The Beatles Washington DC Stadium concert poster – 15 August 1966

The Beatles Washington DC Stadium concert poster – 15 August 1966 This reproduction of an extremely rare, vintage Beatles D.C. Stadium Concert Poster was originally released as a handbill for the band’s 1966 American show. The poster shows photos of John, Paul, George and Ringo’s cheery faces and announces the performance as The Beatles ‘Only appearance this year’. It also announces the support acts as The Cyrkle and The Ronettes. In addition, The Remains and Bobby Hebb were also supported acts for the entire tour. The Washington DC show was the fourth date of The Beatles’ final tour, where they performed one concert before 32,164 people at the DC Stadium. The Beatles’ standard set throughout the tour consisted of 11 songs: ‘Rock And Roll Music’, ‘She’s A Woman’, ‘If I Needed Someone’, ‘Day Tripper’, ‘Baby’s In Black’, ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘Yesterday’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, ‘Nowhere Man’, ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Long Tall Sally’. Although the band’s first appearance in Washington D.C. two years earlier, in 1964 was the more historic performance. The 1966 show was certainly eventful. The show was the first to follow John Lennon’s comments to the press and tv stations about that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Mired in religious controversy, the band’s shows were not sold out. According to the Washington Post there were lots of good tickets still available, priced from $3 to $5 each. According to the boundarystones website Lennon’s infamous “Bigger than Jesus …” comment had actually been published in the U.K. back in March in the London Evening Standard, after an interview with journalist Maureen Cleeve […]. The off-the-cuff remarks elicited scant reaction in England at the time, but when they were republished in the American teen magazine Datebook several months later — on the eve of their upcoming U.S. summer tour — all hell (and some actual fire) broke loose. The outcry exploded mainly in the Southern Bible Belt — with radio stations boycotting Beatles songs, several public burnings of Beatles records and paraphernalia, death threats and other organized protests. The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein considered cancelling the tour, fearing for the lives of his clients. Prior to the concert, five members of Prince George’s County Ku Klux Klan, dressed in red, white and green robes and led by the Imperial Grand Wizard of the Maryland clan, held a parade outside the venue in protest against John Lennon’s comments. After the warm-up acts, the Beatles appeared on stage at 8pm. They raced through a setlist of just 11 songs, in a perfomance lasting just 30 minutes in total. The performance included several songs also performed during their 1964 and 1965 tours. There were no songs performed from their latest album Revolver and no encore. The Fab Four were difficult to see and even more difficult to hear. After the short, nearly inaudible set, the Beatles were quickly spirited away, traveling immediately to Philadelphia for the next date on this whirlwind tour which would pack 19 shows into just 17 days. Though no one outside the band knew it at the time, the Beatles were finished as a live act. Two weeks later, they played their last concert ever at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. How much is an original Beatles Washington DC 1966 concert poster worth? The original version of this poster was a handbill that measured just  5 ½” x 8 ½”. In its original form the paper concert flyer for The Beatles appearing at D.C. Stadium in Washington, D.C. on Monday, August 15, 19661966-08-15such commands high auction prices. One copy was placed at auction in 2018 and achieved a sale price of $3,250. Another came to auction in 2020 and realised a price of almost $5,000.