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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Aaron Curran

Beatles' biggest ever concert and how many attended

The 1960s were dominated by four lads from Liverpool.

After forming in 1960, the Beatles quickly rose to fame, gaining fans from every corner of the world. It is no surprise then that when the Fab Four held concerts, thousands of fans were desperate to get their hands on tickets.

The group regularly pulled in screaming crowds, with tens of thousands vying to get a glimpse of the band. One concert however, would blow the rest out of the water with the sheer amount of people in the crowd.

READ MORE: The Beatles' children and what they do

On August 15, 1965 the Fab Four took to the stage at Shea Stadium in New York. The lads' fame had well and truly travelled across the pond as the Shea Stadium saw 55,000 screaming fans come to see them in concert.

The concert was the first of the Beatles 1965 US tour, and was a sign of things to come in many ways. According to The New York Times, the collective scream produced by the Shea Stadium audience escalated to a level that represented "the classic Greek meaning of the word pandemonium – the region of all demons".

The band were astonished at the spectacle of the event, to which Lennon responded by acting in a "mock crazed manner" and reducing Harrison to hysterical laughter as they played the closing song, "I'm Down". Starr later said: "I feel that on that show John cracked up... not mentally ill, but he just got crazy... playing the piano with his elbows.."

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