ENTERTAINMENT

60 years ago this month: When Phoenix missed out on the last Beatles tour

By the summer of 1966, Phoenix finally had the venue, the audience and even a tantalizing opening in the Beatles’ schedule. The opportunity may simply have arrived at the moment the world’s biggest band was finished touring.

This 1966 file photo shows The Beatles, from left, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison as they leave London Airport on their trip to the U.S. and Canada, which would be their final tour ever.

(AP Photo/File)

The Beatles perform at New York’s Shea Stadium before a crowd of 45,000 people on Aug. 23, 1966. After this show the band traveled to the western U.S. for the last time.

(AP Photo)

In this Aug. 23, 1966 file photo, The Beatles, from left, Ringo Starr; Paul McCartney; John Lennon; and George Harrison appear at a press conference in New York.

(AP Photo, File)

In this photo taken Aug. 29, 1966, the Beatles perform at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Candlestick Park. The concert would be the legendary group’s last-ever ticketed concert.

(AP Photo/Fred Pardini)

When Beatlemania swept across America in 1964 and again in 1965, the world’s biggest band played almost everywhere. New York. Chicago. Los Angeles. Seattle. Toronto. Even Memphis, amid protests and controversy.

But never Phoenix.

For reasons history has never fully answered, the Beatles never performed a single concert in Arizona during the band’s existence. As fans this month duly note the 60th anniversary of their final tour, the mystery isn’t simply why they missed Phoenix — it’s why Phoenix may have finally become ready for them at precisely the moment they were ready to stop touring forever.

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60 years ago this month: When Phoenix missed out on the last Beatles tour

By the summer of 1966, Phoenix finally had the venue, the audience and even a tantalizing opening in the Beatles’ schedule. The opportunity may simply have arrived at the moment the world’s biggest band was finished touring.

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60 years ago this month: When Phoenix missed out on the last Beatles tour

By the summer of 1966, Phoenix finally had the venue, the audience and even a tantalizing opening in the Beatles’ schedule. The opportunity may simply have arrived at the moment the world’s biggest band was finished touring.

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