Today in Beatles History: August 23

** The following events in Beatles history all took place on August 23. **

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Beatles * [J] John * [P] Paul * [G] George * [R] Ringo * [O] Other
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1960
The Beatles perform at the Indra Club, Grosse Freiheit, Hamburg,
West Germany.

1961
The Beatles perform at the ****rn Club at lunchtime and then again
that night.

1962
The Beatles perform at Riverpark Ballroom, Chester. It is John
Lennon's wedding night.

[J] 1962
John Lennon and Cynthia Powell are wed at Mount Pleasant Register
Office, Liverpool, the same place that John's parents had been
married. John and Cynthia had decided to marry when Cynthia
discovered that she was pregnant. John spends the evening
performing with The Beatles in Chester.

1962
"Mersey Beat" announces the change in drummers for The Beatles.
Pete Best fans react violently, and protest petitions are signed.
The Beatles are jeered by Best supporters when they next appear at
the ****rn Club.

1963
UK release of Beatles single "She Loves You/I'll Get You"
(Parlophone). 24 weeks on the charts; highest position #1.

1963
The Beatles perform at the Gaumont Cinema, Bournemouth.

1964
The Beatles, on a tour of the USA, perform a 29-minute concert at
the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California. Attendance is 18,700.
Since Capitol Records was planning to release a live Beatles album
in the US, the Hollywood Bowl concert is recorded. They had wanted
to record the February 12 Carnegie Hall performance, but the
American Federation of Musicians had refused. Now, with permission
in hand, a Beatles concert is recorded on three-track equipment.
Both Capitol Records and The Beatles gave the resulting tapes the
thumbs-down--the quality of the recording was too poor to release,
and the tapes were shelved. However, in 1977 the tapes would be
resurrected, and six songs from the 1964 concert would be combined
with seven tracks from the 1965 Hollywood Bowl concert, creating
the album "The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl". The mixing of 1964
and 1965 tapes was necessary to get enough good performances of
songs for the album. Since The Beatles and their fans couldn't
really hear the music being played, The Beatles were finding it
increasingly difficult to care whether they played well or not.
Yet these tracks show that The Beatles were still playing at a very
high level, high enough for the "Hollywood Bowl" album to reach #1
on the charts on June 18, 1977, almost 13 years after the 1964
Hollywood Bowl concert had been recorded. Before 1977, the only
uses of this material were a 48-second extract of "Twist and Shout'
that appeared on the Capitol album "The Beatles Story", and the
audience applause and screaming that links the songs "Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "With a Little Help From My Friends"
on the 1967 "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album.

1966
On their final tour of America, The Beatles perform at Shea Stadium
in New York City, New York. Unlike the previous year's
performance, which had sold out, there are 11,000 empty seats in
the 55,600 seat stadium. Nonetheless, The Beatles earn more than
the previous year, receiving $189,000 for their performance.

1967
The Beatles in the recording studio (Chappell Recording Studios,
Maddox St., London). Recording Paul's song "Your Mother Should
Know". The song will be re-recorded at EMI's Abbey Road studios,
but the Chappell Studios version is the one that will end up on
record. Brian Epstein attends the recording session, which is a
bit unusual these days. This is the last Beatles recording session
before Brian's death--he will be found dead in his home on August
27.

1968
The Beatles in the recording studio (Studio Two, EMI Studios,
London). With Ringo having quit the group (temporarily), John,
Paul, and George complete "Back In the USSR", adding numerous
overdubs which include jet airplane sounds taken from the EMI tape
library: 'Volume 17: Jet and Piston Engine Aeroplane".



Hasta La Vista