The Beatles’ first Canadian concert took place in front of 20,261 fans at the Empire Stadium in Vancouver.
The show began at 8.15pm and The Beatles took to the stage at 9.25pm. The support acts were, in order of appearance, The Bill Black Combo, the Exciters, The Righteous Brothers, and Jackie DeShannon.
The Beatles performed an 11-song set, for some reason choosing not to play ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’. They sang ‘Twist And Shout’, ‘You Can’t Do That’, ‘All My Loving’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘Things We Said Today’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, ‘If I Fell’, ‘Boys’, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, and ‘Long Tall Sally’.
The group’s performance was broadcast live by local radio station CKNW. After their performance they ran from the stage to their waiting limousine and were driven from the stadium, accompanied by motorcycle outriders, less than a minute after they stopped playing.
The Beatles were taken straight to Vancouver International Airport, from where they flew straight to Los Angeles. They arrived in the city at 3.55am.
Also on this day...
- 2023: Ringo Starr announces Rewind Forward EP
- 2019: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Mystic Lake Casino Hotel, Prior Lake
- 2012: John Lennon’s killer denied parole for seventh time
- 2012: Magical Mystery Tour to be released on DVD and Blu-ray
- 2003: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Riverfest Amphitheater, Little Rock
- 2001: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Rosemont Theatre, Rosemont
- 2001: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Minnesota State Fair, Saint Paul
- 1995: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Pier 62/63, Seattle
- 1992: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Iowa State Fair, Des Moines
- 1972: Wings live: Kinema Roma, Antwerp
- 1969: The Beatles’ final photo shoot
- 1968: Recording: Back In The USSR
- 1968: Ringo Starr quits The Beatles
- 1968: Cynthia Lennon sues John for divorce
- 1967: Recording: Your Mother Should Know
- 1966: Junior press conference: Warwick Hotel, New York City
- 1966: Press conference: Warwick Hotel, New York City
- 1965: The Beatles live: Memorial Coliseum, Portland, Oregon
- 1963: The Beatles live: Gaumont Cinema, Bournemouth
- 1963: Television: Day By Day
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime) – their first television appearance
- 1960: The Beatles live: Indra Club, Hamburg
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
They never performed “I Want To Hold Your Hand” at this concert. The bootleg recording proves it. It wasn’t known exactly why, but there was crowd trouble so maybe they lost track of the running order?
Thanks for the info. The list of songs was the standard one used during the tour, but I guess there were minor variations from show to show. I’m surprised they didn’t do IWTHYH though – the crowds would have loved it.
I was there… by an improbable connection between a father who bought 3 tickets for himself, his wife and daughter. The wife backed out, the dad knew my father and asked if I would like to go. I was 11 and already locked in as a lifetime fan. We traveled from Vernon BC to Vancouver to watch.
I remember good chunks of the concerts.
🙂
It was one of the biggest down moments of my life. I could not afford to go see them and I lived in Vancouver. Yes there was trouble at the concert. At one time there were about 12 security guards trying to stop hundreds of fans from breaking in through the main gate. Finally help arrived or it could have been a huge disaster.
This is apparently a press conference from Vancouver.
Sounds like their flight was turned back shortly before it arrived in Vancouver and they ended up making the journey twice.
I lived on Vancouver Island at the time. Radio station CKNW broadcast the show from Empire Stadium but only snippets of the songs were audible. I have a 2-disc vinyl bootleg of the CKNW blow-by-blow account of the day, including the press conference and an interview with the boy who served the Fab Four hamburgers. Safety issues caused a halt in proceedings part way through. Local radio personality Red Robinson did his best to calm things down. The veteran radio reporters and Vancouver Sun entertainment writer were dismayed by the sight of girls fainting and having to be carried off to First Aid treatment. US journalist Larry Kane (author of Ticket To Ride) described the Vancouver concert as one of the most unruly of the entire 1964 tour. I have digitized the whole album and included the contents on my YouTube tribute page. .
Does anyone else but me remember the extremely negative coverage of the Beatles’ visit by the local media, including a follow up documentary on CHAN TV, I believe it was called something like “The Beatles, yeah yeah yeah”, and the song “Money’ playing during it, which wasn’t even performed at the concert?
The performance itself wasn’t broadcast. What was could best be described as radio men covering what was happening at the concert, with the Beatles singing in the background, and CKNW only tuning in live every now and then. The late Jack Cullen told me he recorded the concert by placing a tape recorder under the stage. Had security known about it, it would have been removed, because Brian “Eppy” Epstein (the group’s manager) was very fussy about there being no illegal recordings made. Cullen eventually put together a two LP set. It contained the concert live, the funny press conference, the aforementioned bits of sporadic live coverage of the event, as well as the Fab Four’s drive into Vancouver, from having landed inconspicuously at a Royal Canadian Air Force base. Cullen also told me that EMI/Capitol visited the record stores selling his double LP, and threatened to stop selling them any Capitol/EMI product unless all sales of the double LP set ceased immediately. How Cullen thought that he could have got away with releasing such a product, so illegal at so many levels, is beyond me. I suppose they were more innocent times. However, it is thanks to Jack Cullen that the Fab Four’s visit to Vancouver was preserved for posterity on audio tape. It is from his two LP set that all bootlegs of the Vancouver concert emanate.
CBC was there and filmed the entire concert, but when the film got back to CBC someone erased the entire Concert of The Beatles being here in Vancouver
One of the few shows they did on this tour wearing their light grey suits instead of the black set.
I did not know about Jack Cullen’s involvement and his early live bootleg. It sounds more like he tapped into the stadium sound system rather than set up a tape deck under the stage. The radio clips of the DJs talking about the Beatles, the press conference, the play-by-play of the concert from the sports broadcast booth, the concert itself in great quality and without too much audience noise was a great package. Too bad some of the vocals are flubbed (If I Fell). This was “The Night Before” their first Hollywood Bowl concert. I think IWTHYH was dropped from the set list because of the interruptions to warn the crowd to settle down.
I Want to Hold your Hand wasn’t performed more or less for the reasons mentioned in comments above this one. It definitely was to do with the unruly crowd. John once nailed it quite specifically by saying that if The Beatles “didn’t like you”, they would cut a song from the set so as to get out of the venue as soon as possible.
I was there. A group of us girls walked across the Ironworkers Memorial bridge to attend. It was my 1st concert. I was 16. I was sitting on the floor section, 13 rows in front of Ringo’s drums. We were sitting on benches. Soon girls were climbing on the seats for a better view and then onto the backs of the benches and the benches were falling over. People were coming down to the floor from the stands. My friend went up to the front. I started to follow but one man was yelling that his daughter had fallen, and it was pretty frightening so I went back to my seat. You could hardly hear The Beatles because the screaming was so loud. They couldn’t hear themselves well, and that explains why they sound flat at times. But it was great to see them. My friend managed to get out the back to where their car was when they left and ran beside their car smiling in at them. If you read this, hi Gloria! We were so excited walking home and talking about the greatest concert!
Hi Julie
Do you remember at the 1964 Beatles Concert if they sold any memorabilia, like shirts or tshirts.