Live: Busch Stadium, St Louis

After performing their postponed concert in Cincinnati at midday, The Beatles flew 341 miles to St Louis, Missouri, where they performed one show at 8.30pm.

The concert took place at the Busch Stadium, and was seen by 23,000 people. The support acts were The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle and The Ronettes.

The show took place in heavy rain, with a makeshift shelter over the stage to protect the musicians, although water still dripped onto the amplifiers. It was this incident which finally convinced Paul McCartney that The Beatles should cease touring.

It rained quite heavily, and they put bits of corrugated iron over the stage, so it felt like the worst little gig we'd ever played at even before we'd started as a band. We were having to worry about the rain getting in the amps and this took us right back to the Cavern days - it was worse than those early days. And I don't even think the house was full.

After the gig I remember us getting in a big, empty steel-lined wagon, like a removal van. There was no furniture in there – nothing. We were sliding around trying to hold on to something, and at that moment everyone said, 'Oh, this bloody touring lark - I've had it up to here, man.'

I finally agreed. I'd been trying to say, 'Ah, touring's good and it keeps us sharp. We need touring, and musicians need to play. Keep music live.' I had held on that attitude when there were doubts, but finally I agreed with them.

George and John were the ones most against touring; they got particularly fed up. So we agreed to say nothing, but never to tour again. We thought we'd get into recording, and say nothing until some journalist asked, 'Are you going out on tour?' - 'Not yet.' We wouldn't make The Big Announcement that we'd finished touring forever, but it would gradually dawn on people: 'They don't appear to be going on tour, do they? How long was that? Ten years? Maybe they've given it up.'

That was the main point: we'd always tried to keep some fun in it for ourselves. In anything you do you have to do that, and we'd been pretty good at it. But now even America was beginning to pall because of the conditions of touring and because we'd done it so many times.

The Beatles' standard set during their final tour consisted of 11 songs: Rock and Roll Music, She's A Woman, If I Needed Someone, Day Tripper, Baby's In Black, I Feel Fine, Yesterday, I Wanna Be Your Man, Nowhere Man, Paperback Writer and I'm Down. During the tour they occasionally substituted the final song with Long Tall Sally.

Following the St Louis concert The Beatles flew to New York, where they arrived at 3.50am the following morning.

The Beatles’ Cincinnati concert is postponed!

The Beatles were due to have played an open-air show at Cincinnati's Crosley Field on this day. However, the promoter failed to provide a cover for the group, and heavy rain began shortly before they were due to take the stage.

The support acts on The Beatles' final tour were The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle and The Ronettes. The downpour began after each of the acts had completed their sets. The promoter originally insisted that The Beatles should perform, but they refused unless he could guarantee their safety.

Tony Barrow: In Cincinnati on August 20, torrential rain caused the cancellation of the show at Crosley Field Stadium, the first and only time this happened during The Beatles' touring years. The decision to put off the boys' appearance was taken when Mal Mal [Evans] was thrown several feet across the stage while plugging into a wet amplifier. We were advised that touching any of the stage's rain-soaked electrical equipment could be lethal so Brian Epstein had no option but to call off the concert.

The rain was serious enough for The Beatles to have risked electrocution had they performed. As the heavens opened there were 35,000 fans inside the stadium, but the show was postponed and rescheduled for noon on the following day.

George Harrison: Cincinnati was an open-air venue, and they had a bandstand in the centre of the ballpark, with a canvas top on it. It was really bad weather, pouring with rain, and when Mal got there to set up the equipment he said, 'Where's the electricity power feed?' And the fella said, 'What do you mean, electricity? I thought they played guitars.' He didn't even know we played electric guitars.

It was so wet that we couldn't play. They'd brought in the electricity, but the stage was soaking and we would have been electrocuted, so we cancelled - the only gig we ever missed.

Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis

The eighth date of The Beatles' final tour took place at the Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, where they performed two concerts.

The Coliseum was able to accommodate 13,300 people. For the first show, which began at 4pm, The Beatles were seen by 10,000 people; the second started at 8.30pm and was attended by 12,500.

The support acts were The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle and The Ronettes.

The Beatles' final tour was mired in controversy arising from John Lennon's comments that The Beatles' were "More Popular than Jesus". Although they had sought to downplay the statement in press conferences and interviews, there was much opposition to them, manifested in record-burning, radio boycotts and protests outside venues.

The anti-Beatles feelings were particularly strong in America's Bible belt, and a local preacher, the Reverend Jimmy Stroad, staged a rally outside the Coliseum. Six members of the Ku Klux Klan also picketed outside the venue wearing full robes.

