Bob Francis leads 1964 Adelaide triumph when 300,000 gave Beatles their biggest greeting, from airport to city
Radio 5AD's Bob Francis was a prime mover in getting the Beatles to Adelaide in 1964 where 300,000 greeted them, filling King William Street in the city centre
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
The Beatles’ publicist Derek Taylor described the group’s 1964 visit to Adelaide as “the most startling yet manageable welcome we experienced in that breath-taking, record-breaking year. There were so many people of all ages and types reeling and arocking with joy that it felt as good as good can be.”
A key figure in getting the Beatles (not originally scheduled to visit Adelaide) was Bob Francis of radio station 5AD that, with 5KA, were the Top 40 players also giving valuable exposure to local artists who were shunned in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Beatles arrived in a year when the Adelaide University Jazz Club, headed by Bob Lott (later a pop promoter), still banned rock music from the campus. Otherwise, Adelaide youth pop music was divided into 1950s rock’n’roll (led by Barry McAskill and the Drifters, who had taken over the old Palais big-band ballroom on North Terrace with the Teensville Casual Club) and instrumental surf bands such as Bruce Reddick and the Taymen.
A petition started by Bob Francis, to get the Beatles to Adelaide, hoped for 3,000 signatures. It got 70,000. Adelaide music promoters Kym Bonython and Ron Tremaine lent their support to the campaign.
Tremaine took the petition to Beatles tour organiser Kenn Brodziak in Melbourne. Brodziak had four “spare” concerts for the tour, with 7,000-seats venues in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney to use. Adelaide only had a 3,000-seats venue.
After two days of failing to convince Brodziak, Tremaine resorted to family links: his father-in-law Tom Morris who worked for John Martin’s department store in Adelaide. Morris approached John Martin’s owner Ian Hayward, who agreed to put up £28,000 to secure the Beatles’ Adelaide concerts. Under the deal, Brodziak took the gross of the four concerts and John Martin’s paid for accommodation, marketing, staffing Centennial Hall and the booking office.
The Beatles were met with their largest international reception of 300,000 people gathered along a route from Adelaide Airport and along Anzac Highway to the city centre that came to a standstill. The Beatles played four South Australian record-breaking concerts in Centennial Hall in the showgrounds at Wayville.
