Tour by the Beatles | |
Location |
|
---|---|
Start date | 4 June 1964 |
End date | 16 August 1964 |
Legs | 2 |
No. of shows | 30 |
The Beatles concert chronology |
The Beatles 1964 world tour was the Beatles' first world tour, launched after their 1964 UK tour. The reception was enthusiastic, with The Spectator describing it as "hysterical". It was followed by their subsequent North American tour in August of that year.
Negotiations for an Australasian tour started in October 1963, and Epstein signed in January 1964 (a month before the Beatles’ American tour). The price had increased from £1500 a week to £2500 a week plus airfares and excess baggage for drums and amps. The negotiations between Robert Kerridge of Kerridge Odeon in Auckland, Aztec Services (Kenn Brodziak) in Melbourne, their London agent Cyril Berlin of The Grade Organisation and Brian Epstein were by telegram (many reproduced in the 2024 book).
The Beatles were stated to have made £250,000 from their Australasian tour. [1]
On the morning of 3 June 1964, the day before setting off on a world tour, Ringo Starr fell ill during a photo session. He fainted and was taken to hospital with a strong fever. He was diagnosed with severe tonsillitis, and hospitalized for a few days in London. [2]
The Beatles, especially George Harrison, wanted to postpone the tour, but then the manager Brian Epstein and the producer George Martin after a frantic phone call decided to use drummer Jimmie Nicol to temporarily replace Starr.[ citation needed ]
When the Beatles asked Nicol during rehearsals how he was doing, his answer was always "It's getting better". The phrase was later used in "Getting Better", a song from the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . Years later he confessed that he would have done it for free, but Epstein offered him £2,500 per performance and a £2,500 bonus. "I couldn't sleep that night, I was one of the fucking Beatles!" he said in a 1988 interview.[ citation needed ]
The next day, 4 June 1964, there was a show in Copenhagen, Denmark and with the Beatles he did more shows, until Starr, recovered, joined the group in Melbourne, Australia, on 14 June.[ citation needed ]
Nicol, with a very shy character, was unable to say goodbye to the group and left at night while they were sleeping. At the airport, Brian Epstein handed him £500 and a gold watch with the inscription "From The Beatles and Brian Epstein to Jimmie - with appreciation and gratitude". On the return journey on the plane he was very sad, he felt "like a bastard child rejected by his new family". [3]
The typical set list for the shows was as follows (with lead singers noted):
Randolph Peter Best is an Indian-born English musician who was the drummer for the Beatles from 1960 to 1962. He was dismissed shortly before the band achieved worldwide fame and is one of several people referred to as a fifth Beatle.
Sir Richard Starkey, known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, usually for one song on each album, including "Yellow Submarine" and "With a Little Help from My Friends". He also wrote and sang the Beatles songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", and is credited as a co-writer of four others.
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionized many aspects of the music industry and were often publicized as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements.
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Maureen Starkey Tigrett, also known as Mo Starkey, was a hairdresser from Liverpool, England, best known as the first wife of Ringo Starr, the Beatles' drummer. When she was a trainee hairdresser in Liverpool, she met him at the Cavern Club, where the Beatles were playing. Starr proposed marriage at the Ad Lib Club in London on 20 January 1965. They married at the Caxton Hall Register Office, London, in 1965, and divorced in 1975.
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The Beatles' 1964 tour of Australasia was a several week tour performed by the British rock band the Beatles as a part of their 1964 world tour. It was their first and only tour of Australia. The tour was notable particularly because Jimmie Nicol had replaced a hospitalised Ringo Starr until the Beatles drummer was able to rejoin the tour from the Melbourne dates onward.