The Beatles Busch Memorial Stadium Poster – Vintage Beatles Concert Poster – Vintage Music Poster

The Beatles Busch Memorial Stadium Poster – Vintage Beatles Concert Poster – Vintage Music Poster On Sunday, August 21st, 1966 The Beatles, one of the most iconic bands of all time, played their only show in St Louis, Missouri. It was The Beatles’ third tour of North America… and as it turned out their last! The Beatles tour in August 1966 consisted of 18 performances,16 shows in the US and two in Canada. This bright yellow Beatles Busch Memorial Stadium Poster was produced to try to boost ticket sales for the event. Ticket sales for the entire American tour had been slow to sell. They were hampered by the furore over John Lennon’s “More popular than Jesus” remark in an interview for the London newspaper The Evening Standard. In his interview with British journalist Maureen Cleave, Lennon responded to a question by saying the public were more infatuated with the band than with Jesus and that Christian faith was declining to the extent that it might be outlasted by rock music. His innocuous, off-the-cuff quip caused no controversy in Britain when it was originally published in March. In America however, the Bigger than Jesus headline drew angry reactions from Christian communities when republished in the United States that July. Lennon’s comments incited protests and death threats, particularly throughout the Bible Belt of Southern America. Several radio stations stopped playing Beatles songs, records were publicly burned, Capitol Records sales dropped dramatically, and press conferences were cancelled. The controversy even overshadowed press coverage of their newest album, Revolver. Lennon’s repeated apologies in interviews and explanations through press conferences that he was not comparing himself or the band to Christ, the damage was done. The backlash resulted in poor ticket sales for the entire tour. The band was still playing to large American audiences but they were often far from sold out. The Beatles Busch Memorial Stadium Poster features the same Fab Four publicity shot that was used on the more famous Sid Bernstein Shea Stadium poster but in a much smaller format. The rest of the poster provided many of the details for the forthcoming concert. At the top, the poster reads Stix, Baer & Fuller – Seven-Up Presents The Beatles. Stix, Baer & Fuller was a department store in St Louis and Seven-up were a local soda brand that went on to become the global, drinks giant we know today. It was those two companies that provided the $135,000 necessary to bring the Beatles to the town. The poster then provides the name of the venue Busch Memorial Stadium. Also known as Busch Stadium II, the multi-purpose stadium was the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, the city’s Major League Baseball team and also hosted the National Football League’s St. Louis Cardinals. The stadium had a seating capacity of over 50,000. The stadium was demolished in 2005 and was replaced by the current Busch Stadium, which opened in 2006. The date of Sunday, Aug 21 and the start time of 8 pm appears on either side of the famous photo of the Fab Four. The yellow Beatles poster informs fans that “Good Seats Now Available”. As a fan of live music, it’s interesting to see the inclusion of ticket prices and compare them to ticket prices today. Ticket prices were offered in three prices bands; $4.50, $5.00 and $5.50. What the concert poster doesn’t do is name the stellar support acts that also appeared on the evening bill with the boys from Liverpool. The impressive line-up was bolstered by the Del-Rays, The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle and The Ronettes. Not a bad line-up for a ticket price that wouldn’t buy you a coffee today! Although the poster doesn’t say it tickets went for the show went on sale in May. What the poster does let us know is that they were available through a few outlets including the Dick Esser ticket agency at 812 Olive, Stix at Riverroad and Westraod and at Joe’s 4 Music Shops. The poster signs off by telling us that the event is A Regal Sports Promotion. The original Busch Memorial Stadium Posters were produced by Murray Poster Printing Co. in 1966. The original posters were printed at 28 x 41” and produced with a popular but basic design commonly referred to as “boxing style” posters. How much is an original Beatles Busch Memorial Stadium Poster worth? Original Beatles concert posters are amongst the rarest of all Beatles memorabilia. The early shows were only promoted locally with posters printed in low numbers to be put up around town. Even as the band got bigger and did national tours venues would only print maybe 40 or 50 posters for each gig. These numbers would increase to 200-250 when the band started to tour America’s larger