The Beatles’ final two shows in Melbourne, Australia, took place on 17 June 1964.
In the afternoon George Harrison went driving in an MG in the Dandenong Mountains with tour organiser Lloyd Ravenscroft. Concerned with more important matters, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr had their hair cut in their hotel, the Southern Cross.
This was The Beatles’ last of three consecutive nights of shows in the city’s Festival Hall, Each night they gave two concerts, which were enjoyed by a total of 45,000 people.
Cameras from the Australian Channel 9 recorded the sixth and final show of the Melbourne leg of the world tour. It was screened on 1 July 1964 as an hour-long special, The Beatles Sing For Shell, named after the oil company which sponsored the broadcast.
Nine of The Beatles’ Melbourne performances were included in the show: ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘You Can’t Do That’, ‘All My Loving’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘Till There Was You’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, ‘Twist And Shout’, and ‘Long Tall Sally’. During the final song a male audience member rushed onto the stage to shake John Lennon’s hand.
The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein had initially agreed to allow Channel 9 to show just 12 minutes of the performance. However, after watching the recording an hour after the show he had a change of heart and increased the limit to 20 minutes.
In the end 22 minutes of The Beatles were included, the rest of the hour being footage of Australian and international performers. The only song from the set not broadcast was ‘This Boy’. Full bootleg recordings exist of both concerts from this day.
Also on this day...
- 2022: All three McCartney albums to be reissued in box sets
- 2021: The Beatles: Get Back to stream on Disney+ in November
- 2014: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Beacon Theatre, New York City
- 2004: Paul McCartney live: Olympiastadion, Helsinki
- 1992: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia
- 1966: Recording, mixing: Here, There And Everywhere, Got To Get You Into My Life
- 1966: Paul McCartney purchases High Park Farm in Kintyre, Scotland
- 1965: Recording, mixing: Yesterday, Act Naturally, Wait
- 1963: Radio: Pop Go The Beatles
- 1961: The Beatles live: Top Ten Club, Hamburg
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
I wish the camera man would have gotten footage of John playing the lead guitar part.
Does anyone know of any other instances where one or more fans ran onstage during any of the Beatles’ performances to get to any of the band members, not just Lennon but any of them?
This is a really good Beatles gig. Their performance and playing is great, it rocks and it rolls all the way. Only downside is that George´s guitar is a bit low in the mix.
Some notes of interest;
1) A drum set is left on the stage, obviously belonging to one of the opening acts, can´t tell why it wasn´t removed before “the biggest attraction in the whole world” went on.
2) Either the singers were singing their lungs out, or the vocal mikes were very good, because they stand a bit away from the mikes and can amazingly enough still be heard over the screaming.
3) Don´t know why they would drop I want to hold your hand for this particular gig as it was included in Adelaide just a few days earlier. Does anbody know if You can´t do that was released as a single in Australia around this time and they wanted to push the sales for it or something?
4) A very very short clip of You can´t do that, in colour no less, was included in Eight days a week.
5) During one of the “aaah”´s in Twist and shout George tries to pinch Paul´s nose!
6) The story of the stage intruder is included in the George-documentary Living in the material world.
7) I can´t think of another occasion where the group come out on stage and take another bow after the show, except the Royal Variety Performance and some other TV shows.
8) The film from the shows in interesting as it includes more after-the-show film than anywhere else. It goes on for several minutes as everybody stands up for God save the queen, then people start leaving, some staying in hope of a re-appearance until, finally, the stage-hands starts disassembling the equipment.
Definitely one of the very best and most enjoyable concerts by The Beatles captured on film.
I was there. You could NOT hear anything except for screaming girls. The only words that you could hear were the chorus words to She Loves You. The rest of the entire gig was just the sound of screaming. I remember it like it was yesterday. In 1964, amplifiers just could not match the volume of the screaming. Yes the Channel 9 recording picked up the Beatles’ voices, but in the audience it was a totally different story.
My Dad was the driver who drove George Harrison to the Dandeongs he gave Dad a picnic basket which I still have same he didn’t sign it
Hi Sue
What was his name and how did that come about?
I’ve read George drove an MG with Mal Evans and some others.
I’m doing a bit of research into the tour to see what interesting stories are still out there to be told.
Gareth Meyer
Canberra
My Mum & Dad were in the audience – after getting tickets form the local radio station where my dad was interviewed about Liverpool and the Beatles – he was a £10.00 pom from Liverpool! and they wanted a person who had a scouse accent and who knew about Liverpool and the Beatles – My brother Paul was born 2 days after the concert – in Williamstown Hospital – hence the name Paul !
Does anyone recall how much the tickets were to see the Beatles in 1964.? I was there, I didn’t earn much at the time, keen to know what I spent. Well worth it.
I held a party for the Beatles in Toorak for 60 people on their day off from 8.00 pm to 10.30pm then went to their floor at the Southern Cross Hotel until 2.00 am. The next day they left for Sydney