Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina- 7:30 P.M

10/30/2014

Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina- 7:30 p.m

7:13 pm: Arrived at Greensboro Coliseum and thousands of people have already showed up. The crowd is made up of mostly older people, from middle age to the elderly.

I’m surrounded by a middle-aged couples and three women who brought signs to hold up during the show. One sign says “Beatles Forever” with pictures of all the members and another says “Paul I love you” with dozens of red hearts posted all over

The first thing that struck me was that the crowd represents a real sense of community, signifying that the music of The Beatles and Paul McCartney’s solo work is more than just music, it’s a representation of their youth and the times in which they lived.

8:03 pm: Before the show, a DJ plays several different mixes of Beatles songs as the jumbo screens show Paul McCartney in various stages of his career. Also played a mixture of tops top artists: The Script, John Mayer, Ed Sheeran, Onerepublic, Foo Fighters etc.

There is an old couple sitting next to me. The woman is wearing a black Paul Mccartney shirt and the man is wearing a white one. I overhear them discussing what time Paul will come onstage. The woman continues to talk about she’s never seen Paul Mccartney live before.

Personal anecdotes can be overheard by those around me who are observing the scrolling photographs on the screen, one woman can be overheard recounting her story of seeing the Beatles in concert in 1965. 8:30 pm: The concert starts, and Paul McCartney walks onstage,everyone is on their feet.

The songs that get the most response are obviously The Beatles songs.

Everyone sings along in unison. Paul is extremely engaged with his audience, and regales the audience with stories from his days as a Beatle as if the audience were his friends.

11:55 pm: The concert goes on for almost three hours. It ends right before midnight. People leave the arena with big smiles on their faces.

The Beatles Anthology

The Beatles Anthology is sort of like The Beatles autobiography…it’s basically The Beatles story from their perspective.

It’s interesting in that this is the only literary source where we can get a glimpse of the Beatles’ reactions and feelings on their fans, since they speak of them personally.

It portrays each member in a certain way. Making them all different from one another. They all have a different personality.

The Beatles Anthology by James Crow

A documentary series, a set of three double albums and a book, all of which focus on the history of The Beatles. The surviving members of the group participated in the making and approval of the works, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the Anthology project. The Beatles Anthology documentary series was first broadcast in November 1995, with expanded versions released on VHS in 1996 and on DVD in 2003.

The documentary used interviews with The Beatles and their associates to narrate the history of the band as seen through archival footage and performances.

The initial volume of the album set was released in conjunction with the documentary in November 1995, with the subsequent two volumes released in 1996.

The albums included unreleased performances and outtakes presented in roughly chronological order, along with two new songs based on demo tapes recorded by John Lennon after the group broke up.

The book, released in 2000, paralleled the documentary in presenting the group's history through quotes from interviews.

The Beatles: The First U.S Visit- The Maysles Brothers

This documentary films The Beatles and offers a first-hand account of their first trip to America in February of 1964, including their arrival at JFK airport, their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, and their first concert in Washington D.C.

In every scene, every Beatle member is seen wearing matching clothes. They also have similar hairstyles

It’s interesting to see footage of the fans that sparked the term “Beatlemania,” in action, including a scene in which a group of girls attempt to sneak into the Plaza Hotel, where The Beatles were staying, and attempt to get them to sign a fan club petition.

Youtube Comments

The Beatle’s FINAL performance together: Don’t Let Me Down Jeanette Christen :

The BEATLES could never ever let anyone down. What music magic they gave us, we were so blessed to have four great guys make all of us so happy. BEATLES FOREVER

Peter K:

It always pisses me off when I see comments on the Beatles' earlier performances saying that they suck live. It's because of the screaming girls. In this video you can see how much of a difference it makes when they can hear themselves. This is a flawless performance and it sounds just like the recording.

Douglas Street:

Hands down, without question, the greatest rock group of all time. I challenge all to come to top this group ! No disrespect to many former and current groups but DAM, have at it if you can.

The Beatles on Ed Sullivan Show:

Douglas Roth:

50 years it's been since this happened I may be 24 (nearly 25) and The Beatles are one of my favourite bands I'm not into today's musics (Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga etc) I'm into music from the 60s, 70s and the 80s.

Conor Watts:

How about instead of everyone complaining that they didn't live during the beatles time, be glad that you live now and not before the beatles existed. Because the beatles have been around for 50 years and humanity has been around for thousands of years, which makes you pretty lucky.

Martin L:

No different than a One Direction concert.

