From the Beatles to Boy George, Adelaide turns out to greet pop stars

Adelaide has a huge track record of turning out to welcome iconic pop stars – so what should Beatles legend Paul McCartney expect when he comes this time?

A vast crowd gathers outside the Town Hall in King William Street, to welcome the Beatles to Adelaide. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

On the Sgt Pepper’s album, Paul McCartney asked if we would still need him when he was 64?

He’s now 81 and the answer – judging from past Adelaide turnouts for the former Beatle’s performances and demand for his return – is still a resounding “Yes”.

McCartney’s concert later this year will be the first time that he has performed in South Australia for more than 30 years, since The New World Tour at Adelaide Oval on March 13, 1993.

On that occasion he played a mix of Beatles and Wings classics along with his solo hits, including his then-current single Hope of Deliverance, to an audience of 30,000 fans.

Six giant video screens flanked a five-storey high stage, from which McCartney’s multi-coloured piano was raised out over the audience on a cherry-picker.

The mid-concert climax of his James Bond theme Live and Let Die was punctuated by explosions and fireworks on and above the stage.

Singer Paul McCartney on stage in concert at Adelaide Oval, in March 1993.

There was huge public disappointment therefore in 2017, when McCartney’s only Australian tour since then included stadiums in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth but bypassed Adelaide.

Beyond that, you have to go back to 1975 for his tour with Wings, which played two nights at Apollo Stadium – a former indoor basketball court in Richmond with capacity for just 4000 people.

However, all of that pales in comparison to when McCartney first came to Adelaide with The Beatles in – you guessed it – ’64.

When the Beatles visited Adelaide to perform a series of concerts at Wayville’s Centennial Hall on June 12 and 13, 1964, an estimated 300,000 people – a third of the city’s then population – turned out to greet them.

Crowds lined Anzac Highway all the way from the airport and jammed city streets to catch a glimpse of the original pop idols, giving the Beatles their largest reception anywhere in the world. And they didn’t even have Ringo with them. Starr, who was recovering from an illness, was replaced by drummer Jimmy Nicol for the Adelaide leg of the tour.

15th June 1964: Workmen and schoolchildren mob the car carrying British pop sensation The Beatles from Adelaide airport during their Australian tour. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

(L-R) English singer, songwriter and guitarist John Lennon (1940-1980), English musician, singer-songwriter and guitarist George Harrison (1943-2001) and English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Paul McCartney of the Beatles pose for a portrait with British drummer Jimmie Nicol, who was replacing Ringo Starr for two weeks while Ringo had tonsillitis during their world tour on June 12, 1964 at the Centennial Hall in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Jeff Hochberg/Getty Images)

The late Adelaide freelance photographer Vic Grimmett, who was assigned to cover the Fab Four’s visit for the Australian Women’s Weekly, recalled on the tour’s 40th anniversary that the turnout was “unreal”.

“The crowd was absolutely unreal in King William St. You’ve never seen anything like it,’’ Mr Grimmett, who died in 2017, said.

He recalled the excitement of being “flat out” following the Beatles in a taxi from their airport arrival, to their reception at Adelaide Town Hall, a press conference at the South Australian Hotel, their concerts at Centennial Hall and the band’s departure the following day.

Similarly, when fellow UK band Culture Club was at the peak of its popularity 20 years later, more than 10,000 fans packed into Rundle Mall to catch a glimpse of its gender-bending singer Boy George … and the group wasn’t even playing here.

Adelaide was left out of Culture Club’s national tour but 25,000 fans signed a petition to bring the band here.

As a result, Boy George and fellow band members Roy Hay, Mikey Craig and Jon Moss made a three-hour visit on July 5, 1984, to appear on the escalator walkway which stretched across Rundle Mall at the time, alongside then Premier John Bannon and Countdown pop show host Molly Meldrum.

“Some people think there’s something wrong with you if you like dressing up and enjoying yourself – well that’s bullshit, okay,” Boy George told the crowd.

George then led the crowd through a singalong of the band’s hit Karma Chameleon, before returning to Melbourne to play a concert there that night.

Culture Club also skipped SA on a subsequent tour, and it wasn’t until 2016 – 32 years later – that it finally performed its first concert in Adelaide. It will return to play Adelaide Entertainment Centre on September 11.