cities. Unlike today, in those early days, bands and record companies hadn’t caught on to selling concert posters. And, although Beatle fans became so fanatical, most concert-goers didn’t consider spontaneously tearing a poster off the wall to keep as a souvenir or a future investment. Most of the limited number of posters were plastered on walls and hoardings and pasted over with the following month’s acts. Any left over were simply discarded or thrown away. The few that remain tend to have been ‘saved’ by managers, venues, employees and the odd avid fan. It is thanks to two avid fans that two of the rarest Beatles posters still exist… the Shea Stadium and the Busch Memorial Posters. The iCollector.com website tells how the two posters were saved, described by the woman who owned them for more than forty years. “My friend and I were at the ticket agency on Olive Street in downtown St. Louis early in the morning the first day tickets were available… we sat on the floor and waited for them to open… when the doors opened we bought almost the first tickets. The ticket agent sold us tickets that were directly above the field entrance where The Beatles would enter and leave… We asked the manager if we could have the poster on display. He took our names/addresses and said he would send it. Some weeks later at school, we saw each other in the hall and both said “Guess what I got in the mail yesterday!” She had gotten the Shea poster, I had gotten the St Louis poster… She was disappointed because she wanted the poster for the concert we were to attend… and gave me the Shea poster” Almost 50 years later both posters proved to be unbelievably important. The Shea Stadium poster is one of just two posters that are thought to exist. The Beatles St Louis Concert Poster is even rarer and is widely considered to be the only surviving copy. The famous 1966 Shea Stadium poster is undoubtedly one of the holy grails for Beatles posters. Its notoriety was cemented when two copies of the poster were sold at auction within months of each other, setting new records. The first copy sold for $175,000 in May 2018, while the second copy smashed that record by selling for $275,000 in November 2019. There was a lot of hype about the Shea Stadium gig. It was, at that time, by far the largest show business event up til that point. The band played to a crowd of 56,000 fans, the largest-ever attendance for a show. It was filmed for posterity and the band earned $189,000 for a 27-minute performance. Although it was part of the same 1966 tour, the Busch Memorial Concert simply isn’t as well-known. Despite this, the only remaining copy of the Busch Memorial Concert Poster was put up for auction in 2007 and reached a hammer price of $35,000. It hasn’t been seen on the market since. But given that the Shea poster was valued at a similar price at that time, it would surprise us that, if this poster came to market today it could even exceed the 2019 Shea Stadium hammer price. Money can’t buy you love but it can buy you some pretty cool Beatles posters if you have a lot of it! What is the demand for Beatles memorabilia? The Beatles are a legendary band that has left an indelible mark on music and popular culture. Their music continues to be celebrated and enjoyed by millions of people around the world, and their influence on fashion, art, and other forms of entertainment is still felt today. As a result, Beatles memorabilia has become a highly sought-after commodity among collectors and fans alike. The variety of Beatles merchandise that has been produced over the decades is astounding, with options for fans and collectors of all ages and interests. From the ubiquitous t-shirts, mugs and hats to more unique items like Beatles-themed board games, puzzles, and even LEGO sets. Personal items from the band are certainly amongst the most sought-after Beatles items and the ones that command the highest prices at auction. Guitars… Guitars played by John, Paul and George are both unique and amongst the most valuable collector’s items. The first guitar Paul McCartney ever held was a Rex acoustic owned by his friend Ian James, who taught McCartney how to play chords and run riffs. McCartney used his newfound skills to impress John Lennon during their first meeting in 1957. The guitar was later auctioned in 2006 with a letter of provenance from McCartney. It 2006 the guitar sold at auction for $613,974 to Craig Jackson, President and CEO of Barrett-Jackson Auctions. Two of the most expensive pieces of Beatles memorabilia are George Harrison guitars. The first is his 1962 Rickenbacker 425 guitar that he bought in Benton, Illinois while visiting his sister in America. After buying the guitar and refinishing it in black to match Lennon’s Rickenbacker, Harrison brought it back to England where he played it during the