Interview with John Lennon and Paul Mccartney on Tonight Show (May 1968) JG: "Do you think that your own careers have kind of switched? Not that you lose a group, but you seem to be changing your audience."

JOHN: "See, everything changes. So we change as well. And our audience changes, too, all the time. We don't sort of put our finger on 'What age group or why.' But we know-- everything changes, and us too."

PAUL: "When we first started we had leather jackets on, you know. Little caps and big cowboy boots. But then we changed to suits, you know."

JOHN: "We thought, 'That'll get 'em.'"

(laughter)

PAUL: "And we lost a whole lot of fans. They all said, 'You've gone ponched.' They didn't like it, you know, because we were all clean."

(laughter)

PAUL: "So we lost that crowd, but we gained all the ones that liked suits. It happens like that. That's what keeps happening. And we lost alot of people with 'Sgt Pepper,' but I think we gained more."

(crowd applauds in agreement)

JG: "Do you think you're going to be able to top 'Sgt. Pepper'?"

JOHN: "Well, you know, it's the next move, and I can't say 'yes or no,' but I think so. Why not? 'Cuz it's only another LP really... it's not that important."

JG: "Well, you have to be the most imitated group."

JOHN: "Well maybe. Yeah."

(laughter)

JG: "When you talk about Lennon/McCartney songs, do you work together, or one writes one, or..."

JOHN: "It's all those combinations you can think of. Every combination of two people writing a song... inasmuch as we can both write them completely separately, and together, and not together. But we obviously influence each other, like groups and people do."

JG: "I can think of my favorite-- 'Yesterday.'"

Then and Now: What It’s Like to Be A Beatles Fan by: James Rosen (Excerpts)

“Now yesterday and today,” Ed Sullivan began the historic segment of Feb. 9, 1964, “our theater’s been jammed with newspapermen and the hundreds of photographers from all over the nation. And these veterans,” continued the jowly host of CBS’ "The Ed Sullivan Show," a hugely popular variety program broadcast live on Sunday nights from Studio 50 on Broadway and West 53rd Street, “agreed with me that this city never has witnessed the excitement stirred by these youngsters from Liverpool who call themselves The Beatles. Now tonight, you’re gonna twice be entertained by them: right now and again in the second half of our show. Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles!”

“I’ll always remember…his introduction,” Ringo told David Letterman a quarter- century later. “You know, we’re in America, we’re expectin’: 'Here they are, the greatest! It’s the best band in England! And they’re comin’ on NOW!' And Ed” – here Ringo adopted a dour, matter-fact manner: “said: ‘Here they are, the Beatles.’”

America was not underwhelmed. The estimated 73 million who tuned in – a record-shattering TV audience at the time – observed four dark-haired, skinny young men dressed in dark suits with white shirts and dark ties. At screen left stood a guitarist whose instrument pointed leftward, his head turned toward the other two guitarists manning the front line, as if to galvanize them to action, counting to five! while the others, guitars pointing rightward, bounced up and down with him in nervous energy.

Twelve enormous, three-dimensional arrows descended on the quartet from all directions, reflecting CBS set designer Bill Bohnert’s intention to symbolize that the Beatles were HERE! And suddenly the one on the left was urging us to close our eyes, so he could kiss us…

For “second-generation” fans like me, however – kids who came of age starting in the mid-1970s, and for whom Epochal Beatles Moments consisted primarily of buying new singles by Paul McCartney and Wings and, most impactful, hearing the news (today, oh, boy) about the assassination of John Lennon, in December 1980 – getting a hold of the original “building blocks” of Beatle Worship was next to impossible.

Sure, we could buy the "Meet the Beatles!" album, but CBS almost never re-ran old episodes of "The Ed Sullivan Show," and if they did, we had no recording devices for later viewing. As with the original, you had to be there when it happened. Occasionally, you’d see that "A Hard Day’s Night" was being screened, on reel-to-reel film projectors, at some old-movie festival or summer-camp series where you could barely hear the dialogue; and again, if you didn’t show up there and then, well, that was it. You’d have to wait another five years or so for your chance.

Today, of course, a few swift clicks will bring just about anything up on YouTube, from the hallowed "Sullivan" shows – the Beatles appeared on the program three more times – to what is widely regarded as the band’s finest live….

The question is whether today’s third-generation fans – or is it fourth-generation? – are missing out on something special, a mystical experience, as surely as we second-generation fans missed out on the first wave of “excitement stirred by these youngsters from Liverpool.”