This is an attempt to inform interested readers (surfers) of the glory Beatles days in Sweden during 1964.
The Beatles made their second visit to Sweden in July 1964.
The newspapers in Sweden wrote about the coming tour
In April the 3rd 1964 you could read in the newspapers about The Beatles probably would
come on a tour later that year. At the end of September or the beginning of October. By
this time The Beatles was the absolute most popular group in the world.
The cities in Sweden had seen what the four boys from England had done in Copenhagen and
Amsterdam and was afraid of what might happen so, for example, Gothenburg didn't dare to
arrange a concert with The Beatles.
Monday July the 27th 1964
Just like before Christmas
In the daily news papers there were some kind of Christmas feelings.
"Aftonbladet" wrote "Today it's the day before the Day. 12.30 tomorrow The
Beatles will arrive at Arlanda International Airport. And the time has come for the pop
concert of the year."
Tuesday July the 28th 1964
The arrival to Sweden for four concerts
The Beatles left London with 10.10 with flight 770 (with a Caravelle) for Stockholm via
Copenhagen.
A little late, 12.30 the plane landed on Swedish ground, nine months after their first
visit to Sweden. The delay did depend on the fuss that the Beatle fans made by the
departure from London.
| Something between 2 000 to 4 000 people had come to
Arlanda to welcome The Beatles to Sweden. The first time The Beatles had came to Sweden there had been some troubles with their passports (the photos, from 1961, on the boys didn't match so well with their look 1963). This time the pass police had to come to The Beatles on the plane. In an improvised interview inside the plane John introduced himself as John Jagger. Paul did clam that he didn't at all looked like Dave Clark but believe it or not he was Dave Clark anyway. George said that he had changed his last name to Chakiris! Ringo was the only one that still was the same, the hair just was a bit longer. First the regular passengers left the plane. After a couple of minutes John, Paul, George and Ringo came out of the plane. |
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A student orchestra played the song "I Want to Hold Your Hand". Paul, fast in the head as usual, started to conduct the orchestra from the stairway. (a sequense of this was filmed by Swedish Television (Hvar 14:th Day) and have been broadcasted at various occations)
Two SAS-employees made PR for the British Airways (BEA) by holding a sign with the
letters TLES after the British Airways logo, BEA.
The 15 police men who were there to protect The Beatles had no problems to take the boys
the 10 meters to a waiting limousine, a black 1961 Chrysler.
| The boys was immediately drown away from Arlanda to their hotel. The hotel this time was Hotel Foresta, a bit outside the town on Lidingo. |
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This time John, Paul, George and Ringo had each one suite on their own by the pool side. Their room numbers were 11,12, 13 and 14.
The suites was with three rooms and a kitchen! Derek Taylor, Mel Evans and Neil Aspinall was with them in the rooms under.
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Paul and John outside Hotel Foresta on Lidingö |
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The first press conference was supposed to be held in the
hotel reception apartments at 14.30 but The Beatles had to shave, change clothes and take
a rest so the journalists had to wait until 15.15 before the boys came for the press
conference. Parts of this press conference was filmed and showed on TV. After the press conference there was a photo session by the hotel pool. |
The two shows at Johanneshovs Isstadion on Thursday July the 28th
The First show: Bad start
| The first show started off badly. Not The Beatles messed up. A giant elevator was supposed to bring The Beatles down to the stage. But no matter how much the Arvid Pettersson (the Caretaker) turned the handles, The Beatles remained on the elevator for five minutes, while the photo flashes sparked, before they were able to get the show going. After this miss organisers decided to let this be a "one night stand". Later during the first show Paul and John got a hit of Swedish electricity. It was their unearthed microphones that suddenly got electrified. A very unpleasant feeling that Paul has mentioned in several interviews since that concert. |
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John, Paul, George and Ringo stuck in the elevator that was supposed to take them down to the stage for their first show at Johanneshovs Isstadion |
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The Second show
End of the Day
After two shows there wasn't much more to do than go to bed. But first they had a late
dinner with lamb steak and salad at Hotel Foresta.
The hotel where The Beatles stayed was guarded by eight policemen, three police cars, two
spaniels and two guards.
Wednesday July the 29th 1964
Most of the day passed in the sign of rest. John went out of bed at about 13.30 and by
14.00 the others were out of bed.
A short photo session was held at the terrace by the hotel.
A Swedish teenage magazine had invited The Beatles for a tour in the archipelago of
Stockholm, but The Beatles couldn't possible leave Foresta Hotel for no other purpose then
the concerts. So Paul had, for all four, to say 'No thanks' to the invitation. The news
paper had bought food for nearly $ 100 for the accession, that they had to eat themselves.
They spent the day drinking tea and playing cards in their rooms.
By 15.00 they had a haircut at the hotels own barber. The barber who got the honour was a guy called Nils Restrup, by that time 44 years of age.
George wanted to by some famous Swedish glass so a big company in Stockholm was called but the company declined. They didn't had time for that sort of things. George had made up his mind about the Swedish gals, so he simply went to the nearby gift shop and bought gals and porcelain himself. Just over $ 100 was spent.
Before The Beatles left for Johanneshovs Isstadion and their afternoon show the had dinner at the hotel. They eat grilled river trout.
Leaving Foresta
At 18.45, by the time the concert started at Johanneshovs Isstadion the boys left Foresta
for the last two concerts. About 500 persons was waiting outside the hotel just to see a
glimpse of The Beatles. Several of them had spent most of the day there in hope of seeing
one or more of the boys.