band’s first appearances on the TV shows Ready Steady Go! and Thank Your Lucky Stars. It was also used during the recording of The Beatles’ hit “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Later, Harrison gave the guitar to a friend whose band played it on Top of the Pops. The guitar remained in his collection for years and sold for $610,000 at an auction in May 2014. One that became his go-to guitar for both live shows and recording sessions from 1966 to 1969 was a cherry red 1964 Gibson SG Standard. It was used in the making of The Beatles’ groundbreaking album, Revolver, and appeared in the promotional film for the non-album single Paperback Writer. After being used by John Lennon during the recording sessions for The White Album, Harrison gave the guitar to Peter Ham of Badfinger. After Ham’s death, the guitar was stored for 28 years before being sold at Christie’s in New York in 2004 for $567,000 to Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts and collector of famous guitars. Not surprisingly it’s two guitars originally owned by John Lennon that top the charts as the most valuable Beatles guitars ever sold. The first of these was a 1964 Rickenbacker that John used in 1964 to play a series of Christmas concerts at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. During one show, Lennon broke his guitar and was given a 1964 Rickenbacker by the manufacturer’s UK importer. He was still using it in 1968 during the White Album sessions. Those sessions were famously frought with tension and were the beginning of the end for the band. Whilst stories differ it is widely believed that Lennon and McCartney hated each other’s songs, Harrison thought McCartney was being too controlling, the band members were recording in separate studio sessions, Yoko Ono was a constant presence in the studio, Abbey Road engineers began walking out and Ringo was often left sitting in reception for hours, waiting for his bickering band mates to turn up. Eventually, Ringo Starr snapped when McCartney criticised his drumming during the recording of ‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’ Starr walked out of the studio and took his family on holiday for two weeks. It would have been longer if John, Paul and George hadn’t pleaded for his return. When he did return, he brought with his own song “Octopus’s Garden which was inspired by his holiday. As a welcome-back gift, Lennon gave Starr the Rickenbacker guitar. The drummer kept the guitar for years before selling it for $910,000 at auction in 2015, making it the second-most valuable Beatles guitar sold. The number one slot, however, goes to John Lennon’s Gibson J-160E guitar. In 1962, John Lennon and George Harrison each purchased a  Gibson J-160E electric-acoustic guitar from a Liverpool music store for £161 each, a significant amount of money at the time. Lennon’s guitar was finished in a natural sunburst, while Harrison’s was finished in a dark sunburst. Lennon used his to write many early Beatles hits and record two albums. But the guitar vanished after The Beatles Finsbury Park Christmas Show in London in 1963. Decades later, musician John McCaw discovered it in San Diego, and an expert authenticated it as Lennon’s lost guitar. In 2015, it sold at auction for $2.4 million, the highest ever paid for Beatles memorabilia. Drums… Not to be outdone by his bandmates, Ringo Starr-related memorabilia doesn’t do too shabbily either. One drumkit, Ringo’s iconic 1963 Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl drum featuring the iconic ‘Drop T’ logo, is a legendary tale in the history of music. According to Beatles legend Ringo and Brian Epstein went shopping for a new kit to replace his well-worn Premier kit. Ringo spotted the Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl 3-piece kit in the window of Drum City Ltd. Epstein went off to haggle with the store’s owner,  negotiating a deal with store owner Ivor Arbiter to have the band’s name painted on the bass drum. Arbiter knocked up a quick sketch which emphasised the ‘Beat’ in ‘Beatles’, then sent it over to his regular sign painter Eddie Stokes. Together they unwittingly created the most famous band logo in music history. Over the next nine months, with Ringo’s new kit, the band played gave more than 200 live performances across the U.K, along with tours in Sweden and France and recorded hits such as “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “She Loves You.” The famous kit was brought out of retirement in the early 1970s to be used on McCartney’s debut Wings album, after which it remained in storage for decades until Ringo commissioned experts to restore it to its original condition in 2013. In 2015, the kit was auctioned for a record-breaking $2,110,000. The buyer was Jim Irsay, the billionaire owner of the Indianapolis