During their second Memphis concert an event which subsequently became known as the 'Cherry Bomb' incident took place. A cherry bomb firecracker was thrown onto the stage. The Beatles each looked at one another, thinking a shot had been fired and wondering who had been hit.

One night on a show in the South somewhere somebody let off a firecracker while we were on stage. There had been threats to shoot us, the Klan were burning Beatle records outside and a lot of the crew-cut kids were joining in with them. Somebody let off a firecracker and every one of us - I think it's on film - look at each other, because each thought it was the other that had been shot. It was that bad.

 

The concert was recorded by two teenage girls; the tape reveals that the explosion took place during If I Needed Someone, and The Beatles finished the song with increased urgency. If there was a single catalyst that led them to the decision to quit touring, this may well have been it.

After the show various decoy cars were used to fool protestors, but The Beatles' coach was still surrounded by demonstrators. They were driven to Memphis Metropolitan Airport, from where they flew to Cincinnati, Ohio. They arrived at 1.35 the following morning.

Suffolk Downs Racetrack, Boston

The seventh date of The Beatles' final tour took place at the Suffolk Downs Racetrack in Boston, Massachusetts, where they gave one concert before 25,000 people.

The concert began at 8pm. The Beatles had previously played in Boston on September 12, 1964 at the Boston Garden. This time they were in the middle of a horse racing course.

The support acts during The Beatles' final tour were The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle and The Ronettes.

After the show The Beatles and their entourage stayed at a Boston hotel. They left the city at 11.30am the following morning and flew to Memphis, Tennessee.

Live: Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Canada

The sixth date of The Beatles' final tour took place at the Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto. It was their only Canadian stop on the tour.

Two concerts took place. The first took place at 4pm and was seen by 15,000 people, and the second began at 8pm and was attended by 17,000. The Beatles had played at Maple Leaf Gardens on two prior occasions, on September 7, 1964 and August 17, 1965.

After the show The Beatles spent the night in Toronto before flying to Boston on August 18, 1966.

John F. Kennedy Stadium, Broad St. and Patterson Ave., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

The fifth date of The Beatles' final tour took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they performed one concert before around 20,000 people at the John F Kennedy Stadium.

The concert began at 8pm. The stadium had 60,000 seats available, but by this point in their career The Beatles were only able to sell around a third of tickets. They had previously played at Philadelphia's Convention Hall on September 2, 1964.

Support acts for the entire tour were The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle and The Ronettes. The show took place during the beginning of an electrical storm with near-constant lightning, but the rain held off until shortly after The Beatles left the stage.

After the show The Beatles and their entourage immediately boarded their Greyhound tour bus and were taken to Philadelphia International Airport, from where they flew to Toronto, Canada.

DC Stadium, Washington, DC

The fourth date of The Beatles' final tour took place in Washington, DC, where they performed one concert before 32,164 people at the DC Stadium.

Prior to the concert, five members of Prince George's County Ku Klux Klan, dressed in red, white and green robes and led by the Imperial Grand Wizard of the Maryland clan, held a parade outside the venue in protest against John Lennon's comments that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus.

Support acts for the entire tour were The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle and The Ronettes. After the show The Beatles and their entourage immediately boarded their tour bus and began the journey to Philadelphia.

The stadium was renamed in January 1969 after US Senator and presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy, who had been assassinated in Los Angeles the previous June. It subsequently became known as the Robert F Kennedy Stadium, or the RFK Stadium.

Cleveland Stadium, West 3rd St. Cleveland, Ohio USA

The third date of The Beatles' final tour took place in Cleveland, Ohio, where they performed once concert before 20,000 people.

Support acts for the entire tour were The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle and The Ronettes. The show was temporarily halted during The Beatles' fourth song, Day Tripper, when 2,500 fans invaded the baseball field. The group spent some time backstage before order was restored. After the concert The Beatles stayed in Cleveland. The following day they flew to Washington, DC.

Cleveland Stadium, also known as Lakefront Stadium and Cleveland Municipal Stadium, was normally used for baseball and American football matches. It was demolished in 1995 and the Cleveland Browns Stadium was built on the site.

US gold certification for `Paperback Writer'/`Rain'.

Revolver' goes to the disc cutting room. George Martin phones Geoff Emerick, telling him to replace remix 11 of `Tomorrow Never Knows', marked `best', by the original best, remix 8.

Olympia Stadium, Detroit, USA

Two shows, 2:00 and 7:00 pm, before a total of 28,000 fans at this indoor arena, although neither concert was sold out. They had previously performed at the venue on Septembe 6, 1964.

The Beatles had arrived in Detroit at 11:00 am, they left for Cleveland by Greyhound bus immediately after the second show, arriving there at 2:00 am.