page_title: Beatlemania
section_title: 1964 world tour and A Hard Day's Night
hierarchical_section_title: Beatlemania / 1964–1965: International success / 1964 world tour and A Hard Day's Night
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Collectie / Archief&#160;: Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie&#160;: [ onbekend ] Beschrijving&#160;: Aankomst Beatles op Schiphol, de Beatles tijdens persconferentie. Vlnr Jimmy Nicol, vervanger van Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon Datum&#160;: 5 juni 1964 Locatie&#160;: Noord-Holland, Schiphol Trefwoorden&#160;: muziek, persconferenties, popgroepen Persoonsnaam&#160;: Harrison George, Lennon, John, Mccartney Paul, Nicol Jimmy Instellingsnaam&#160;: Beatles Fotograaf&#160;: Pot, Harry / Anefo Auteursrechthebbende&#160;: Nationaal Archief Materiaalsoort&#160;: Negatief (zwart/wit) Nummer archiefinventaris&#160;: bekijk toegang 2.24.01.05 Bestanddeelnummer&#160;: 916-5130
context_page_description: Beatlemania was the intense fan frenzy surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You". By October, the press adopted the term "Beatlemania" to describe the scenes of adulation that attended the band's concert performances. From the start of 1964, their world tours were characterised by the same levels of hysteria and high-pitched screaming by female fans, both at concerts and during the group's travels. Commentators likened the intensity of this adulation to a religious fervour and to a female masturbation fantasy. Among the displays of deity-like worship, fans would approach the band in the belief that they possessed supernatural healing powers.
  In February 1964, the Beatles arrived in the United States and their televised performances on The Ed Sullivan Show were viewed by approximately 73 million people. There, the band's instant popularity established their international stature, and their unprecedented domination of the national sales charts was similarly repeated in numerous other countries.
context_section_description: The Beatles' success established the popularity of British musical acts for the first time in the US. By mid 1964, several more UK acts had come to the US, including the Dave Clark Five, the Rolling Stones, Billy J. Kramer and Gerry & the Pacemakers. Completing what commentators termed the British Invasion of the US pop market, one-third of all top ten hits there in 1964 were performed by British acts. The Beatles' chart domination was repeated in countries around the world during 1964, as were the familiar displays of mania wherever the band played. Fans besieged their hotels, where sheets and pillowcases were stolen for souvenirs. As the phenomenon escalated over 1964–65, travelling to concert venues involved a journey via helicopter and armoured car. These arrangements came to resemble military operations, with decoy vehicles and a level of security normally afforded a head of state. Contrary to the presentable image the Beatles maintained for reporters covering the tours, their evening parties often descended into orgies with female admirers, which Lennon later likened to the scenes of Roman decadence in Frederico Fellini's film Satyricon.
  When the group toured Australia in June, as part of their 1964 world tour, the population afforded the visit the status of a national event. Despite arriving in Sydney on 11 June amid heavy rain, the Beatles were paraded at the airport on an open-top truck. A woman ran across the airport tarmac and threw her intellectually disabled young child into the truck, shouting, "Catch him, Paul!" McCartney did so before telling her the boy was "lovely" and that she should take him back. Once the truck had slowed, the woman kissed her boy and declared: "He's better! Oh, he's better!" Starr later said that scenes of alleged miracle working by the Beatles were commonplace around the world, including in the UK. 
  A crowd of 300,000 – roughly half the city – welcomed the Beatles to Adelaide on 12 June. This figure was the largest recorded gathering of Australians in one place, and twice the number of people that had greeted Queen Elizabeth II on her royal visit in 1963. They were given a similar welcome in Melbourne on 14 June. Fans lined the city streets and then lay siege outside the Beatles' hotel; cars were crushed and 50 people were hospitalised, some having fallen from trees in an attempt to gain a vantage point of their heroes. The Beatles were asked to make an appearance on their hotel balcony in the hope of placating the crowd. The mass of people and sound was reminiscent of film footage of 1930s Nuremberg rallies. According to author Keith Badman, this prompted Lennon to give a Nazi salute "and shout 'Sieg Heil!', even holding his finger to his upper lip as a Hitler-style moustache". Lennon also took to giving crowds an open-palmed benediction in the style of the Pope.
  During the first concert in Sydney, on 18 June, the audience's habit of hurling Jelly Babies at the stage – a legacy of Harrison saying earlier in the year that he liked Jelly Babies – forced the band to twice stop the show, with McCartney complaining that it was "like bullets coming from all directions". In addition to the sweets, fans threw miniature koala bears and packages as gifts for the band. Hurling objects at the group became a fan ritual carried out wherever the Beatles performed.
  The world tour moved on to New Zealand later in the month. There, the authorities expressed their disapproval of the Beatles and their fans' behaviour by refusing to supply a police escort and by allocating a maximum of three officers to control the thousands of screaming fans outside venues and hotels. In Auckland and Dunedin, the band were left to fight their way through crowds with the help of their road managers, Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall; Lennon was later vocal in his disgust with the local authorities. On 22 June, a young woman broke into the hotel in Wellington where the Beatles were staying, and slashed her wrists when Evans refused her access to the band's rooms. Following the Beatles' arrival in Christchurch on 27 June, a g
caption: Holding a press conference in the Netherlands at the start of their first world tour, June 1964
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