Colts and one of the world’s leading collectors of Beatles memorabilia. A later Ringo Starr drumkit performed even better. Well, when we say drum kit we should say drum skin! When The Beatles made the trek over to America in 1964 for their first groundbreaking TV appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, they travelled light. Ringo’s equipment consisted of a snare drum, his cymbals and a newly painted bass drum skin to attach to a kit when they reached the US. Ringo played their first U.S concert at the Washington Coliseum using this drum kit and then used it for two performances at Carnegie Hall and a second appearance on Ed Sullivan’s show. After returning from the U.S, the skin was stored at Abbey Road Studios. It was discovered in 1984 and was put up for auction. The drum skin sold for almost $9,000 to Australian collector George Wilkins, who displayed it in his restaurant. In 1994, Beatles expert Russ Lease purchased the skin for $44,000 and spent eight years researching it. He was able to confirm that it was indeed the one used on the Ed Sullivan Show, and in 2015, it sold at auction for a whacking $2.19 million. and Rock and Roll Music… It’s perhaps strange that today, even the Beatles music itself has become collectable, with fans paying large sums of money for rare vinyl, import CDs and even old cassette tapes. A perfect example is Ringo’s personal copy of The White Album. As we’ve discussed the White Album sessions were a tumultuous time for the band that was on the verge of breaking up. Despite constant arguments throughout its recording, and a disagreement about whether it should be a single or a double album, The Beatles were still excited upon the release of their ninth studio album in November 1968. The album’s iconic cover was designed by the British artist Richard Hamilton who suggested to the band that each cover should carry a unique serial number. He liked the irony of creating a unique version of each album that might sell two, five or ten million copies… an endless ‘limited edition’. The idea appealed to the band, especially to Lennon and the idea was put into action. According to the artsy.net website only the first 2 million copies featured a serial number in the bottom right corner. Furthermore the same number system was used across twelve plants pressing the album covers, so there are actually 12 copies of each number out there. Quite rightly the band themselves were given the first four copies numbered ‘0000001’ to ‘0000004’.  It was believed by most fans that Lennon received the first copy. A fact borne out in an interview with Paul McCartney who claimed John had ‘bagsied’ the first copy. It took thirty-five years before the genuine recipient was revealed when Ringo got it out of his bank vault in 2003. In 2008, the lowest numbered copy to come to market was ‘0000005’. It had been owned by a close friend of Lennon’s and it fetched almost $30,000 on eBay in 2008. Perhaps inspired by this, in an attempt to raise funds for the Lotus Foundation, a charity founded by Ringo Starr and his wife Barbara Bach, placed his personal copy up for auction. Although estimated at between $40,000 and $60,000, it carried a starting bid of $20,000. At the auction, held in 2015 the vinyl double album sold for a record-breaking $790,000, making it the most expensive record ever sold. The Beatles concert at Busch Memorial Stadium 1966 Tickets for the show went on sale in May. The show was far from a sell-out. In fact, just under half of the 50,000 had been sold for The Beatles’ only appearance at the newly-opened Busch Memorial Stadium. After performing their postponed concert in Cincinnati at midday, the band flew 341 miles to St Louis. The performance at St Louis would be the first and only time the group would perform in two different cities in one day. More than 23,000 Beatles fans, soaking wet from the intermittent but heavy Illinois rain waited in eager anticipation. As the poster claimed, the show got underway at 8 pm. The first act on stage was a ‘local’ group called the Del-Rays. The band hailed from Mascoutah, Illinois. The five-piece outfit was made up of  Tom Bowles and Rich Lang on guitar, Denny Ambry on bass, Don “Barney” Biever on Drums, and Jim Lang on saxophone. The Del-Rays were managed by the DJ Nick Charles who was partly responsible for putting the event together. The band were frequent performers on the St. Louis and Metro East concert circuit and recorded a seven-inch single called Don’t Let Her Be Your Baby for the Stax label and a Northern Soul based version of Allen Toussaint’s Fortune Teller in 1965. The Del-Rays managed to get through most of the set without getting too wet but the rain resumed as the Del-Rays finished. The inclement weather saw a significant change to the line-up. It was decided that the Beatles would now not headline and appear in the bill than expected. They would come on stage after The Remains and Bobby Hebb had performed, leaving the Cyrkle and Ronettes to top the bill. According to the Beatles Bible website the Beatles took to the stage in heavy rain, and like all the acts had to perform under a makeshift shelter to ‘protect’ the musicians.  