Customer Reviews

The Beatles In Cleveland: Memories, Facts & Photos About The Notorious 1964 & 1966 Concerts

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It was so neat following the guys behind the curtain and seeing what they are really like.. This is a most enjoyable book and a must read to anyone in or fan of the music world. I find I have a hard time putting it down. Loved it David.

The Beatles were banned from Public Hall in Cleveland, Ohio in 1964! In an ironic twist of fate, the Beatles were invited back to that same venue in 1966.

The escalation in Beatlemania prompted the Powers That Be never to invite the Beatles to Cleveland again because of the uncontrolled outbursts and manic attacks that are a part of Beatlemania! Fans rushed the stage, jumping police barricades to reach the Fab 4, the World's Best Band!

There is rich Beatle history here. Their 1966 concert in Cleveland was just a breath away from their Swan Song Concert in San Francisco on August 29, 1966.

Readers get to follow the Beatles behind the curtains and join Cleveland listeners to Top 40 and get a feel for the music and events of that era. Readers are also treated to personal accounts and previously unpublished photgraphs about the Beatles in Cleveland. The Beatles and their live performances are all the more effective by the response their fans had. The Beatles were and will continue to remain the most outstanding, nonpareil and world's best band!

This one is a keeper. So much detail went into this topic to produce this book and it is a gem. Written and researched by a true Beatlemaniac who was there. Dave has managed to track down and interview everyone who was connected to these two concerts. The DJS, reporters, opening acts and fans who attended. Through emails he was able to add another dimension to his book by letting fans share their stories of both historical shows, especially the one in 1966. He even interviewed the real estate agent who provided the group with a very groovy, fully furnished, (in their favorite colors!) mobile trailor to stay in while they were waiting to go on stage. The backstage recollections from the djs who got to spend time with them in that trailor, were interesting. Also recollections from opening acts like Barry Tashien of the Remains were a welcome addition. I would like to buy his book so I can read about the entire 1966 American tour. There is so much to say about this very intersting group of British singers from Liverpool, that I wish other insiders would share their memories of other tours and concerts. Enough of those phony, shallow, so called biographies that never get the story right because the author wasn't there and hardly knows the Beatles. There should be more books like this.

I'm 32 years old (young) so the probability of me seeing or having seen a Beatle concert in my lifetime is slim to none. Not true any more. Each and every one of us can experience two Beatle concerts vicariously through The Beatles In Cleveland. The book reads like a screen play with you in the middle of the action. You get there via the fans, the photographers and the deejays. This book is a MUST for the Beatle fan library and a MUST READ for the rest of us who just like a good book on the night stand or at the beach. You'll love the light and easy reading and you'll get goose bumps as you rush the stage with thousands of adoring fans. Move over mystery, romance and biography...The Beatles In Cleveland needs some space.

While conducting an internet search to find information about the Beatles August 14, 1966 concert in Cleveland, I happened upon this book. What a find! Even though I was only 13 years old when I attended the concert, it has remained one of the most exciting events of my life. The author weaves the story of both the 1966 and 1964 concerts through his own recollection of the event and a host of people personally involved with the concert (disc jockeys, promoters, reporters, etc.), and places the story in the context of the events of the 60s. It magically transported me back to that special day and helped me understand the experience, thus enriching my memories of the event. Anyone who loves the Beatles will enjoy the book as it relays conversations with them and observations of them by the various people involved with the event.

This revealing book shows and every detail possible people's recollections about seeing the Beatles appear in their town in 1964, and again in 1966. They miss 65 due to the town banning them from returning! Then when all appears well in 1966, the stage is stormed with cheering fans, and the Beatles make a run for it!!
This book truly gives the dramatic turning point of the Beatles career, and possibly the mark of the end of early Beatlemania!

When I purchased The Beatles in Cleveland I did not quite know what to expect. And what I got during my reading was a very detailed and entertaining account of The Beatles concerts and time spent in Cleveland. Great book - thank for sharing the memories for those of us who were not able to attend! A must read!

Here is a Beatles book that has TEETH!
This is one of those books "BY" a fan "FOR" the fans!
This is my kinda story line.
I'm more likely to buy a book that has the outer circle of things going on - the fans, the venues, those people who worked for them, with them... roadies... what was happening at the concerts, the fans' thoughts, hopes, dreams and memories!
This is the book to take you back to those days when they first "was Fab!"
What a blast!
Thanks, DAVE!!!!!

P.S. Are you ready to write one about The Beatles Philadelphia - September 2, 1964?
'Cause I'm ready to read it! :)

This was a gift for my sister who went to the Beatles concert in Cleveland in 1966, and she loved it! It brought back very happy memories, and has a lot of interesting facts she didn't know.

It was a pair of watershed events in the vast history of 1960s pop culture; The Fab Four performing in concert in Cleveland, Ohio. And they were gigs to remember.

Police ordered the September 1964 event in Public Hall temporarily stopped as a number of the 10,000 fans rushed the stage. The fallout from the raucous atmosphere had a major political consequence; city leaders banned pop music concerts.

But flip the concert disc over to 1966 and the band was back for an August show in the cavernous Municipal Stadium. The first outdoor concert of the tour was temporarily stopped when an estimated 2,500 of the more than 20,000 fans in attendance rushed the stage.

With recollections from top Cleveland DJ's - Jack Armstrong, Jerry G. Bishop, Johnny Canton, Harry Martin - media members like Jane Scott of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, musicians and fans, author Dave Schwensen provides an outstanding oral history of the radio stations vying to be part of the events, the publicity leading to the performances and the lasting impressions left on those involved with the shows, from the stage to the stands.

Reading as if the tours took place only a few years ago, it is a great reminder of the days when one band paved the path to major national tours and stadium shows, with some of the craziness that happened behind-the-scenes making the wild response from the fans seem tame.