The Beatles in Sweden
The Beatles second tour to Sweden - 1964  

This is an attempt to inform interested readers (surfers) of the glory Beatles days in Sweden during 1964.

The Beatles made their second visit to Sweden in July 1964.

The newspapers in Sweden wrote about the coming tour
In April the 3rd 1964 you could read in the newspapers about The Beatles probably would come on a tour later that year. At the end of September or the beginning of October. By this time The Beatles was the absolute most popular group in the world.
The cities in Sweden had seen what the four boys from England had done in Copenhagen and Amsterdam and was afraid of what might happen so, for example, Gothenburg didn't dare to arrange a concert with The Beatles.
 
Monday July the 27th 1964
Just like before Christmas
In the daily news papers there were some kind of Christmas feelings.
"Aftonbladet" wrote "Today it's the day before the Day. 12.30 tomorrow The Beatles will arrive at Arlanda International Airport. And the time has come for the pop concert of the year."

Tuesday July the 28th 1964
The arrival to Sweden for four concerts
The Beatles left London with 10.10 with flight 770 (with a Caravelle) for Stockholm via Copenhagen.
A little late, 12.30 the plane landed on Swedish ground, nine months after their first visit to Sweden. The delay did depend on the fuss that the Beatle fans made by the departure from London.

A student orchestra played the song "I Want to Hold Your Hand". Paul, fast in the head as usual, started to conduct the orchestra from the stairway. (a sequense of this was filmed by Swedish Television (Hvar 14:th Day) and have been broadcasted at various occations)

Two SAS-employees made PR for the British Airways (BEA) by holding a sign with the letters TLES after the British Airways logo, BEA.
The 15 police men who were there to protect The Beatles had no problems to take the boys the 10 meters to a waiting limousine, a black 1961 Chrysler.

This time John, Paul, George and Ringo had each one suite on their own by the pool side. Their room numbers were 11,12, 13 and 14.

The suites was with three rooms and a kitchen! Derek Taylor, Mel Evans and Neil Aspinall was with them in the rooms under.

The two shows at Johanneshovs Isstadion on Thursday July the 28th
The only place where The Beatles played at during this visit in Sweden was Johanneshovs Isstadion. Two shows was going to take place. The first one at 18.45 and the second at 22.00.
Everybody was calm and gentle. All the fans lined up outside the arena. Most of the fans were teenagers.
This time The Beatles and the audience were entering the arena from separate ways.  It was a well kept secret where The Beatles was about to enter.
The few of the fans that didn't keep in line and had sneaked around the arena could see The Beatles entering in two cars escorted by two police cars. In no time the boys left the cars and before nobody knew they were inside Johanneshovs Isstadion. "Operation Beatles" was a success! In step one, anyway. There were more to come.
Between 6 - 7 000 people (more people at the early show both days) and 65 cops were there in the arena to see, listen and keep the order on a acceptable level.
The prices for a ticket was from just over one US dollar and more.
The bands on the stage before The Beatles this first day was: a group from Stockholm with three girls called The Kays, The Moonlighters (also from Stockholm) and the still going strong band, The Streaplers (who played with The Beatles on their 1963 tour).
Conferencier was the well known Klas Burling.

The First show: Bad start

The Second show
Less tickets had been sold to the second show of the evening. That did the organisers see as a sign for a peaceful concert.
In the pause between the two shows the guards show a 70 year old lady out from the arena. She had been hiding in a closet 'cos she thought that tickets was too expensive. So, there wasn't only teenagers in the audience. I wonder which one of the boys she liked the most?

End of the Day
After two shows there wasn't much more to do than go to bed. But first they had a late dinner with lamb steak and salad at Hotel Foresta.
The hotel where The Beatles stayed was guarded by eight policemen, three police cars, two spaniels and two guards.

Wednesday July the 29th 1964
Most of the day passed in the sign of rest. John went out of bed at about 13.30 and by 14.00 the others were out of bed.
A short photo session was held at the terrace by the hotel.

A Swedish teenage magazine had invited The Beatles for a tour in the archipelago of Stockholm, but The Beatles couldn't possible leave Foresta Hotel for no other purpose then the concerts. So Paul had, for all four, to say 'No thanks' to the invitation. The news paper had bought food for nearly $ 100 for the accession, that they had to eat themselves.
They spent the day drinking tea and playing cards in their rooms.

By 15.00 they had a haircut at the hotels own barber. The barber who got the honour was a guy called Nils Restrup, by that time 44 years of age.

George wanted to by some famous Swedish glass so a big company in Stockholm was called but the company declined. They didn't had time for that sort of things. George had made up his mind about the Swedish gals, so he simply went to the nearby gift shop and bought gals and porcelain himself. Just over $ 100 was spent.

Before The Beatles left for Johanneshovs Isstadion and their afternoon show the had dinner at the hotel. They eat grilled river trout.

