picture: Laurie Richards/ Supplied Source: HeraldSun
“Of course, as you know, Molly Meldrum lost consciousness at the Festival Hall show.”
Chris De Krester, senior journalist at the Herald Sun, was just a punter then.
Paul McCartney tries out a didgeridoo at the Melbourne Town Hall. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
Paul McCartney waves a boomerang from the balcony at the Melbourne Town Hall as the band arrives for a state reception. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: Supplied
“When they came out on the Southern Cross balcony people went mad. They sheared the steel barriers apart, people were getting cut, the girls were fainting.
Thousands of fans packed the streets to see the band at the Melbourne Town Hall when the Beatles arrived for their state reception. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
Paul McCartney playing the piano at the Melbourne Town Hall during a state reception. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
John Lennon examines a boomerang at the state reception at the Melbourne Town Hall. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
“The only way you could get people out is if they rolled the bloody bodies across the crowd.”
John Lennon and Ringo Starr relax in a motel room in Melbourne. Picture: Herald Sum Image Library Source: HeraldSun
George Harrison and John Lennon on stage during one of the concerts at Festival Hall. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
Many of their screaming fans struggled with their emotions at the band’s Melbourne concerts. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
Screaming fans cheer on the Fab Four at Festival Hall. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
With emotions running high, Molly Meldrum lost consciousness at one of the Festival Hall concerts. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
Melbourne Football Club players Ron Barassi and Frank 'Bluey' Adams were among the crowds at the Festival Hall gigs. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library Source: HeraldSun
“Me and my mates climbed a roof across from the Southern Cross earlier in the day and we thought we had this prime place to watch it but the police caught us and told us to not go climbing on the rooves.
“The copper with his hobnailed boots stood on my toe and told me off,” De Krester says. “It was great stuff.”
No comments:
Post a Comment