The Beatles' 1964 world tour

• 1. Introduction

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  The Beatles' 1964 world tour launched from Copenhagen, Denmark, on the 4th of June 1964, with a drummer the world had never seen play with the band before. Ringo Starr, the group's actual drummer, was lying in a London hospital with severe tonsillitis. In his place sat a quiet, relatively unknown musician named Jimmie Nicol, thrust overnight into one of the most watched bands on the planet. The reception wherever the Beatles went was, as The Spectator put it, simply "hysterical". What drove those negotiations to put the tour together? Who actually made it happen behind the scenes? And what did it feel like to be Jimmie Nicol, suddenly one of the Beatles, then just as suddenly not?

• 2. The Deal Behind the Tour

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  Negotiations for an Australasian leg of the tour began in October 1963, more than a year before the crowds would gather. Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, put his signature to the agreement in January 1964, a month before the band even crossed the Atlantic for their American tour. The cost of bringing the Beatles was not small. The weekly rate started at £1,500 and climbed to £2,500, with airfares and the considerable excess baggage of drums and amplifiers stacked on top. The talks involved at least four parties: Robert Kerridge of Kerridge Odeon in Auckland, Kenn Brodziak of Aztec Services in Melbourne, London agent Cyril Berlin of The Grade Organisation, and Epstein himself. Much of it was done by telegram, and many of those cables were later reproduced in a 2024 book documenting the tour. The Beatles were reported to have earned £250,000 from the Australasian leg alone.

• 3. Jimmie Nicol Steps In

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  On the morning of the 3rd of June 1964, the day before the tour was to begin, Ringo Starr fainted during a photo session. Doctors diagnosed him with severe tonsillitis and kept him in hospital for several days. George Harrison in particular wanted to postpone the tour, but Epstein and record producer George Martin decided to press forward with a replacement. They chose Jimmie Nicol. When Starr heard the news, he was convinced he was being permanently dropped from the band. Nicol, for his part, was offered £2,500 per performance and a £2,500 bonus by Epstein. "I couldn't sleep that night, I was one of the fucking Beatles!" he said in a 1988 interview. He added that he would have done it for free. Nicol went on to play eight shows across five cities, from Copenhagen through to Melbourne, where Starr rejoined on the 14th of June 1964.

• 4. Getting Better

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  During rehearsals, the Beatles repeatedly asked Nicol how he was settling in. His stock reply never changed: "It's getting better." Paul McCartney later said that phrase stayed with him. It became the seed of the song "Getting Better," which appeared on the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A throwaway answer to a backstage question planted itself in the creative mind of one of the band's chief songwriters, and eventually reached listeners around the world years after the tour was over.

• 5. A Quiet Departure

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  Jimmie Nicol described himself as a very shy person, and the way he left the tour reflected that. When Starr rejoined in Melbourne, Nicol said nothing to the group. He slipped away at night while they were sleeping. At the airport, Epstein met him with £500 in cash and a gold watch. The inscription on the watch read: "From The Beatles and Brian Epstein to Jimmie - with appreciation and gratitude." On the flight home, Nicol sat with the weight of the experience. He later described feeling "like a bastard child rejected by his new family."

• 6. Cities and Stages

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  The tour covered an unusual geography for a single run. After the opening shows in Denmark and the Netherlands, the Beatles played Princess Theatre in Kowloon, British Hong Kong, on the 9th of June 1964. The Australasian stretch took in Adelaide's Centennial Hall, Melbourne's Festival Hall, Sydney Stadium, Wellington Town Hall, Auckland Town Hall, the Dunedin Town Hall, Majestic Theatre in Christchurch, and Brisbane Festival Hall. The final shows brought the band back to England and Sweden, including a night at the London Palladium on the 23rd of July 1964 and two separate appearances at Blackpool Opera House. The set list was consistent across the run, opening with "I Saw Her Standing There" and typically closing with "Long Tall Sally," with John Lennon leading "Twist and Shout" just before the finale. The August dates in England marked the end of the tour, with a final show at Blackpool Opera House on the 16th of August 1964, followed almost immediately by the North American tour that same month.