The autumn of 1966 marked a momentous time in British history. Never mind that England had just won football's World Cup and the Swinging Sixties were getting underway. This period, which occurred fifty years ago, also saw the retirement from live performance of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the two biggest acts in Britain and, in the case of The Beatles, the world.
For The Beatles, stepping out of the live spotlight following their performance at Candlestick Park, San Francisco on 28 August 1966 was also inevitable and was to be permanent. Amplification was unable to drown out the screaming of the crowds they faced night after night, making their performances unlistenable. Even when audience members wanted to just enjoy to the music, they could barely hear a word. Accounts of the time, including those in my book The Beatles - I Was There, suggest that the noise would abate briefly to hear the between song announcements and then rise again once the next song began.
Abandoning live performance, when the songs they were recording were increasingly complex and not capable of being reproduced by a four piece group onstage, was an almost inevitable progression for The Beatles. But the inability to make themselves heard was the primary driver.
The Stones' musical journey from blues and R&B enthusiasts, slavishly and successfully remodelling the music of their heroes, to pop pioneers in their own right also entered a cul de sac in the autumn of 1966. The distractions of drugs and unhealthy police interest in the group's off stage activities caused them to quit the stage in early 1967.
So it was that on 23 September 1966, the Rolling Stones embarked upon their final British tour with founding member Brian Jones. Apart from a cameo appearance at an NME Pollwinners event in 1968, it was to be Brian's last appearances on a British stage in front of a live audience. Less than three years later, Brian would be ousted from the Stones and, tragically, drown in a swimming pool at his Sussex home in an incident that many now believe to have been murder. Despite the energies put into reexamining other historic cases, Brian's death is one that the police have yet to reopen.
The screaming had abated slightly for the Stones, and Mick Jagger was able to tell audiences to calm down so that the group could play quieter songs like Lady Jane, but there were still stage invasions and hysterical female - and male - fans to deal with. The band had grown up. Their audiences? Perhaps not so much.
So 1966 was a momentous year. It certainly marked a pivotal one for two of the most influential acts in popular music. British fans never got the chance to buy a ticket to see the boys from Liverpool or the London blues enthusiasts led by Brian again.
The Beatles - I Was There and You Had To Be There - The Rolling Stones Live by Richard Houghton chronicle the live histories of these iconic bands and are both available from Amazon.
