The Day: Monday, August 29, 1966

The Location: San Francisco, California, USA

The Venue: Candlestick Park (Opened: 1960, Demolished: 2015)

The Event: A Beatles’ Concert

The Significance: The Beatles’ Final Public Performance 

Members of The Beatles:

• George Harrison – Guitar & Vocals
• John Lennon – Guitar & Vocals
• Paul McCartney – Bass Guitar & Vocals
• Ringo Starr – Drums & Vocals

The Beatles’ Road Crew: Mal Evans

Concert Promotion: Tempo Productions

Poster Design: Wes Wilson

Concert Sound: McCone Audio-Visual; Mort Feld, sound mixer.

Number of Microphones Used On Stage: Five (for vocals only)

Official Photographer: Jim Marshall (Coined the phrase: “The Last Hard Day’s Night.”)

Catering: Simpson’s Catering

Special Guests: Joan Baez & Mimi Fariña

Opening Acts (In order of appearance):

• The Remains
• Bobby Hebb (accompanied by The Remains)
• The Cyrkle
• The Ronettes – with Elaine Mayes filling in for Ronnie Spector (accompanied by The Remains)

Master of Ceremonies: Gene Nelson, disc jockey at KYA 1260 AM.

Ticket Prices: $4.50, $5.50, $6.50.

Number of tickets available: ~30,000

Number of tickets sold: 25,000

The Beatles’ Take: $84,500

Weather: Partly cloudy; Temperature: 50-58º F; Gusty winds: 10-20 mph.

Gates Open: 6:30 pm

Concert Start Time: 8:00 pm

Time of The Beatles’ Performance: 9:27 – 10:00 pm

Set List (All songs by John Lennon & Paul McCartney, unless otherwise noted):

• “Rock & Roll Music” (Chuck Berry)
• “She’s A Woman”
• “If I Needed Someone” (George Harrison)
• “Day Tripper”
• “Baby’s In Black”
• “I Feel Fine”
• “Yesterday”
• “I Wanna Be Your Man”
• “Nowhere Man”
• “Paperback Writer”
• “Long Tall Sally” (Richard Blackwell, Enotris Johnson & Richard Penniman)

Instruments & Equipment Used By The Beatles:

George Harrison:

• Epiphone Casino ES-230TD Electric Guitar (with Bigsby Vibrato Arm/Tailpiece and pickguard removed)
• Rickenbacker 1965 360-12 12-String Electric Guitar (w/capo at the 7th fret)

John Lennon:

• Epiphone Casino ES-230TD Electric Guitar

Paul McCartney:

• Hofner 1963 500/1 “Violin” Electric Bass Guitar (with pickguard removed)

Ringo Starr:

• Ludwig 4-Piece Drum Set (finished in Black Oyster Pearl) with a 22-inch bass drum, a 20-inch ride cymbal, 18-inch splash cymbal and 14-inch hi-hat.

Instrument Amplification:

• American-made Vox 120-watt Solid State Super Beatle Amplifiers. (There were 7 of these amps on stage and they were used by all of the groups in the show.)

Concert Recording: Done by Tony Barrow, the Beatles’ press officer, on a portable cassette tape recorder with a hand held microphone; at the request of Paul McCartney.

And here it is!

Immediate Post-Concert Transportation for The Beatles: an Armored Vehicle from the Loomis Armored Car Service with an escort of eleven San Francisco Motorcycle Police Officers.

A Review: Under the headline, Beatles Strike Out At The Ballpark, Philip Elwood wrote in the San Francisco Examiner:

“The whole evening’s production was an expensive and thoroughly synchronized bit of highly commercial machinery. Each of the preliminary throw-away acts did their stint to indifferent crowd response, and soaked up the minutes until The Beatles appeared. Then came the screams…”

Sources of Information:

• Tomorrow Never Knows: The Beatles’ Last Concert by Eric Lefcowitz, with photos by Jim Marshall. Published in 1987 by Terra Firma Books.
• Beatles Gear: All The Fab Four’s Instruments, From Stage To Studio by Andy Babiuk. Published in 2001 by Backbeat Books.