However, the rain still dripped dangerously onto the amplifiers. The band kicked off the show with Chuck Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music. Although it might have seemed like a nod to great St Louis born rock and roller, the song was the band’s standard opener. According to an article written by Mike Appleton in 2016 on the RiverFrontTimes website the band continued to play as the rain fell. During the 30-35 minute set the band performed Nowhere Man, Yesterday, If I needed Someone and Day Tripper from the Yesterday and Today album. The songs were taken from the group’s recently released  nineth Capital Records album. From Beatles ’65, they played “She’s a Woman,” “I Feel Fine” and “Baby’s in Black.” They reached back to Meet the Beatles for “I Wanna Be Your Man.” They also performed “Paperback Writer,” their most recent single, but, rather surprisingly especially given the weather, not “Rain,” the single’s B-Side. Strangely, they also chose not to perform any songs from their new Revolver album, released just a few weeks earlier! The band finished the half-hour set with “Long Tall Sally.” The band rattled off eleven songs in just over half an hour. Despite the rain, there doesn’t appear to be any negativity amongst the press reports or fans regarding the show. In fact, reviews and fan letters seem to suggest that it was a fabulous show and a life-changing experience for those that attended. The same could not be said by The Beatles. Far from being the fun, jaw-dropping, eye-opening, first-time experience for the four young lads from Liverpool, this time the group appeared worn-down and weary with America. And who can blame them? Why did the Beatles stop performing live? In 1966, The Beatles were at the height of their fame in 1966.Having already taken the world by storm with their innovative music and unique style. In 1966, they were at the peak of their creative and commercial success, with numerous hit singles, best-selling albums, and sold-out concerts around the globe. The Band had released their landmark album “Revolver,” showcasing the band’s experimentation with new sounds and recording techniques. The album received critical acclaim and was a commercial success, further cementing The Beatles’ status as musical pioneers. However, the year also saw a significant change in the Beatlemania phenomenon and not one for the better. Between 24th June and 4th July 1966 the band embarked on what would be their last shows in Europe and their first and last shows in Asia. It was  a three country, five city jaunt performing thirteen shows. The tour included stops in West Germany, Manila and Japan. The tour didn’t start off in the best of circumstances, the band arrived in Munich on 23 June, exhausted from their recent work in the studio recording the Revolver album. The West Germany shows in Munich, Essen and Hamburg represented a return to the country where the Beatles had honed their craft before achieving fame in 1963. Instead of being a celebration, the shows were marred by violence from the German police force. Accounts suggest The Beatles were undeniably ring rusty, and the Munich concert film supports claims that the Beatles generally delivered a below-par performance. However, it’s the sinister  “Brutality at Beatle Shows” headline on the front of the 2 July 1966 Melody Maker that seems to the tone for the rest of the tour. A correspondent from Beatles Monthly magazine described the German concerts as “frightening” because of the police’s treatment towards the group’s fans using batons, tear gas and guard dogs.  Even in Hamburg, viewed as a sort of  homecoming, a scheduled band outing to St Pauli, area of Hamburg where the Beatles had been based in the early 1960s, was cancelled due to the potential security risks. The Japanese leg of the tour wasn’t much better. To meet Epstein’s requirement of $100,000 (equivalent to $800,000 in 2021) for each performance, the 10,000-seat Nippon Budokan Hall was chosen. Tickets were priced at twice the rate of any previous visiting pop act. The announcement that the concerts were to take place at the infamous martial arts venue that is also revered as a shrine to Japan’s war dead – outraged the country’s hardline nationalists. Many of whom vowed to intercede and stop the proceedings. This, combined with a written death threat that the Beatles had received while in Hamburg, ensured that security around the group during their stay was extreme. Some 