The Beatles In Australia (50 years ago)

The Beatles arrived in Australia on June 11 in 1964.

They came to Adelaide and played four concerts on June 12, and June 13 (3,000 people at each concert)

The compère was Alan Field (I don't remember him at all) and the support acts were

Sounds Incorporated (Britain)

Johnny Devlin (Australia)

Johnny Chester (Australia)

The Phantoms (Australia)

The Beatles performed the same 10 songs at all their Adelaide shows:

I Saw Her Standing There

I Want To Hold Your Hand

All My Loving

She Loves You

Till There Was You

Roll Over Beethoven

Can’t Buy Me Love

This Boy

Twist And Shout

Long Tall Sally.

Ringo had tonsillitis at the time so Jimmy Nicol played drums at the Adelaide concerts and went back to England when Ringo arrived a few days later.

At the time Adelaide had a population of 600,000 and 300,000 people lined the roads to greet them as they drove from the airport to the Town Hall. It was the biggest turn-out for the Beatles anywhere in the world. (video below)

I queued up for three days to buy tickets to the concert. No food, no blankets, no water, no organisation of any kind! Every few hours one of our group would leave the queue and buy some hot dogs and soft drinks and bring them back for the rest of us. We slept when exhaustion overtook us - but the concrete pavement was bloody hard and we would be awake again within an hour or two.

The funny thing is that there were four of us in our group and I was the only one who went to the concert! The other guys sold their tickets for huge profits to other fans. I'll bet they've been kicking themselves ever since.

The sad thing (for me) is that I have never been able to convince anyone that I actually went to the concert. There were only 12,000 tickets sold but there are about 100,000 people in Adelaide who say they were there! If I tell anyone I went to the concert they just assume I'm a bullshit artist like all the others.

The following videos will give you an idea of the music I heard from the backup bands on that fantastic day fifty years ago.

Sounds Incorporated

Johnny Devlin & The Phantoms

Johnny Chester