Saxophonist Gene Walker on The Beatles 1966 Tour

By John Fraim


While working with Chris Columbo, his friend King Curtis (Curtis Ousley) called saxophonist Gene Walker about going on a tour in August, 1965. They would be backing Brenda Holloway and Cannibal and the Headhunters and the Disco Dancers. And, they would be opening for this group from England with the unlikely name The Beatles. A phenomenon known as “Beatlemania” was infecting America.

Gene found the great saxophonist Jimmy Heath available to substitute for him in the Columbo Quintet and he flew to New York for the first performance of the tour at Shea Stadium on August 15. It was the first rock concert to be held at a major outdoor stadium and set records for both attendance and revenue with over 55,000 in attendance and $304,000 in revenue. At the time, it was the greatest gross in the history of show business.

The Beatles were transported to the roof of the World’s Fair by a Boeing Vertol 107-II helicopter and then taken by armored truck to the stadium. At the stadium there were 2,000 security personnel for crowd control. Beatlemania was at its highest mark at the Shea Concert and many teenagers and women were crying, screaming, and even fainting.

After the opening acts of Cannibal and the Headhunters, Brenda Holloway and the Disco Dancers, the King Curtis Band with Curtis and Gene on saxophones, went on stage as the intensity and noise level of the crowd rose higher and higher. They played their popular song of the time Soul Twist and a number of other songs before the Beatles took the stage. When they left the stage Gene watched the stage from the baseball dugout with another English group called The Rolling Stones. Like the Beatles, it was also their first trip to America. The crowd noise was so great that security guards covered their ears when the The Beatles entered the field. The sound was so deafening that even The Beatles could not hear much of anything.

The Vox Company that made the Beatles amplifiers had specially designed 100 watt amplifiers for this tour but they were not anywhere near loud enough and the Beatles had to use the house amplification system. John Lennon described the noise as “wild” and even more deafening when the Beatles performed. Not being able to hear each other or even themselves, the Beatles just played through a list of songs nervously, not knowing what kind of sound was being produced.

At the end of the show, during the number I’m Down, John Lennon felt the whole show was so ridiculous, he began playing the keyboard with his elbows while the rest of the group laughed hysterically. The Beatles section of the concert was extremely short by modern standards (just 30 minutes), but was the typical 1965 Beatles tour set list, with Ringo opting to sing Act Naturally instead of I Want To Hold Your Hand.

After Shea Staudim, Gene and King Curtis toured with the Beatles to Toronto, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Bloomington, Portland, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Gene recalls that the girls were going crazy for the Beatles. In Toronto, Gene recalls that a number of girls were lying on the floor and the Red Cross was trying to revive them.

In Los Angeles he recalls, “We had a couple girls swim through the water at the Hollywood Bowl. They got up onstage and each grabbed a Beatle.” The sound at the Hollywood Bowl was literally deafening for Gene. “When all the girls would scream,” Gene recalls, “it was a paralyzing sound and I got nailed by it in the Hollywood Bowl.” Later, he went to an ear doctor and was told he lost some of his hearing at the same decimal of the crowd noise.

After the show at the Hollywood Bowl, Gene went over to the Whiskey A-Go-Go on Sunset Strip with King Curtis and the two of them played while standing on top of the booths in the club. On board the chartered tour jet, Gene became friends with Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney. He was impressed by McCartney’s musical genius. As he recalls, Lennon and Harrison would be struggling with an arrangement and McCartney would walk up and say, “Do it like this,” suggesting a couple chord changes that would solve the problem. When they were on the tour jet, King Curtis and Beatles Manager Brian Epstein, shot craps at a gambling table installed on the plane. King Curtis won a lot of money from Epstein.

On their trip up to Portland, two good friends of the Beatles were on the jet, Billy Preston and Joan Baez. While flying into Portland, one engine caught fire and there was a real concern about whether they could clear the surrounding mountains. When they finally touched down amid fire trucks and emergency vehicles, Gene recalls Brian Epstein pleading with everyone to “Let the boys off first.”