It was 50 years ago today: Anniversary of Beatles' last show in Canada a bittersweet affair
They say that if you remember the 1960s, you weren't really there. A similar thing could be said of the Beatles' last concert in Canada, which took place at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on Aug.17, 1966: if you remember hearing the music clearly, you probably weren't there.
Toronto Mayor John Tory was there: only 12 years old, younger sister in tow, tickets procured by their grandfather "The volume of the screaming was such that you could just barely hear the music," Tory said in an interview with CBC News, recalling his excitement. "To be in that environment was quite an experience. But if you said you went for the clarity of music, to hear every song, that would be an untruth, because you could hardly hear anything."
Unbeknownst to Tory and other Beatles fans at the time, that very thing — the noise that drowned out the music — was one of the factors that led the Fab Four to stop touring and conclude that their musical mission was better carried out in the studio producing albums.
Their last major concert took place just 12 days after the Toronto stop. Several studio albums later, in 1970, they broke up.
And that's why this week's celebration of all things Beatles in Toronto is a bittersweet moment. It sheds light on the rarely explored importance of Canada and Toronto to the Beatles' career and also serves as a reminder that the concert-goers at Maple Leaf Gardens witnessed the beginning of the end of one of rock's greatest bands.
By: Deanna Sumanac -Johnson
Source: CBC News
