Paul McCartney returns to Vancouver Sunday, his first visit since the Beatles‘ appearance on August 22, 1964.

The experience of that night at Empire Stadium is still with me. The excitement in the air, the push and shove of the audience and the music of the Beatles. What most people don’t realize is they only performed for half an hour on all shows during the first tour of North America. They cut out only one piece here and that was If I Fell. It certainly was a short show but they all were.

I doubt if we will ever see the likes of the Beatles or Elvis Presley again. You see, it was a more homogenized society in those days. When the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show 80% of all television sets in North America were tuned in to see and hear them. This does not happen today.

My late son Jeffrey used to say “Dad, no matter what you achieve in life, you will always be remembered as the guy John Lennon told to “get the f*** off the stage.”  Of course there was more to the story.  Manager Brian Epstein ordered me up onstage to quiet the crowd as Roll Over Beethoven was ending. Click on the picture to hear what happened.

John saw me and said “Get the f*** off our stage, no one interrupts a Beatles show!” I told him that Brian Epstein had sent me up. He looked down from the stage to get the okay from Brian and then turned to me and said “Carry on, mate!” That part of the story is never told. Here I am telling it 48 years later.