ALL THESE PLACES HAD THEIR MOMENTS
THE LAST US TOUR
John wanted to give up more than the others.
He said that he’d had enough.
– Ringo Starr
Though John had quelled the media furore surrounding his comments, the US tour was plagued by nerve-shredding incidents.
In Cleveland, 2,500 fans invaded the pitch of the city’s stadium. In Washington, DC, the Ku Klux Klan demonstrated outside the concert venue. In Memphis, the band received an anonymous phone call warning them of an assassination attempt that would take place during their gig. On their second show in the city, a fan threw a firecracker on stage. In Cincinnati, amid a downpour, the show was postponed for the night as the tour operators had failed to build a canopy above the stage and the band’s equipment was sodden. In Los Angeles, the gate from their hotel on to the street was locked, and The Beatles found themselves trapped within their armoured van for two hours, surrounded by fans screaming and pounding the sides of the vehicle.
By the time they reached San Francisco and their last show of the tour at Candlestick Park, The Beatles had decided that they could not go on touring. Nothing was announced, but the band took cameras on stage with them and between songs took pictures of each other and the crowd of 25,000. At the end of the concert, they walked off stage, the screams still ringing in their ears. In the plane heading back to the UK, George announced, ‘Well, that’s it. I’m not a Beatle any more.’