When John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr took the stage during Beatles concerts, they could hardly hear themselves play. Their audience began screaming before they saw the band and rarely stopped until after the band had departed. Members of the band found this frustrating, but Lennon defended their fans. While he seems like the most unlikely defender, his wife said he felt a great deal of gratitude for Beatles fans.
John Lennon defended noisy Beatles fans
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Footage of The Beatles running to take the stage during their concerts almost always includes shots of people covering their ears. The sound of screaming was so loud that the music could hardly reach the audience. Even the band couldn’t hear what they were doing.
“Screaming had just become the thing to do,” Starr said in The Beatles Anthology. “We didn’t say, ‘OK, don’t forget, at this concert — everybody scream!’ Everybody just screamed.”
While this bothered some members of the band, Lennon didn’t have a problem with it.
“We played for four or five years being completely heard and it was good fun,” Lennon said. “And it’s just as good fun to play being not heard and being more popular. They pay the money; if they want to scream — scream. We scream, literally; we’re just screaming at them, only with guitars. Everybody’s screaming — there’s no harm in it.”
John Lennon’s wife said he felt gratitude toward Beatles fans
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Though Lennon criticized many elements of his Beatles years, his wife Cynthia said he only felt grateful for his fans.
“He could be intolerant of hangers-on, gold-diggers, money-men, and sycophants, but he respected and cared for the fans,” she wrote in her book John. “He believed the group owed them a lot. After all, they were the ones who bought the records and paid to go to the concerts.”
His bandmates did not feel the same way about their concerts
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Though Lennon criticized many elements of his Beatles years, his wife Cynthia said he only felt grateful for his fans.
“He could be intolerant of hangers-on, gold-diggers, money-men, and sycophants, but he respected and cared for the fans,” she wrote in her book John. “He believed the group owed them a lot. After all, they were the ones who bought the records and paid to go to the concerts.”
His bandmates did not feel the same way about their concerts
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Though Lennon felt the fans should be able to scream throughout The Beatles’ concerts, his bandmates disagreed. McCartney implied that real fans of their music would not have drowned out their songs.
“Linda [McCartney] was also there — but as she was a real music fan she was quite pissed off with everyone screaming,” he said. “I think she enjoyed the experience but she genuinely wanted to hear the show. That wasn’t the deal, though. Not then.”
Starr said that their live shows actively damaged the band’s musical abilities. If they couldn’t hear themselves play, they couldn’t improve.
“It was wrecking our playing,” Starr said, per The Beatles: The Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies. “The noise of the people just drowned anything. Eventually I just used to play the off beat, instead of a constant beat. I couldn’t hear myself half the time, even on the amps, with all the noise.”
In 1966, the band played the final show of their touring careers. No matter how they felt about their fans, they all agreed it was a relief.
