and logistics of the ’66 tour. He came to us one day and just said, ‘How would you guys like to be the opening act on The Beatles’ tour?’” It was as simple as that. “While we had vowed never to be an ‘opener’ for anyone,” Miller says, “we jokingly – but wisely – made an exception in this case.”


The Remains toured with The Beatles, playing their own set. They also served as the backing band for fellow travellers Bobby Hebb and The (Ronnie Spector-less) Ronettes. Asked how much preparation The Remains had for those sets, Tashian laughs. “Bobby Hebb rehearsed with us in New York. Once. At the top of The Steinway Building on 59th street there’s a big studio with Oriental carpets; it’s beautiful, like a concert hall. That’s where we set up and rehearsed with Bobby. We never did rehearse with The Ronettes until Chicago. There, we set up on stage for the gig the day before the show, and they came in and ran [through] their songs one time.”


Subjected to primitive PA gear, The Beatles turned to their opening act for help. Tashian says that The Remains’ soundman Bill Handley was “really a cutting-edge sound engineer”. Handley had wanted to go on the tour, but “of course there was no provision for his being paid or anything. So,” Tashian recalls, “he said, ‘I don’t care. I’mgonna come out there anyway!’ He drove from Massachusetts to Chicago (1000 miles / 1600km), loaded in – unannounced, uninvited – and put all his good stuff in.” Prior to that, the acts were using PAs designed for cattle auctions and worse. “Our vocals would be three or four seconds behind the music!” Tashian laughs.


Tashian’s book Ticket To Ride documents


much of the tour. “So that’s how it started, with the union guy saying, ‘Whose equipment is this? You gotta use the house system!’ And The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein came out and said, ‘No, we’re going to use this stuff.’ And then he hired Bill Handley to come along on the tour for everything east of the Mississippi. Bill would just shore up and jury-rig whatever he could at every venue to make the effect, and set up monitors if he could, or do whatever he could do.” Tashian refers to photos in his book that show the performance stage set up on second base of a baseball diamond. “They just had these Voice Of The Theatre speakers kind of tilted back towards the grandstands, so sometimes Bill just turned one of those around”, to use as a rudimentary stage monitor.


On the tour dates, the audience screaming started long before The Beatles ever took the stage. Tashian laughs and notes that, “The only reason that really happened was because we were first. And everyone was so excited that ‘the show’s underway... oh boy!’ We’d get into the swing of things, and then later on as The Cyrkle and The Ronettes and Bobby Hebb did sets, it kind of calmed down. ‘When are The Beatles coming on?’ and that kind of thing. Though the first act on was kind of low on the totem pole, I think in this case it was really kind of a privileged position.”


One of the most infamous moments of the tour was the “cherry bomb incident” during the show in Memphis. Part way through the George Harrison song ‘If I Needed Someone’, a concertgoer lit and threw a firecracker. It’s clearly audible on an (unreleased) audience recording of the show. The Beatles keep right on playing, never missing a beat. “They very


much did hear it,” Tashian asserts. “They looked all around, and they looked at John because they figured he was gonna be the one to be targeted.”


Tashian continues with memories of Memphis. “They were being extra careful at that concert, and we had been told to get ready to go as soon as we were finished playing. We parked right outside the back door; our bus was sitting there with the engine running. When The Beatles were done, I remember that they ran directly out the [venue’s] door and hopped on the bus. They were still soaking wet with sweat. The bus took right off and went to the Air Force base where the charter plane was waiting.”


Asked which show from the tour was the most memorable, Tashian pauses. “What I recall most was my experience with The Beatles. I really don’t remember many specifics about any one show. I do remember the indoor shows were the favourites because we were much closer to the audience. We could look at the girls, and smile, and wave and stuff.” Summing up the tour as a whole, Tashian quotes something band mate Bill Briggs said right after the tour ended: “It wasn’t really a musical event. It was a theatrical production of a musical event!”


call real pleasant”), listeners are treated to a complete version of ‘I’m A Man’ plus snippets of a few other songs,


Though a number of bootleg recordings document The Beatles’ shows from that tour, there are no recordings of The Remains. Well, except one, a recently-surfaced recording from Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens. While the sound is predictably rough (Tashian: “The sound quality is not what you would call


Opening for The Beatles in August '66. 45


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