Original promotional poster
LYONS — It’s hard to find a more culturally impactful band worldwide than The Beatles, with their decade of albums and performances shaping rock music history for decades to follow. They cemented their international popularity in the United States with their appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9 and 16, 1964.
Their first tour in the country occurred over a 15-day run, including their Ed Sullivan appearances. Following the broadcast’s massive success, Beatles manager Brian Epstein worked with General Artists Corporation executive Nathan Weiss to plan another, longer tour.
The Beatles performed 32 U.S. shows between August 19 and September 20, 1964, in 26 venues across 24 cities. Every show sparked the chaos and passion of the crowds as “Beatlemania” swept across the States.
On August 26, the quartet of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr performed at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison. The show, presented by local radio station KIMN, served as the only time the Fab Four ever performed in Colorado.
Surprisingly, the performance is marked as one of the tour’s few undersold shows, with 7,000 tickets sold and 2,000 unsold. Even then, the adoring fans overwhelmed the auditorium.
Harry Tuft, who founded and opened the Denver Folklore Center in 1962, vividly remembers that chaos. Earlier that year, he’d taken on the job of promoting Joan Baez as she toured Colorado.
Tuft primarily listened to artists performing classic folk songs over original songs during this time. During their drives to venues, though, Baez searched for Beatles songs on the radio, switching between KIMN and KBTR. Tuft remembers this early moment of listening to their radio hits.
“Here was this reigning folk princess who was enamored of the Beatles,” recalled Tuft in a 2023 interview with The Mountain-Ear, “and I thought that was just amazing and crazy, but it also opened up my eyes to The Beatles.”
During her summer tour schedule, Tuft helped schedule Baez’s first Red Rocks performances for August 28 and lined up her arrival directly with The Beatles. This gave Baez a chance to meet the Fab Four in person.
“I was fortunate enough to stand in the back of the dressing room and watch the four of them interact with Baez,” says Tuft, “which was probably the most outstanding memory that, I guess, if I were to ask ‘What is one memory that you had,’ it was that experience.”
After the concert, the Beatles invited Baez to travel with them on their tour bus for the next few nights. Those nights were an unexpectedly surreal experience for her as she watched the band’s management round up groupies after the shows.
The performance night itself served as a once-in-a-lifetime event for Coloradans in the audience and everyone behind the scenes. Getting the show ready included making sure that the band could be kept safe and have their own space at all times.
Thoughts still lingered on the previous month, when an audience member threw a beer can at the Red Rocks stage during Peter, Paul, and Mary’s performance. Thinking of incidents like this, the amphitheater feared uncontrollable crowds throwing candy (with many Beatles audiences, in particular, frequently tossing Jelly Babies) and drinks at the performers.
After the first “beer can bomber” incident, the amphitheater banned alcoholic drinks to prevent a similar incident from happening during the legendary rock group’s set.
They also briefed an increased security specifically for “Beatles Invasion” strategies, assigning between 137 and 250 Denver police officers to “mop-top duty.”
Eight days before the show, promoter Verne Byers received an anonymous poison-pen postcard with a cut-out letter, signed as “Beatle Hater.” It read, “If you know what’s good for you, cancel Denver engagement. I’ll be in the audience, and I’m going to throw a hand grenade instead of Jelly Babies.”
The following investigation, which included involvement from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, deemed the letter an extortion attempt. The sender’s identity remains unknown, the Red Rocks performance went on as scheduled, and investigators closed the case three weeks after the show.
Ultimately, the security protocols prevented uncontrollable chaos, but didn’t stop the crowd from expressing their uncontainable excitement.
“It was almost physical,” Tuft continues. “You could almost feel the energy penetrate your body. It was pretty incredible.”
Red Rocks is one of four extant venues from the US tour. Very few pictures and video clips are available of The Beatles performing at the amphitheater. That hasn’t stopped people from working to recapture it, though.
1964: The Tribute, a group which stages Beatles concerts as originally performed, recreated the Red Rocks performance in 2004, celebrating its 40th anniversary, and again in 2024, celebrating its 60th. Ringo Starr returned to the amphitheater as a solo act on June 28, 2000.
As a whole group, though, the Beatles never came back to a Colorado stage. August 26, 1964, will forever be the day when Beatlemania truly came to Colorado.
Oskar Blues Grill and Brew in Lyons is hosting A Tribute to the Music of the Beatles, organized by Jami Lunde of Awnry Girl Productions. To see multiple acts “come together” to perform these iconic songs, head to 303 Main Street in Lyons on Saturday, March 28, starting at 7 p.m.
This article’s information is sourced from Chuck Gunderson for CBS News, Reuben Cross for Far Out Magazine, The Beatles Bible, Colorado’s Prime Time News, Gan Jing World, the Colorado Music Experience, and the official Beatles website.
To hear more about Harry Tuft’s musical impact in Colorado, you can listen to his full interview on The Mountain-Ear Podcast.
