When the Fab Four came to Suffolk Downs

Once the Beatles got famous – and particularly after they took the United States by storm – they began a 2?-year period of nonstop recording, filmmaking and touring that took them, on Aug. 18, 1966, to Suffolk Downs.By then, the whole “Beatlemania” experience had taken its toll.They?d had a horrendous experience earlier in 1966 while touring in the Philippines when they?d inadvertently insulted Imelda Marcos by failing to show up to one of her social gatherings. They barely made it out of the country unharmed.Then, too, John Lennon – always the most outspoken of the four – got himself in hot water with a remark during a lengthy interview with a British reporter, expressing his view that Christianity would eventually vanish and that the Beatles, by then, were more popular with teenagers than Jesus. While the comment caused barely a ripple in England, it caused a major tempest in the United States, where some Bible Belt cities selected as venues for the summer tour threatened to pull out.The tour stopped at Suffolk Downs on Aug. 18 of that year. A mere 11 days later, Aug. 29, the Beatles would perform their last concert as a group – at San Francisco?s Candlestick Park.Winthrop?s Debbie Federico was among those there.?It was so exciting,” says the then-11 year old. “My uncle won tickets on the old WMEX, and he let me go with him.”The tickets, had she and her uncle paid for them, would have cost $4.50. Federico and her uncle sat on the infield that was enclosed within the track, in folding chairs, and faced a platform stage that was, “pretty crude, by today?s standards.” It was set up on the track itself and looked like a structure that was framed simply with 2×4 studs, with no roof.?We were slightly to the right of the stage,” she said. “We weren?t cramped, but you couldn?t hear anything either.”The concert began at 8 p.m. and after a lengthy list of opening acts, which included the Cyrcle (?Red Rubber Ball”) and local favorites Barry and the Remains, and during which the noise level increased dramatically at the sight of the Beatles? entourage of limousines entering the grounds, the Fab Four took the stage to thunderous adulation from the 25,000 fans – most of them teenaged girls.?There were just so many screaming girls,” said Federico, who used to work at Marian Court College in Swampscott. “We all had to stand on our chairs, and we could hardly hear them, but it was exciting just to be there.”The Beatles stopped touring, in part, because they found it difficult to recreate their ever-more-complex music on stage. The set list bears this out. The group that had just released “Rubber Soul” and “Revolver” within eight months of each other pulled out some old chestnuts, plus a couple of covers.The songs they sang during the 35-minute show were “Rock ?n? Roll Music,” “She?s a Woman,” “If I Needed Someone,” “Day Tripper,” “Baby?s in Black,” “I Feel Fine,” “Yesterday,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” “Nowhere Man,” “Paperback Writer,” and “Long Tall Sally.”The next day, they were off to Memphis, Tenn., where the backlash to Lennon?s remarks was more severe. And when a firecracker went off in front of the stage, there were fears that someone had tried to shoot them.But to an 11-year-old girl, the memories were quite different.?They seemed so innocent to me,” Federico said. “But later, it just seemed weird what they were getting into. I couldn?t understand why they had to change the way they did, and at that point, I didn?t like it. Now, I totally appreciate it.”