On this day (August 15) in 1965, The Beatles held their first concert at Shea Stadium in New York. That night, more than 55,000 fans—including The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards and Mick Jagger—came to see the Fab Four perform on the Mets’ home field for the first time in their career. The evening’s attendance was a testament to the band’s popularity in the United States. At the same time, the crowd’s volume showcased the frenzy of Beatlemania.
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The Beatles were in a sweet spot of sorts in 1965. They were a year removed from their first tour of the United States, and Beatlemania was in full swing. At the same time, they were a year away from the controversy that plagued a portion of their next American tour. In his 2005 book, John, Paul, George, Ringo, & Me: The Real Beatles Story, author Tony Barrow called their tour-opener at Shea Stadium “The ultimate pinnacle of Beatlemania.”
According to the Beatles Bible, the Fab Four set two records with the concert. The 55,600 fans who packed the stadium set the record for attendance at a pop concert in the United States. The band would hold the record until Led Zeppelin’s 1973 Tampa, Florida, concert, which drew more than 56,000 fans. Additionally, the show pulled in $304,000, a record-high gross. After playing a roughly 30-minute set, The Beatles took home $180,000.
The Fans Couldn’t Hear The Beatles During Their Shea Stadium Concert
Due to the limitations of onstage sound equipment at the time and the volume of the fans’ cheers, The Beatles couldn’t hear one another playing. As a result, they had to play the songs they had rehearsed and hope they were playing them in time with one another. In truth, it wouldn’t have mattered if they were. The fans couldn’t hear them either.
At the time, stage monitors–speakers placed on the edge of the stage facing the band–weren’t common. As a result, The Beatles didn’t have the amplified audio of their performance blasting back at them. They were playing through custom-made Vox 100-watt amplifiers. However, those weren’t loud enough to cut through the crowd’s cheers.
They couldn’t find a more powerful PA system for the show. So, the Fab Four used Shea Stadium’s in-house PA system. It wasn’t loud enough to allow the fans to hear the music over their screaming.
“There were all these people and just a tiny PA system–they couldn’t get a bigger one,” Ringo Starr recalled. “We always used to use the house PA. That was good enough for us, even at Shea Stadium. I never felt people came to hear our show–I felt they came to see us. From the count-in on the first number, the volume of screams drowned everything else out,” he explained.
Featured Image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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