Top tickets for The Beatles’ 1965 Balboa Stadium were $5.50. The catering tab: $33.96!

by George Varga

The Beatles’ only San Diego performance took place at Balboa Stadium on Aug. 28, 1965, a year and a day before the most famous of all rock bands performed its final tour date anywhere on Aug. 29, 1966, in San Francisco.

The opportunity to hear John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr perform in San Diego was priceless for the slightly more than 17,000 fans who attended.

It would be 27 years before one of The Beatles returned to perform a solo show here — specifically, Starr, who played an Aug. 8, 1992, concert at Camp Pendleton with his All-Starr Band. McCartney waited considerably longer until he performed his first solo show here, on Sept. 28, 2014, at Petco Park, less than two miles away from Balboa Stadium. (In between those two concerts, McCartney and his post-Beatles band Wings played a 1976 date at the San Diego Sports Arena.)

McCartney at Petco, a full review: Wow!

The Beatles’ lone concert here has long been regarded as a storied event by attendees and non-attendees alike. Here’s a look back at what transpired.

Tickets

Tickets were priced at $3.50, $4.50 and $5.50 each, including taxes.

Attendance

While 27,014 tickets were available for The Beatles’ concert here, only 17,013 fans turned out for the show in the 34,000-seat stadium. The low attendance was due, in large part, to the San Diego show being belatedly added to the itinerary in June of 1965.

That was several months after the rest of the tour had been announced, including two dates at Dodger Stadium and two at The Hollywood Bowl. All four of those Los Angeles shows sold out in an instant, as did the other tour dates — except San Diego.

Get back! The Beatles’ only San Diego concert was 60 years ago this week

The payday

The Beatles’ tour contracts gave them a guaranteed $50,000 per concert, plus a percentage based on ticket sales. Because attendance was so low for the Balboa Stadium show, the band’s percentage amounted to just $135.17.

The opening acts

Four bands preceded The Beatles on stage here. They included three American acts — sax dynamo King Curtis, Motown vocal star Brenda Holloway and Cannibal and The Headhunters — and the English band Sounds Incorporated, featuring future Jeff Beck/David Bowie/T. Rex drummer Tony Newman.

The Beatles at Balboa Stadium in 1965? Tony Newman shared the stage: ‘That show was something else!’

“As we left the stage, one of the guys in Sounds Incorporated said: ‘I don’t know if they’re screaming because they liked us, or because they’re glad we got off’,” Newman said in a 2020 San Diego Union-Tribune interview. “The screaming was overwhelming. It was all that we could hear. With The Beatles, it was just sheer hysteria — and the hysteria as just another day at the office.”

The set list

The Beatles performed 12 songs at Balboa Stadium, although it was challenge to hear them over the nonstop screaming of the excited audience.

In order, the band played “Twist and Shout,” “She’s a Woman,” “I Feel Fine,” “Dizzy Miss Lizzy,” “Ticket to Ride,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Baby’s In Black,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Help!” and “I’m Down.”

The venue

Located adjacent to San Diego High School and City College, Balboa Stadium was the home of the San Diego Chargers. Most of the stadium was torn down in the late 1970s, but it is still used for high school and recreational sports team games.

The first-time co-promoters of The Beatles’ 1965 Balboa Stadium concert were one-and-done

Backstage catering

The Beatles’ contract rider for backstage amenities seems decidedly quaint by today’s standards. The band was provided with four cots and sets of clean sheets; five 1-gallon bottles of water; 10 dozen paper cups; fruit; two cases of soda pop; two tubs of fried chicken; 24 assorted sandwiches; three portable TV sets (it is unclear which Beatle was deprived of a set); and a rented piano. The total cost for backstage food: $33.96.