Dear Diary.... June 13th, 1964 and the Beatles concert.
The Beatles concert last night was fantabulous !!!!
We all wagged school yesterday (12th June) to stand in the crowd outside the Adelaide Town Hall, in our school uniforms, where they were welcomed to Adelaide by the Lord Mayor and Bob Francis who organised the petition to get the Beatles to give a concert in Adelaide. 5AD had urged everyone to come into town for the 12 o’clock welcome and there were 350,000 of people (out of a population of 750,00) there screaming when the Beatles waved to us. They gave the first concert last night but I didn't bother going to Centennial Hall as I was going to the second concert on Saturday night.Yippee!
Peter M picked me up early last night as he used his Press pass to get a park inside the Showgrounds and we had Press seats on the R side of the front row at Centennial Hall. John, Paul and George looked so dreamy in their Beatle suits and long Beatle haircuts. Jimmy Nichols played drums as Ringo has tonsillitis and didn’t fly out with the other Beatles but I don’t think he (Jimmy) was as good as Ringo. They’re all staying at the Hotel South Australia and North Terrace has been closed to traffic because of all the crowds hoping to see them whenever they wave at the windows. They’re fab, fab fab!!!!
Australian singers Johnnie Chester, The Phantoms and Johnny Chester were the ‘warm up’ acts, but all we really wanted was to see and hear John, Paul and George who seemed to take forever to come out and sing. Then, once they were on stage, the time just flew!! It was really hard to hear them but all I wanted to do was to see them - pretty close up from the front row!
I couldn’t sleep all night and sat up talking to Coralie and Marion who waited in the crowd outside Centennial Hall(there were over 10,000 people hanging outside the gates!). We’re going down to wait outside the Adelaide Airport gates this morning when the Beatles leave for Melbourne (sob, sob). Can’t believe that Ringo will join them for the rest of the tour! Can’t wait to see Pete’s pics in tomorrow morning’s paper and he has promised to give me some of the photos the paper didn’t use. Yeah, yeah, yeah!.....
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Ahhh Annie, you make me so envious. I never got to actually see them but came so close a few times. Thanks fr this great perspective from an Australian girl's point of view. All us boys were relegated to morons once the Beatles arrived. All any of the girls wanted was that one possibility that THEY would be the ONE! Nice story.
Thanks for your comments, Tom. I was lucky in that my boyfriend at the time was a cadet reporter for 'The Advertiser' newspaper and he had the tickets! I tried to add 2 video clips from the Beatles time in Adelaide but will keep working on them as you really need to see the crowds to believe how huge the Beatles were in Adelaide.
Managed to get the video of the Beatle's arrival in Adelaide on 12th June 1964. The whole city was Beatle mad - just look at the video and see for yourself!
Yea. I watched this video. So classic. The crowd was definitely huge. I would never have known how Australians were into the Beatles. My world was so small but now I can see the amazing impact they had world wide. What a great opportunity you had to see them in person. You'll never forget it I'm sure!!
Ah yes, "The Beatles." I'm a little old to have been a fan of theirs but I was sitting in front of the TV set when Ed Sullivan introduced them to America for the first time. I was a high school band director back in the late fifties-early sixties. My pep band and football game band played quite a few Beatles tunes. They are definitely better than the mindless drivel of today's music.