The driver of the Chrysler that was going to take The Beatles to the concert had problems
making its way to the entrance of the hotel through the crowd.
"They crawled all over the car, on the hood, the roof, everywhere. The whole car was
scratched. The antenna was the only thing that broke." the driver testimonies.
The police came to rescue and made the way clear for The Beatles to enter the
car.
Back to the Arena
The artists/bands who played before The Beatles at the concerts this evening was in order
of appearance;
Jimmy Justice, an English singer that actually was more popular in Sweden than in
England by that time. He had hits in 1962 with songs like 'When My Little Girl Is
Smiling', 'Little Lonely One', 'Ain't That Funny' and 'Spanish Harlem'.
The Mascots, a group from Stockholm that was very much on to The Beatles. The
Mascots had several hits on the Swedish charts during the middle sixties. On their debut
album they made a version of Lennon/McCartney's 'Tip of My Tongue'. The met The Beatles
during the concerts and could tell the papers an interesting fact.
- Paul had two bass guitars. One new shiny that he used when he posed for photographers
and another old, scratched one that he used when he played.
The Shanes, a group from Kiruna (a town in the absolute northern part of Sweden). A
guitar group that changed to fit the pop scene. One of the biggest pop groups in Sweden
during the pop era in the sixties. The Shanes had several hits on the Swedish charts and
in 1966 they had three tracks at the top ten. Still going but not so not strong.
Second day: First show
By the first show the guards knew: This is going to be a hard day (and night). By
the end of the show, when The Beatles plays 'I Wanna Be Your Man' the audience rushed
towards the stage. And when Paul announced the last number, 'Long Tall Sally', the riot
had developed to a chaos.
Hundreds and hundreds of teenagers tried to storm the stage and the guards really worked
hard for the money. Not until The Beatles had left the stage could the guards cool down
the rushing crowd.
During the chaos ten people were injured and three was taken by the police. 55 policemen and guards stood completely powerless.
Two hours passed between the two concerts. The guards called for police reinforcement and police dogs.
Second show
The first 15 minutes went by quite gentle but when they played 'She Loves You' it was the
sparkle that made the heat rise. When Ringo shaked loose in 'I Wanna Be Your Man'
the explosion bursted.
The crowd began to force its way to the stage.
The policemen and the guards had no possibilities to stop the crowd (mainly under aged
teenage girls) in a peaceful way. When it was at its climax the policemen and the guards
simply had to knock down people to keep the stage clean. One girl got kicked so bad in her
stomage that she fainted. Others fainted because of the heat and the bad air. The floor
was a sand floor witch swirled up in the chaos.
The Beatles retreated slowly to the back of the stage and when they were asked to stop the
show they left their instruments and rushed to their box.
Witch after they fast as hell, by car, went back to their hotel.
The after play
By midnight at room no. 3 at Hotel Foresta four tired boys in company with Neil Aspinall,
Derek Taylor and a few more persons summarised the day and the chaotic concerts. John
said:
- Great! Did you saw the guards? They really looked scared! We always want to turn on the
audience and we always do, but there are always troublemakers. They don't belong there.
Ringo looked satisfied. He listened to a version of 'She Loves You' by the Swedish wind
instrument Mercblecket that just had been issued in Sweden.
Paul said:
- I really like this one. They really got the beat. It's really great!
The company orders beef for six persons and sandwiches for the rest.
Later they had a small party in Derek Tailor's suite. A couple of photographers and
journalists and a couple of girls from the Swedish Fan Club talked and drank bear in the
late hours.
George went straight to bed before the party.
Ringo sat in a corner listening to music and kept the beat.
John talked to a journalist from the Daily Express.
Paul talked with the girls from the Swedish Fan Club.
(One of the girls, a dear friend of mine, Barbro (born) Kallbäck, have been of great help
by helping me out with this part of the story - There will be more added to it in the
future)
It was almost 3 o'clock in the morning before The Beatles went to bed for a 12-hours
sleep.
Thursday July the 29th 1964
Things went back to the normal at Hotel Foresta. No policemen, no extra guards, no
hysteric teenagers and no Beatles.
| Their car drow them direct to the staircase of the plane and four
tired boys went immediately to the door of the plane. Their passports had been checked
beforehand. The Beatles departure from a windy Arlanda was pretty anonymous compared with their arrival. About 50 fans had shown up. The Beatles was very tired and only by exhortation from the photographers they turned and waved to their fans. Around 13.00 The Beatles left Sweden after a successful tour for the last time. They never came back... |
The Beatles leaving Sweden Too tired to say good-bye to their Swedish fans |
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Summary
It wasn't much of Sweden that The Beatles saw during this tour. Just Arlanda International
Airport, Hotel Foresta and Johanneshovs Isstadion.
About 17 800 people saw The Beatles during these four concerts on Johanneshovs Isstadion
the 28-29th of July 1964.
9 100 on Tuesday and 8 700 on Wednesday.
Tickets were sold for about $ 33 000. The Beatles got about $ 12 800 in their pockets.
John said later that the 7 000 headed audience was really great but a bit stiff. But that
they liked The Beatles, really. And you should have been there the second day at the
second show. They practically tored the whole place down.
The songs they played during the concerts were: - Twist and Shout - You Can't Do
That - I Was Her Standing There - I Want To Hold Your Hand - All My Loving - She Loves You
- Roll Over Beethoven - Can't Buy Me Love - I Wanna Be Your Man - A Hard Day's Night -
Long Tall Sally
Please feel free to mail me your
comments, complementary, requests, questions or what ever there might be
The Beatles pages
are constructed by Lasse Bengtsson.
