Roll over, Beethoven!
Queens is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the world-famous Beatles concert at Shea Stadium this weekend.
On Friday, May 16, head over to the Queens Historical Society, where Executive Director Jason D. Antos will offer a slideshow and screening at 7 pm.
Antos, who wrote a book on Shea Stadium with Arcadia Publishing in 2007, will mix actual footage with photos and anecdotes from his own research to describe that warm evening on Aug. 15, 1965, when the Lads from Liverpool landed in a helicopter on what is now Terrace on the Park and then paraded through the Corona streets before playing a dozen of their hits before 55,600 screaming fans.
History was made and an era was defined. In a 1970 interview, John Lennon said: “At Shea Stadium, I saw the top of the mountain.” Meanwhile in a 1995 interview, Ringo Starr added: “What I remember most about the concert was that we were so far away from the audience and screaming had become the thing to do. Everybody screamed.”
General admission is $15, and QHS is based in Kingsland Homestead at 143-35 37th Ave. in Flushing.
Two days later – on May 18 at 5 pm – top-notch British Invasion tribute band Here Comes The Sun will come together and jam in Bayside. (Rain date: May 20 at 7 pm).
Not an impersonation act, this five-piece, all-star team of multi-instrumentalist/vocalists from Broadway, Lincoln Center, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra creates a unique experience that celebrates the Fab Four and other English rockers, including The Rolling Stones and The Who.
To take place in the somewhat strawberry fields inside the Fort Totten Loop, this concert is free thanks to City Council Member Vickie Paladino and the Queens Culture & Arts Network. Launched last year, QCAN organizes workshops, gallery exhibitions, live shows, school residencies, and other arts experiences. It’s a subsidiary of the Astoria-based Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens, and the executive director is Susan Agin, who previously ran the Queensborough Performing Arts Center for 20 years.
Editor’s note: The 1965 Beatles concert in Shea Stadium was a major event in the live music industry and a serious magical myster tour, but it also changed drummer Ringo Starr’s life forever. One attendee was Bellerose native Barbara Goldbach, a recent graduate from Dominican Commercial High School who twisted and shouted the night away.
About that time, she was appearing in such magazines as “Seventeen,” “Vogue USA,” and “Playboy” with the shortened last name Bach. Then in 1975, she played sexy Russian spy Anya Amasova in the James Bond thriller “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Later, the Queens gal starred in the 1981 comedy “Caveman” alongside Ringo Starr. By the end of filming, they were dating. They got married in London later that year.
