John Lennon: "Somebody let off a firecracker onstage and every one of us looked at each other, because each thought it was the other that had been shot. It was that bad.” – Why The Beatles retired from the stage

The Beatles at Candlestick Park, their final live performance

At 9:27pm on 29 August 1966, the four members of The Beatles walked on stage at Candlestick Park in San Francisco to play their last ever show in front of a paying audience. It was a cold, windy evening and fog shrouded the stadium, which was home to the San Francisco Giants. The Beatles were running late and the backstage area was rammed. 

“The dressing room was chaos,” the show’s compère, disc jockey ‘Emperor’ Gene Nelson of KYA 1260AM, said in Keith Badman’s The Beatles Off The Record. "There were loads of people there. The press tried to get passes for their kids and the singer Joan Baez was in there. Any local celebrity, who was in town, was in the dressing room. They were having a party."