Beatles in colour

When Denro and I were at the Boston Super Megafest concert, we were given our choice of two photo prints, and these were my picks. The microphone in this one is from channel 7 in New York, and it looks like it was taken in ’65. I’ll see if I can get a fix on the exact date.

And this is a somewhat curious pic of Paul, maybe also from ’65, with his left eye looking like mine did after surgery.

A Washington rally for hysteria

Today, the concrete structure that had been the Washington D.C. Coliseum looks like this…

… but on February 11, 1964, it was the site of the first Beatles concert in America. The show was taped by CBS. Pieces of it are available on YouTube, but as part of Apple’s promotion of the Beatles catalog being available on iTunes, the complete concert can be seen at this link. Here’s a preview. The narrator isn’t credited, but it sounds like the BBC’s Paul Gambaccini.

The technical setup for the show was pitifully primitive, but the excitement and energy were incredible. Just three years later, there would be “Strawberry Fields Forever”.