The Beatles' 1964 tour of Australia

Tour of Australia

The Beatles' 1964 tour of Australia was a several week tour performed by the British rock band the Beatles as a part of their 1964 world tour.^[1]^{[page needed]} The tour was their first and only tour of Australia. The tour was notable particularly because Jimmie Nicol had replaced a hospitalised Ringo Starr.^[2]

Chronology

The Beatles' flight touched down at Sydney Airport just before 7:45am on Thursday June 11, 1964.^[3]

Next, following a day of rest in Sydney, the Beatles landed in Adelaide, and 12,000 tickets were sold out in just over five hours for four shows there, two each on 12 and 13 June.^[4]

Between 18-20 June 1964, the Beatles performed six concerts at the Sydney Stadium in Rushcutters Bay.^[5]

During their stay in Melbourne, crowds spilled out from the 45,000 (at the time) capacity Festival Hall for three nights in a row.^[6] During the entire course of the world tour, crowds sometimes topped six figures.^[7]^{[page needed]}

Legacy

In 2014, as a 50 year anniversary, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation released a program about the tour.^[8]

Taylor Swift's success in Australia has also been compared to the tour.^[9]

References

^ Hayward, Mark (2005). The Beatles in Australia. New Holland Publishers Pty, Limited. ISBN 978-1-74110-417-2.
^ Johnson, Bruce (2022-11-29). Popular Music and Australian Culture: Across the Grain. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-5275-9141-7.
^ O'Brien, Philip (2014-06-03). "The Beatles let it be in Australia: 1964". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
^ "A picture in time: the Beatles arrive in Adelaide on their 1964 Australian tour". The Guardian. 2022-06-13. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
^ "The Beatles Concerts at the Sydney Stadium, June 1964". Municipality of Woollahra. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
^ "The Beatles Down Under: Part One". Mixdown Magazine. 2019-06-27. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
^ Creasy, Martin (2011-11-08). Beatlemania! The Real Story of the Beatles UK Tours 1963-1965. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-719-8.
^ "The band that fell to Oz: The Beatles tour of 1964". ABC listen. 2014-06-08. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
^ "Taylor Swift Australia: Why her Eras tour rivals the Beatles". The Advertiser. 2024-02-01. Retrieved 2024-02-02.