Friday, May 7, 1965

[DSalter]

Here is a link to an advertisement in my local newspaper as published 50 years ago (scroll to near the bottom of the page).

I only wish I had been old enough to attend!

http://www.birminghamrewound.com/features/1965-04.htm 

[Custom Machine]

$3.00 to see the Beach Boys AND the Rolling Stones in 1965.  Adjusted for inflation, that $22.49 in 2015 money.

[DSalter]

It was 50 years ago today that the Beach Boys and Rolling Stones appeared on the same bill for a concert performance at Birmingham, AL's Legion Field.

The local review of the show (below) gives much insight as to how rock n' roll music was perceived half a century ago.

Backstage Beat (as published in the Monday, May 10, 1965 edition of the  Birmingham Post Herald –page 15)
LEGION FIELD SHOW ATTRACTS 15,000
By Emmett Weaver
Post Herald Amusement Editor

Picture five shaggy dogs being watched by 15,000 squealing teens and you get the scene at Legion Field this past weekend.

With England’s unshorn quintet, “The Rolling Stones” as the chief box-office bait to the show, the younger crowd came from far and near. Most were from Alabama and Mississippi, but a few undaunted fans even journeyed from places as distant as Texas and North Carolina.

As an outdoor production, the Friday show was the first of its kind to be tried at gigantic Legion Field and even a crowd of 15,000 huddled together around the north corner of the bowl seemed lost in this spacious stadium.

The audience fell into two definite categories (1) the screaming hand waving teens and younger set who were quite obviously dyed-in-the-wool champions of this noisy form of “music” and (2) parents with their stolid, patient faces who had been dragged to this teenage shindig under the stars. 

The attraction which elicited the most audience response was the mop-haired English lads, “The Rolling Stones”, who have recently been on the Ed Sullivan show.

The Birmingham police department kept the youngsters from, “The Rolling Stones” and “The Beach Boys” whenever they made an entrance or exit. Also it took a special wire fence across the width of the field to separate spectators from performers.

Along with the shindig entertainment, the WVOK sponsored show, which was emceed by Dan Brennan, had quite a bit of country music talent from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

Along with “The Rolling Stones”, country music talent such as this seemed definitely out of place in a show of this kind. Opry singer Skeeter Davis very obviously appeared peeved because she kept referring to the short time she was going to be on stage.

Giving the best show, though, was Alabama’s own country music star, Sonny James, a native of Hackleburg, who demonstrated his agility at playing a fiddle behind his back, under his legs, in fact, in just about any position.
 

[The Shift]

Too much to expect, I guess, that a recording of the bands each playing one of the others' songs might exist/have survived?