The Beatles - Last Live Concert

On this day in music history: August 29, 1966 - The Beatles play their last live concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, CA. The Beatles third world tour sees the band facing negative publicity and riots in the Philippines after they unintentionally snub the first lady Imelda Marcos. They face more problems when the tour reaches the US in August. When John Lennon’s comments about religion made in a interview originally published in the Evening Standard in March of 1966 are taken out of context, it leads to backlash in the south. Radio stations in that part of the country ban the bands records from airplay, and protests result the mass burning of Beatles records and other memorabilia. By the time the band reaches the end of the tour in San Francisco, they are bored with the grind of touring, and frustrated at playing to crowds who often cannot hear them above the massive wall of screaming. What turns out to be their final concert, is sponsored by local radio station KYA (w/ DJ “Emperor” Gene Nelson as the MC). The Beatles play to a crowd of over 25,000, and the show also features The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle, and The Ronettes as the opening acts. The bands’ set lasts less about 30 minutes and they earn about $90,000 for the performance. At the time, The Beatles do not publicly acknowledge that the concert is their last either prior to or after the show. The only existing audio documentation of the performance comes from a rough cassette recording, (capturing nearly the entire performance, except for the last minute of the closing number “Long Tall Sally”), and from film footage shot by local San Francisco and Sacramento news crews. Years later, black & white Super 8 film footage shot by a fifteen year old fan named Barry Hood  surfaces and is seen two documentaries (“The Beatles Live In San Francisco” and “The Unseen Beatles”) about the concert. On August 14, 2014, Paul McCartney returns to play the last event at the legendary sports venue, before it is closed and demolished, two weeks shy of forty eight years after The Beatles had played there.

fascinating perspective from the most excellent Jeff Harris' blog 'Behind The Grooves  On this day in Music History