35,000 police and fire brigade personnel were mobilised to protect the Beatles… an operation comparable with Japan’s security measures when hosting the Olympic Games in 1964. Furthermore, other than for one press conference and the concert performances, the Fab Four were officially confined to their hotel suite for the duration of their stay. Unbelievably, Manilla was even worse! For Beatles fans the entire episode makes for fascinating reading and there’s a well-documented article here to provide more details. However, let’s just say, that during their 24 hours stay the Beatles were separated from Brian Epstein and their tour and road managers Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans. At the airport the four lads from Liverpool were  hustled into a vehicle by armed men wearing civilian clothes. They were driven to the headquarters of the Phillipine Navy on Manila Harbour and led to a press conference attended by 40 journalists. They were then escorted by military personnel to a luxury yacht owned by Don Manolo Elizalde, a wealthy Filipino industrialist, whose 24-year-old son wanted to host a party to show off the Beatles to his friends. Epstein finally caught up with the band before the yacht sailed out into Manila Bay. After spending several hours on board, the Beatles and their entourage were returned to the marina to make their way to their hotel. It was an auspicious start to their time in Manilla. Matters took a turn for the worse when Epstein and the Beatles didn’t show for a party held by Imelda Marcos at the  Malacañang Palace in honour of the boys. In fairness, reports state that the band didn’t know anything about the ‘meet and greet’ and Epstein had already declined the offer whilst in Tokyo. However, it seems the message didn’t get passed along. On the morning of the show the band were rudely awakened by security staff intent on taking them to the event. Despite pressure from the concert promoter and the British Embassy, Epstein and The Beatles dug in their cuban heels and refused to attend. The band were unaware of the furore they had caused until they watched the news before they were leaving for the first of the shows. Imelda Marcos had been snubbed.News footage from the palace was broadcast of the First Lady saying that the visiting musicians had let her down. Further images of children crying in disappointment, and the four empty seats reserved for the Beatles were also shown. The Beatles played the first of their two concerts at the Rizal football stadium at 4pm, in front of 30,000 fans. The second show took place at 8:30pm and was attended by 50,000 fans. The combined total of 80,000 was the largest audience to see the Beatles in concert on a single day. In between the two shows, Epstein had been watching the continual news broadcasts attempting to shame the band. In an attempt to limit the damage the group’s manager resolved to record a message to explain the Beatles’ nonappearance at Malacañang Palace. The government-owned Channel 5, filmed the message at the Manila Hotel. However, when it was broadcast later that evening, the sound was distorted, seemingly intentionally, and Epstein’s explanation was rendered inaudible. According to the Paul McCartney Project website Beatles Press Officer Tony Barrow recalls that “a backlash against the Beatles was evident straight after the evening show at Rizal, when their convoy of cars was briefly trapped behind a closed gate and surrounded by a large crowd of “organised troublemakers”. As the NEMS representative who had dealt directly with the Filipino promoter, Lewis was taken away by police officers during the night and subjected to a three-hour interrogation for his role in “snubbing” the Philippines. Lewis contacted the British Embassy, where Minford, in a telegram to the Foreign Office, reported that “a technical hitch overpayment of Philippine income tax” was likely to delay the Beatles’ departure. Once again, death threats against the Beatles were reported at the embassy and at their hotel. On the morning of July 5th, The Beatles rose early in anticipation of their flight to Delhi, India. However, their requests for room service were ignored, prompting their raod manager, Mal Evans, to investigate, only to  discover that all security protection within the hotel had disappeared. The morning newspapers featured front-page stories criticising The Beatles for their absence at Malacañang Palace, adding to the mounting pressure. The tour party faced further intimidation from Marcos loyalists, including a tax bill from the Bureau of Internal Revenue for their concert earnings, which were still held by Ramos, despite NEMS’ contract with Cavalcade stating that the local promoter should cover such taxes. The police escort through the city was also cancelled, leaving Epstein to urgently plead