Billy Joel shows will mark end of era at Shea

BY GLENN GAMBOA | glenn.gamboa@newsday.com

July 15, 2008

Billy Joel performs in the first of 10 sold out concerts at Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., Friday, May 23, 2008. (AP Photo)

There is a point in The Beatles' groundbreaking concert at Shea Stadium on Aug. 15, 1965, where John Lennon just busts out laughing. He speaks in gibberish, looks over at Paul McCartney, and then starts laughing again.

It seemed fitting, considering how crazy the idea seemed at the time.

"Nowadays, we take it for granted that bands in the summer play these outdoor baseball and football stadiums," says Jim Henke, vice president of exhibitions and curatorial affairs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. "But back then, it really was pretty revolutionary. It was quite a change from the 10,000-seat auditoriums most bands were playing ... No one really imagined that a rock band could attract 55,000 or 60,000 people in one city. There were a lot of people who didn't think The Beatles were going to last, that rock and roll was going to last. They thought that it was just some sort of fad that was just going to go away. Certainly, The Beatles' ability to pull off these shows said that it was more than just a fad."

Though much of that Beatlemania period seems like a blur, Ringo Starr said he remembered that day vividly.

"It was so huge," he recalled recently. "It was incredible. It was such a day, flying by helicopter to Forest Hills, getting in an armored car and you ran out and saw that audience, it was mind-blowing. It was far out."

For Starr and the rest of The Beatles, selling out Shea Stadium was simply one more seemingly impossible experience in a string of seemingly impossible experiences.

"It was the first time anyone played a stadium and we opened the door to [Led] Zeppelin and all those people to play those places," Starr said. "But at the time, you're just doing what you do."

That Beatles' show of "doing what you do" altered the course of rock and roll and it secured Shea Stadium a place in music history that will live on, long after the building is demolished and replaced next year by CitiField. "That's where the first one was held and it was The Beatles that did it. That certainly makes Shea legendary," Henke said.

At the time, The Beatles' show became the single biggest concert of all time and the biggest-grossing event, for both the promoter and the band, in the world.

On a personal level, for those who were lucky enough to be there, it was just as unforgettable. "Sitting in the lower tiers with my contemporaries out in leftfield, I thought I would burst with excitement when The Beatles took the stage at second base," said Maria Pisano, of Wantagh, who was 12 at the time. "The screaming never stopped and even then I knew this was history and I was a part of it."

The first show had its share of hitches - most notably the sound, since organizers hadn't figured out how to handle such a big space, especially when The Beatles' legions of screaming fans were taken into account. But, in addressing those issues, sound engineers and, later, video developers took support for performances to the next level.

The Shea concerts also created a new category of superstar - the stadium headliner - that remains the top of the field today. "If a band is big enough that it can sell 50,000 to 60,000 tickets that's pretty impressive, especially -nowadays given the state of the music business," says Henke. "U2 can do it. Springsteen can do it. It seems like nowadays, it's country acts that can do it more than the rock bands."

However, when Billy Joel takes the stage tomorrow and Friday, he will join a select club of artists who have headlined Shea Stadium.

"There was a point when I played Yankee Stadium that I was just awestruck and the same thing happened when I played Giants Stadium," Joel said. "I'm sure there will come a point at Shea when I will look around and say, 'What am I doing here?'"

BIG-LEAGUE SHOWS

Shea has played host to only a handful of concerts, with Billy Joel's being the final.

THE BEATLES

Aug. 15, 1965, and Aug. 26, 1966

SUMMER FESTIVAL FOR PEACE

featuring Janis Joplin,