"Twenty-four thousand screaming fans couldn't be wrong. But what they didn't realize on that late August evening was that the Beatles didn't want to be there, that the band couldn't hear itself enough to sing on-key, and that this would be the last Beatles concert ever."

This was the Beatles' last concert tour appearance ever, a 33-minute performance at San Francisco's Candlestick Park on Monday August 29, 1966. The Park's capacity was 42,500 but the Beatles only filled 25,000 seats, leaving entire sections of unsold seats.

Tempo Productions, which promoted the Candlestick Park show, was owned by Bobby Mitchell and Tom Donohue (aka "Big Daddy"), both popular KYA disc jockeys. In the summer of 1965 they had received a verbal agreement to promote the Beatles' two 1965 Cow Palace shows, but the contract was for some reason given to a San Jose promoter named Paul Cattallano. Tempo immediately took legal action against the Beatles for breach of contract, serving them a summons via a process server at the Hollywood Bowl the day before the Cow Palace Shows. Eventually an agreement was worked out between the Beatles and Tempo's lawyers in which Tempo would promote the group's return engagement at Candlestick Park in 1966.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• The Beatles took 65% of the gross, the city of San Francisco took 15% of paid admissions and 50 free tickets. This, along with lukewarm ticket sales and other unexpected expenses resulted in a financial loss for Tempo Productions.
• The oversize tickets were to large to fit the counting machines at Candlestick and had to be counted by hand.
• The performance was taped by Tony Barrow at Paul McCartney's request and is available in bootleg format. The last song was truncated because the recorder ran out of tape.
• Just before leaving the stage, John teasingly strummed the opening guitar notes of "In My Life".
• Wes Wilson designed the concert poster for the show. Wes later on to become one of the most influential artists of the psychedelic movement and designed many important posters for Bill Graham.
• Candlestick Park has been renamed 3Com Park. The San Francisco Giants played their last season there in 1999.

1. This is the only authorized version issued in the 1960s.
2. This unauthorized repro was made on thin poster paper.
3. Unauthorized reproduction. Made on thicker poster board like the original but with white instead of yellow lettering. 1000-2000 copies were made by a California collector/dealer.
4. Unauthorized reproduction. Also on thick board like the original, this is actually a reprint of No. 3 which was taken to a west coast printer and copied with the yellow lettering being added in the process.
5. This is an authorized litho reprint made by Art Posters in 1992 with permission from Apple. 200 numbered Ltd. edition high-quality prints were made and signed by Ronnie Spector and/or Wes Wilson (who originally created the artwork in 1966). A large white border was laid out around the original size inset of the original poster.
6. Unauthorized. One of a couple different low quality posters that someone made up starting a decade ago. Some are on thin paper, some on thicker poster paper. Quality varies as people have printed copies of the copies.
7. Unauthorized. Same as above, several variations of paper and print quality.

It's not clear who was arranging this ticket give-away, but the Beatles' final concert did not sell out, so the promoter may have seen the value in giving away 25 pairs of tickets at the last minute in the hopes of selling hundreds more through the contest's publicity and exposure. This poster is currently up for bid via Heritage Auctions with a bid deadline of early May, 2021.

For more information on The Beatles' last concert, look for the book Tomorrow Never Knows: The Beatles' Last Concert, an excellent 100 page book covering the historic last show at Candlestick Park. Published in 1987 by Terra Firma Books in San Francisco. Written by Eric Lefcowitz, with photos by Jim Marshall.