The Beatles at Shea Stadium

The Beatles at Shea Stadium is a fifty minute-long documentary of the Beatles' 1965 concert at Shea Stadium in New York, the highlight of the group's 1965 tour. The documentary was produced by Ed Sullivan (under his Sullivan Productions, Inc. banner), NEMS Enterprises Ltd. (which owns the 1965 copyright), and the Beatles company Subafilms Ltd. The project utilized twelve cameras to capture the mayhem and mass hysteria that was Beatlemania in America in 1965. The documentary first aired on the BBC on May 1, 1966. It aired in the United States on ABC on January 10, 1967.

History

The film not only captures the concert, but also the events leading up to the concert, including the Beatles' helicopter ride from Manhattan to Flushing Meadows, their preparation in the dressing room (i.e. the visiting baseball team's locker) at Shea Stadium, and clips from the show's other acts, including Sounds Incorporated. Television host Ed Sullivan introduces the band when they finally take the stage.

The film is not a completely candid concert film, however, as overdubs were recorded by the Beatles in London in January 1966 to cover audio problems throughout the concert recording. Although the film has not been officially available on DVD or VHS, it has been widely available on the bootleg circuit for decades.

The group's performance of the song "Act Naturally" shows the visually live rendition from the Shea Stadium show, synced with the 1965 studio recording from the British "Help!" album and American "Yesterday" single.

Wikipedia

Beatles Covers: Richie Havens - Rocky Raccoon

Paul McCartney on John Lennon and Trepanning

"Linda and me came over for dinner once and John said, 'You fancy getting the trepanning thing done?' I said, 'Well, what is it?' and he said, 'Well, you kind of have a hole bored into your skull and it relieves the pressure.' We're sitting at dinner and this is seriously being offered! Now, this wasn't a joke, this was like, Let's go next week, we know a guy who can do it and maybe we can do it all together. So I said, 'Look, you go and have it done, and if it works, great. Tell us about it and we'll all have it.' But I'm afraid I've always been a bit cynical about stuff like that -- thank God! -- because I think that there's so much crap that you've got to be careful of. But John was more open to things like that."
-October 1986

Geoff Emerick on Revolver and the Use of Automatic Double Tracking (ADT)

"Around the time of Revolver we first tried ADT, automatic double tracking, which gave Lennon his sound on some things. We also tried altering the speed of the tape machine and making it sort of phasey. We used to do that on guitars, as well. In those days it was the first time anyone had heard of doing that. We were sort of pioneering in different ways."

Ringo Starr on the Beatles Break-Up

"Yoko's taken a lot of shit, her and Linda; but the Beatles break-up wasn't their fault. It was just that suddenly we were all thirty and married and changed. We couldn't carry on that life any more."
-1981

George Harrison on the Hells Angels Visiting Apple, 1968

"Hells Angels will be in London within the next week on the way to straighten out Czechoslovakia. There will be twelve in number, complete with black leather jackets and motorcycles. They will, undoubtedly, arrive at Apple and I have heard they may try to make full use of Apple's facilities. They may look as though they are going to do you in but they are very straight and do good things, so, don't fear them or uptight them. Try to assist them without neglecting your Apple business and without letting them take control of Savile Row."

-Memo to Apple staff, December 4, 1968

Lennon NYC

In 1971, John Lennon arrived in New York City and felt reborn: at last living in the country that had dominated his artistic imagination, Lennon and his new bride Yoko Ono found in the city the perfect blend of music, politics, culture, and lifestyle. But those heady first years eventually gave way to a dark period in which both Lennon's musical career and his personal life almost ran aground--until once again New York City came to his rescue. Using remarkable, rarely seen footage and interviews with many who were close to John, filmmaker Michael Epstein has created a moving, revealing portrait of the music legend's New York years, detailing not only his triumphs but also some hard times over which he so beautifully recovered in the final years of his tragically curtailed life.