In 1964, the Beatles released the album Something New,
which is what they were to North American audiences. Their first
Canadian concert took place that year at Vancouver’s Empire Stadium,
where tickets topped out at $5.25. The concert was broadcast live on
CKNW and, for a performance that lasted 27 minutes, the band was
contracted to be paid 60 per cent of the $100,000 box-office take.
According to Vancouver Sun music critic William Littler, the money was
barely earned by the “Liverpudlian tonsorial horrors” who looked
“anthropologically interesting” but were loud, monotonous and unmusical.
Littler, who went on to write for the Toronto Star, predicted the
Beatles phenomenon would soon dissipate and allow “music lovers
everywhere [to] rejoice – yeah, yeah, yeah.” The band never played
Vancouver again.
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