John C Stoskopf

The Beatles 1965 International Tour

(Part 1 of 2)

This is a reconstruction of a blog post that originated from my input on my Facebook page and my [then] Google+ account starting in mid 2015.

I'd enjoyed very much attempting to chronicle The Beatles 1964 American Tour and didn't think too much of their subsequent tours until I really got interested in their 1966 'International' Tour and posted information about that in 2 parts in 2016.

I used the word 'International' to simplify those times as the countries visited were as diverse as (West) Germany & Japan with the Philippines thrown in for good measure. This was all before their last 'hurrah' in the United States of that year.

In 1965 it was just a few European countries visited before returning to America so, in a way it seemed smaller scale but again 'International' became simply a word to use to simplify the entire experience.

I began to feel in 2017 that since I covered 1964 & 1966 why not bring together that which I'd half attempted to do in 2015 for the year of 1965. While 1965 may, at first, seem not to compare with the other years not only did it have its greatness, I understand it wound up being probably the most enjoyable year The Beatles had touring so why not celebrate that?

I dutifully put together my ideas breaking the whole story up into 2 parts again, just like for the 1966 year, and completed Part 1 for this Blog when I went to publish it at the beginning of May 2017 and was astonished to find *all* of the work which I had done disappeared, with no explanation.

Being there is no support for Blogger, I never received any help in trying to not only retrieve my data but to understand what even happened to lose it.

It wasn't until August of 2017 with several half-hearted attempts on my own to find the missing post, I somehow stumbled across all of the photos I'd uploaded for this "Part 1". They existed with all of my other post's photos, but no text. That did not survive.

I made a note of my discovery but never ever was able to get around to seeing if I could do anything with the re-found photos. All of the text was still lost and I had since moved on to Beatles of 1967, 1968 & eventually 1969. I never could bring myself to face 1965 again even though I dabbled more with 1964 & 1963.

Here in the year 2024, the web address I'd saved was found to not be any good any longer and so 1965 appeared to remain lost but, I'll be doggone, I dug around again last night [Feb. 29, 2024] and relocated the lost images!

Since I've now been forced back into retirement, I checked myself and agreed with myself, it would be nice to reconstruct The Beatles of 1965 once more and so here I am.

I'm still too paranoid to create a full Draft of 'Part 1' only to lose it all a 2nd time, so I'm saving this post as is and will work on it periodically until it and 'Part 2' are put back together again.

After 9 years since I'd originally began the genesis of this post, it will be nice to finally see it completed!

Their contributions to their next film, "Help!" completed (filming and recording), John's last minute promotional efforts for his 2nd book, "A Spaniard In The Works" met, The Beatles arrive in Paris at 9:55am on June 20, 1965 to start a short European tour.

They stayed once more at the George V Hotel.

I believe this is outside the George V Hotel.

Fans outside the George V Hotel where the Beatles were staying, June 1965

Beatles in Paris! Two shows at the Palais de Sports on June 20, 1965 before 6,000 people for each.

The first show (3pm) was recorded by French radio Europe 1 and broadcast on "Musicorama" on June 27th.

These shows started with a truncated version of "Twist and Shout", Ringo returns to 1963 with "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Rock and Roll Music" is now shortened, but "Ticket To Ride" their latest new single at this time was still being played completely without any editing.

You can find a copy [with the audio only] of the June 20, 1965 afternoon show via this link:

"Musicorama" [French Radio Europe 1]

Some of the audience awaiting the Beatles to perform at the Palais de Sports on June 20, 1965.

One more rarity for the evening show is that "Ticket to Ride" was announced by George as the final song of the show with "Long Tall Sally" being 'tacked on' as an encore.

After the Beatles' show at the Palais de Sports on June 20, 1965.

As mentioned earlier there were two shows performed on this day and both were heard on the radio in Paris with the evening show also taped for television and eventually broadcast October 31, 1965.

You can find a copy of that TV broadcast for the evening show, June 20, 1965 here:

"Les Beatles" Paris [1965]

The original broadcast presented the songs somewhat out-of-order and, for some reason, dropped "I Feel Fine". Someone has put it all back together and this copy had all the songs in their correct representation for this 14-day tour. They are:

"Twist and Shout" [Truncated version]

"She's a Woman"

"I'm a Loser"

"Can't Buy Me Love"

"Baby's in Black"

"I Wanna Be Your Man"

"A Hard Day's Night"

"Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby"

"Rock and Roll Music" [Shortened version]

"I Feel Fine"

"Ticket To Ride" [Complete version]

"Long Tall Sally"

The Beatles had a day off in Paris at the George V Hotel (21 June 1965) after performing those 2 shows the previous afternoon & evening.

At the George V Hotel (June 20-22, 1965) Paris.

...with Chris Denning, whom they did an interview with at that time.

I'm afraid all I can find out about this photo (and a few others) is that it apparently is from "a walk in a Paris Park". If that's the case I would put it either June 21, 1965 or maybe the 22nd as I think they were dressed this way when they landed in Lyon early in the afternoon for 2 shows that evening on the 22nd.

More from June 21-22 1965 time period and their stay in Paris.

Ready to put on a show! 22 June 1965, Lyon, France

Cool photo of Mal Evans on the job with Ringo in Lyon, France, 22 June 1965

They took the railway from Lyon, France to Milan, Italy the evening of the 23rd of June for two concerts in Milan on the 24th, June 1965. I believe this was for a photo shoot taken in Milan.