Old friend Brian Antonson was at the Beatles’ concert and shares his eyewitness account:
“50 years ago, on August 22, 1964 the Beatles arrived in Vancouver and played a brief 27 minute set at Empire Stadium. The Vancouver Sun profiled the event recently, and as the PNE gets underway for another year, it’s worth taking a look.
There are many photos of the melee, and since brother Rick and I were on the front lines of everything, I’ve searched for us in them over many years. Today’s Sun online article has many photos posted, and this is one of them: a Vancouver policeman holds his ears to shut out the screams of Beatles fans at Empire Stadium.
That’s me standing toward the left… wearing my blue vendor’s jacket, holding my vendor’s box full of peanuts or whatever I was selling that night.
It was a crazy night… and this photo would have been taken just AFTER the Beatles had left. You can see the crowd is looking toward the northeast corner of Empire Stadium where they were departing in their limo through the gate.
Normally, we vendors sold our wares through Lions‘ games non-stop, but the night of the Beatles concert, we were told we could NOT sell during the performance, and they sent us down to sit along the panic fence, in front of the seats on the grass… so we had the BEST seats in the house… for FREE!
Everything was calm as The Righteous Brothers, Jackie de Shannon, and Bill Black’s Combo all took to the stage in turn. Lots of applause, everybody happy. THEN, John, Paul, George and Ringo came up the stairs and the screaming started and the girls moved forward. We vendors stood up as cops rushed to the other side of the fence. They pushed back, we pulled back.
I heard nothing at all of the concert… too much screaming going on around me, though at one point someone kicked me in the back of my knee and I went down for a second. I could hear the music just fine because the screaming was above me… but when I pushed myself back up again, I couldn’t hear it. We passed many fainted girls over the fence to waiting police who took them to the side of the stage where St. John’s Ambulance people revived them. Rick was beside me, and actually MAY be blocked by the cop in the foreground in this photo, taken while the screaming was still going on… the officer still has his fingers in his ears!
When the lads left the stage, things continued to be pretty loud until they were gone from the stadium, and then there was just a stunned silence. Mom and Dad had been listening to CKNW where Jack Cullen, Jack Webster, and Jack Wasserman were broadcasting almost a play-by-play of the event, and they believed that Rick and I would be somewhere sensible up in the stands, never dreaming we were in the thick of it.
What a night it was! 50 years on, two of the lads are gone, and the other two are certified senior citizens! And Rick and I are, too!”
Thanks for the memories, Brian!
We’ll remember the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ concert with a free show on the PNE’s Chevrolet Performance Stage Friday at 7:30 pm.
The Fab Four will be portrayed by Revolver — The World’s Best Beatles Show, featuring Michael Sicoly as Paul, Mick Dalla-Vee as John, Scott Fletcher as George and Rocket Norton as Ringo. Craig Zurba handles extra keyboards and effects. A moment to remember and I hope you’ll be able to make it to the show.