Leaving Foresta
At 18.45, by the time the concert started at Johanneshovs Isstadion the boys left Foresta for the last two concerts. About 500 persons was waiting outside the hotel just to see a glimpse of The Beatles. Several of them had spent most of the day there in hope of seeing one or more of the boys.
The driver of the Chrysler that was going to take The Beatles to the concert had problems making its way to the entrance of the hotel through the crowd.
"They crawled all over the car, on the hood, the roof, everywhere. The whole car was scratched. The antenna was the only thing that broke." the driver testimonies.
The police came to rescue and made the way clear for The Beatles to enter the car.

Back to the Arena
The artists/bands who played before The Beatles at the concerts this evening was in order of appearance;
Jimmy Justice, an English singer that actually was more popular in Sweden than in England by that time. He had hits in 1962 with songs like 'When My Little Girl Is Smiling', 'Little Lonely One', 'Ain't That Funny' and 'Spanish Harlem'.
The Mascots, a group from Stockholm that was very much on to The Beatles. The Mascots had several hits on the Swedish charts during the middle sixties. On their debut album they made a version of Lennon/McCartney's 'Tip of My Tongue'. The met The Beatles during the concerts and could tell the papers an interesting fact.
- Paul had two bass guitars. One new shiny that he used when he posed for photographers and another old, scratched one that he used when he played.
The Shanes, a group from Kiruna (a town in the absolute northern part of Sweden). A guitar group that changed to fit the pop scene. One of the biggest pop groups in Sweden during the pop era in the sixties. The Shanes had several hits on the Swedish charts and in 1966 they had three tracks at the top ten. Still going but not so not strong.

Second day: First show
By the first show the guards knew: This is going to  be a hard day (and night). By the end of the show, when The Beatles plays 'I Wanna Be Your Man' the audience rushed towards the stage. And when Paul announced the last number, 'Long Tall Sally', the riot had developed to a chaos.
Hundreds and hundreds of teenagers tried to storm the stage and the guards really worked hard for the money. Not until The Beatles had left the stage could the guards cool down the rushing crowd.

During the chaos ten people were injured and three was taken by the police. 55 policemen and guards stood completely powerless.

Two hours passed between the two concerts. The guards called for police reinforcement and police dogs.

Second show
The first 15 minutes went by quite gentle but when they played 'She Loves You' it was the sparkle that made the heat rise. When Ringo shaked loose in 'I Wanna Be Your Man'  the explosion bursted.
The crowd began to force its way to the stage.
The policemen and the guards had no possibilities to stop the crowd (mainly under aged teenage girls) in a peaceful way. When it was at its climax the policemen and the guards simply had to knock down people to keep the stage clean. One girl got kicked so bad in her stomage that she fainted. Others fainted because of the heat and the bad air. The floor was a sand floor witch swirled up in the chaos.
The Beatles retreated slowly to the back of the stage and when they were asked to stop the show they left their instruments and rushed to their box.
Witch after they fast as hell, by car, went back to their hotel.
 
The after play
By midnight at room no. 3 at Hotel Foresta four tired boys in company with Neil Aspinall, Derek Taylor and a few more persons summarised the day and the chaotic concerts. John said:
- Great! Did you saw the guards? They really looked scared! We always want to turn on the audience and we always do, but there are always troublemakers. They don't belong there.
Ringo looked satisfied. He listened to a version of 'She Loves You' by the Swedish wind instrument Mercblecket that just had been issued in Sweden.
Paul said:
- I really like this one. They really got the beat. It's really great!
The company orders beef for six persons and sandwiches for the rest.

Later they had a small party in Derek Tailor's suite. A couple of photographers and journalists and a couple of girls from the Swedish Fan Club talked and drank bear in the late hours.
George went straight to bed before the party.
Ringo sat in a corner listening to music and kept the beat.
John talked to a journalist from the Daily Express.
Paul talked with the girls from the Swedish Fan Club.
(One of the girls, a dear friend of mine, Barbro (born) Kallbäck, have been of great help by helping me out with this part of the story - There will be more added to it in the future)
It was almost 3 o'clock in the morning before The Beatles went to bed for a 12-hours sleep.

Thursday July the 29th 1964
Things went back to the normal at Hotel Foresta. No policemen, no extra guards, no hysteric teenagers and no Beatles.
 

Summary
It wasn't much of Sweden that The Beatles saw during this tour. Just Arlanda International Airport, Hotel Foresta and Johanneshovs Isstadion.
About 17 800 people saw The Beatles during these four concerts on Johanneshovs Isstadion the 28-29th of July 1964.
9 100 on Tuesday and 8 700 on Wednesday.
Tickets were sold for about $ 33 000. The Beatles got about $ 12 800 in their pockets.
John said later that the 7 000 headed audience was really great but a bit stiff. But that they liked The Beatles, really. And you should have been there the second day at the second show. They practically tored the whole place down.

The songs they played during the concerts were: - Twist and Shout - You Can't Do That - I Was Her Standing There - I Want To Hold Your Hand - All My Loving - She Loves You - Roll Over Beethoven - Can't Buy Me Love - I Wanna Be Your Man - A Hard Day's Night - Long Tall Sally

The Beatles pages are constructed by Lasse Bengtsson.