Fact #52271
When:
Short story:
Wembley Empire Pool, London, England, UK, hosts the 1965 NME (New Musical Express) Poll Winners Concert, featuring The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Moody Blues, The Kinks, The Searchers, Dusty Springfield, Herman's Hermits, Georgie Fame, The Animals, Them, Wayne Fontana, Donovan, Freddie and The Dreamers, Cilla Black and Tom Jones.Full article:
Derek Johnson (news editor, New Musical Express] : A huge crowd of frenzied fans had gathered around the stage door, awaiting the arrival of their heroes. The Beatles went to great lengths to avoid this hysteria by arriving in a white van dressed as chefs and carrying trays of goodies, and darting into the venue via the kitchen entrance. But The stones had the last laugh – realising that the crowd was concentrating around the stage door, they simply walked in through the main front entrance without any harassment.
Pete Quaife (bassist, The Kinks] : It was all concrete. It was really out of control and fast behind the scenes. There were literally crowds of pop stars milling around backstage. Nobody knew when they were going on until about five seconds before they actually hit the stage. You were suddenly herded though all these corridors and shoved out on stage.
Derek Johnson : Before the show started, a huge row broke out between Jagger and the Stones' manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, on the one hand, and Lennon and The Beatles manager Brian Epstein on the other. The argument was about which of the two bands should close the show, so effectively being top of the bill.
Jagger was demanding that it should be The Stones because they had just come off a run of three No1 singles and two No1 albums, and was threatening that the group would quit the concert unless he got his way.
Lennon stirred things up by pointing out that if The Beatles went on first, there would be nobody left in the arena when The Stones came on.
It was getting really nasty, when the tv director Philip Jones stepped in and reminded Jagger that The Stones had signed a tv contract, so there had to be a compromise.
It was decided that The Stones would close the first half, and they would also get an award as Best Live Act. This was a category that NME readers hadn't voted on, and was literally made up on the spot, so that The Stones would get an award of their own after The Beatles had been voted Best Group.
The actual trophy they were awarded was one intended for another winner who was unable to attend. The audience and tv viewers were obviously unaware of this, and The Stones had to wait a few days before receiving their own inscribed trophy.
Ironically, The Beatles didn't close the show after all.
Ray Davies (The Kinks] : We turned up late because my brother was in prison in Denmark, Europe. (outlaw) We were doing a big concert in Denmark and we had to come back the following day to play at the N.ME. Poll Winners concert. There was a riot at our show in Denmark and the police arrested Dave (Davies) and put him in prison. (outlaw)
They let him out in time to get the last flight out of Denmark to do the concert. We got to the gig which is this big place at Wembley, London, this big concert hall. Our manager said, "Quick, Quick, you're on after this act." And I said, "Who's on?" And I heard (sings guitar intro to Ticket To Ride). It was Ticket to Ride playing. And I said, "Well, that's The Beatles!" And he said, "Well, you're on after them"
Derek Johnson : Lennon had persuaded The Kinks – who were to have preceded The Beatles – to swap places. This was to enable The Beatles to dash straight offstage and into their waiting limousines before the fans realised they'd gone.
Pete Quaife : This was the high point of Vox equipment. Everybody went out and just plugged in to the same system, which was supplied by Vox.
And once you got there, you couldn't hear a damn thing. Couldn't hear what we were playing, nothing. The audience was screaming, going nuts, and because of the acoustics in the place it just swamped everything. That was possibly the worst performance we ever gave.
It was televised and I remember Ray watched it and everybody was singing out of tune and Ray just flipped. He was screaming and yelling and going absolutely nuts, blaming everybody. We were all trying to say to him "For Chrissakes, none of us could hear anything." The only thing you could go by was the vibration you could feel in your throat.
It did demonstrate, though, why The Beatles were so good. They actually sang in tune. But that's just one of many reasons why they were The Beatles.
(Source : Derek Johnson quotes taken from Radio Times, 23 August, 2003)
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Pete Quaife (bassist, The Kinks] : It was all concrete. It was really out of control and fast behind the scenes. There were literally crowds of pop stars milling around backstage. Nobody knew when they were going on until about five seconds before they actually hit the stage. You were suddenly herded though all these corridors and shoved out on stage.
Derek Johnson : Before the show started, a huge row broke out between Jagger and the Stones' manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, on the one hand, and Lennon and The Beatles manager Brian Epstein on the other. The argument was about which of the two bands should close the show, so effectively being top of the bill.
Jagger was demanding that it should be The Stones because they had just come off a run of three No1 singles and two No1 albums, and was threatening that the group would quit the concert unless he got his way.
Lennon stirred things up by pointing out that if The Beatles went on first, there would be nobody left in the arena when The Stones came on.
It was getting really nasty, when the tv director Philip Jones stepped in and reminded Jagger that The Stones had signed a tv contract, so there had to be a compromise.
It was decided that The Stones would close the first half, and they would also get an award as Best Live Act. This was a category that NME readers hadn't voted on, and was literally made up on the spot, so that The Stones would get an award of their own after The Beatles had been voted Best Group.
The actual trophy they were awarded was one intended for another winner who was unable to attend. The audience and tv viewers were obviously unaware of this, and The Stones had to wait a few days before receiving their own inscribed trophy.
Ironically, The Beatles didn't close the show after all.
Ray Davies (The Kinks] : We turned up late because my brother was in prison in Denmark, Europe. (outlaw) We were doing a big concert in Denmark and we had to come back the following day to play at the N.ME. Poll Winners concert. There was a riot at our show in Denmark and the police arrested Dave (Davies) and put him in prison. (outlaw)
They let him out in time to get the last flight out of Denmark to do the concert. We got to the gig which is this big place at Wembley, London, this big concert hall. Our manager said, "Quick, Quick, you're on after this act." And I said, "Who's on?" And I heard (sings guitar intro to Ticket To Ride). It was Ticket to Ride playing. And I said, "Well, that's The Beatles!" And he said, "Well, you're on after them"
Derek Johnson : Lennon had persuaded The Kinks – who were to have preceded The Beatles – to swap places. This was to enable The Beatles to dash straight offstage and into their waiting limousines before the fans realised they'd gone.
Pete Quaife : This was the high point of Vox equipment. Everybody went out and just plugged in to the same system, which was supplied by Vox.
And once you got there, you couldn't hear a damn thing. Couldn't hear what we were playing, nothing. The audience was screaming, going nuts, and because of the acoustics in the place it just swamped everything. That was possibly the worst performance we ever gave.
It was televised and I remember Ray watched it and everybody was singing out of tune and Ray just flipped. He was screaming and yelling and going absolutely nuts, blaming everybody. We were all trying to say to him "For Chrissakes, none of us could hear anything." The only thing you could go by was the vibration you could feel in your throat.
It did demonstrate, though, why The Beatles were so good. They actually sang in tune. But that's just one of many reasons why they were The Beatles.
(Source : Derek Johnson quotes taken from Radio Times, 23 August, 2003)