The Beatles' last gig was played to thousands of empty seats in freezing fog

It had been a long and gruelling tour and, by the end of August 1966, The Beatles had had enough. Since their formative years, which by this point spanned back almost a decade, they had been performing endlessly, and had amassed an estimated 2,000 hours on stage. The 33 minutes they spent on a cold San Francisco stage on 29 August 1966 were the last they would ever spend together in front of a paying audience. The North American tour that had begun 18 days earlier was merely the final leg of a round of touring that had begun on 24 June with a series of shows in West Germany – including one in Hamburg, where they had met up with people they’d known from their pre-fame days when they had regularly played all-night session night in nightclubs. From West Germany they flew to London to take a flight to Tokyo.

In Japan, controversy greeted them, with protests about their booking to play at Tokyo’s Budokan, a martial arts arena. Opening the sacred site to what some saw as a negative influence on Japan’s youth and culture proved too much for many hardline Japanese nationalists, who threatened to disrupt proceedings. In the end, an estimated 35,000 police were deployed to protect the group.

From Japan, they flew to Manila, where they were due to play two concerts at a football stadium. At the airport, the four Beatles were ushered by armed guards into cars, separated from their manager and road crew, and taken against their will to the luxury yacht of a wealthy businessman. Eventually they were able to free themselves, and made it to their hotel, where more controversy awaited them on the morning of their concerts.

 Having issued an invite to The Beatles to come to a reception at their palace, President Marcos and his wife seemingly refused to accept that they had turned it down, and took very public offence when The Beatles failed to show. Live TV pictures showed children crying as The Beatles didn’t arrive. The next morning, their security had been removed, while the newspapers were fronted with stories condemning the group for snubbing the President and First Lady. Hundreds turned out at the airport to vent their displeasure, and The Beatles and their entourage feared for their lives before eventually making a terrifying exit from the country.

Source: classical-music.com/Paul McGuinness

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