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Larry Hamilton
I was watching Ron Howard's remarkable documentary, about the touring years of the Beatles, called "Eight Days a Week". While they were showing footage of the Hollywood Bowl concert, the camera landed on a teenaged Sigourney Weaver.
I posted a 15 second video of this on facebook. She was obiously a fan of John.
see: https://www.facebook.com/larry.hamilton.988/videos/10212918059764018/
Watching the film made me a bit sad, thinking that my grandchildren will never experience a time like that. Easily the most exiting period of my youth, when one band dominated the music scene and landed the top 6 songs in the nation in one week. They also revived my interest in music, because I'd all but stopped listening to A.M. radio. To me it had become boring beyond belief (remember "sugar shack"?)
About a week before Ed Sullivan announced that he'd signed them for three shows, I was up late working on homework that I'd procrastinated up to the eleventh hour as usual, when I happened to glance up at the TV. I had the sound off, but noticed that the late news was showing film of police carrying girls out of a building. Two days earlier there'd been an explosion at an ice skating rink in Indianapolis, and these images were similar to what I'd seen at that time. I thought to myself "uh oh now what". I turned up the sound only to discover that this time it was caused by a British rock band called The Beatles. I thought to myself "they're from England for cryin out loud, how good could they be?" "They named themselves after a bug?" Chuckling at the thought of this, I went back to my much-delayed homework.
A few seconds went by and the story cut to a film of a concert, and I heard this thunderous bass line being played, as McCartney tore into "I saw her standing there". As I remember it, a lightening bolt went down my teenaged spine, my mouth dropped open, and I wondered "where have they been all my life?". The rest of my family were already in bed and there was nobody to tell !!
The next day at school, nobody had seen this, and the people I'd told about it had the same inicial reaction I did "rock and roll in England?", "named after a bug?"...followed by many guffaws. It took a few weeks before I was vindicated.
I did get to see them twice. Once at the Cow Palace, and their final concert at candlestick park. I took my older sister to the show at the Cow Palance, despite a heavy lobbying effort by several girls. She was suffering from cabin fever, a high degree of pregnancy, and badly needed "an out". We had unbelieveable seats right above the stage (at a cost of $7), and I was hoping that she wouldn't go into labor during all the excitment. To this day my niece still proudly proclaims that she was at a Beatles concert.
Did anybody else, from Napa, go to see them?
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