with the pilot of their KLM flight for a delay. On their way to the airport, their Filipino drivers took the wrong routes, the cars were repeatedly directed around the same traffic roundabouts, causing mayhem and delays in getting to the airport to leave. In his book The Love You Make Peter Brown writes, when they arrived at the airport, it resembled an “armed military camp”. Aside from a heavy army presence, hundreds of irate citizens lined the path into the terminal building, where they harassed and jostled the tour party as each member walked by. Inside the terminal, on the instructions of Willy Jurado, the airport manager, the escalators had been turned off, and the band and their entourage were denied any assistance with musical instruments, amplifiers and luggage. The crowd from outside the building were then permitted into a glass-walled observation area, from which they continued their haranguing of the Beatles. The tour party moved into a large departure lounge, where uniformed men and others that Harrison recognised as the “thugs” from their arrival in Manila, began beating and kicking them, moving them from one corner of the room into another. Jurado later bragged about knocking Epstein to the ground and punching Lennon and Starr in the face, adding: “That’s what happens when you insult the First Lady.” Along with Alf Bicknell, Mal Evans received a particularly thorough bashin after he intervened to shield the four band members from their attackers. The tour party were finally allowed to board the aircraft. The events of the short tour were enough for Lennon who in a television interview for ITV stated Lennon said they would “never go to any nuthouses again”. Harrison was even more scathing stating “the only reason to return to the Philippines would be to drop a bomb on the country”. Even  Ringo Starr later described their ordeal in Manila as “the most frightening thing that’s ever happened to me”.  In addition to their recent experiences the repetitive nature of the typical 1960s package tour format didn’t offer the band much in the way of artistic fulfilment. Two half-hour shows per day featuring almost identical set lists, playing to crowds of screaming, hysterical fans with inadequate amplification, the band’s inability to hear themselves play leading to poor performances were also taking its toll. The live shows highlighted the division between what the group could achieve when performing live as a four-piece and the more complex music they were able to create in the recording studio. The three Beatles were already discussing not playing live again after the forthcoming American tour. According to Barrow, the decision to quit touring after 1966 was made without McCartney’s agreement and marked the first time that the Beatles had committed to a course of action without unanimous agreement among the four. Epstein and McCartney hoped the American leg would make the others see sense. When the 1966 world tour resumed there on 12 August, the band were the already subject of the backlash over Lennon’s bigger then Jesus comments and his views offered about the Vietnam War. The band were subject to radio and television interview cancellations, and radio play bans of their music in some southern states. The anger even led to further death threats. The show at St Louis had not been great. It had been marred by bad weather, treacherous playing conditions and poor sound. To top it all, Paul McCartney in The Beatles Anthology Book revealed, that after the show the band were shephered into a “big, empty steel-lined wagon”. “There was no furniture in there – nothing. We were sliding around trying to hold on to something, and at that moment everyone said, ‘Oh, this bloody touring lark — I’ve had it up to here, man.’ I finally agreed.” The band had just four dates left to play. Following the St Louis concert The Beatles flew to New York, where they arrived at 3.50am the following morning. After New York, they finished the tour with three West Coast stadium dates: Seattle Center Coliseum, Dodger Stadium and San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. And that was that. Eight days and four shows after the St Louis gig, the band would retire from touring permanently and The Beatles would never play another concert for a paying audience.     The most sought-after Beatles concert posters are from the Beatle’s pre-fame period, either when they played in Hamburg or at the Casbah or The Cavern in Liverpool. Collectors seem to place particular stow on Beatles concert posters from this particular era, possibly because Beatles concert ephemera was at its scarcest then and because the group’s image seems to have a powerful draw for fans during this period. From 1963-1966, Beatles concert posters showing an image of the group were most popular with collectors.