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This is a chronological list of The Beatles' known live performances under the name "The Beatles".

Any appearances with members that differ from the most well-known line-up (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) are marked accordingly. Other interesting information is also included.

1961[link]

All With Pete Best

1962[link]

1963[link]

1964[link]

1965[link]

1966[link]

1969[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Schultheiss, Tom (1980). The Beatles. A Day in the Life: The Day-by-Day Diary 1960-1970. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-86001-809-1. 
• Joe (2010). "The Beatles Bible". http://www.beatlesbible.com/. 
• Lewisohn, Mark (1996). The Complete Beatles Chronicle. London: Bounty Books. ISBN 978-1-85152-975-9. 

Look up list in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

List or lists may refer to:

Enumerations[link]

• Any enumeration of a set of items
• A list of comma separated values, a common way of listing in everyday life and computing. (British usage: Comma-separated values)
• A mailing list
• An electronic mailing list
• An electoral list
• List (computing)
• Task lists, a list of tasks to be completed
• Listicle, an article in list format
• Watchlist
• Ranker

Other meanings[link]

• List (watercraft), the leaning to either port or starboard of a ship
• List, an alternative term for roll in flight dynamics
• Lists (jousting), a roped-off enclosure where medieval knights jousted
• SC Germania List, German rugby union club
• List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America

People[link]

• Friedrich List, German economist
• Guido von List, Austrian Armanist
• John List, murderer
• Liesbeth List, Dutch singer
• Maximilian List, SS officer and Commandant of Lager Sylt, a labour camp on Alderney
• Paul List, chess player
• Peyton List, the name of two American actresses:
  • Peyton List (actress born 1986), American actress in the TV series Mad Men
  • Peyton List (actress born 1998), American actress in the Disney Channel TV series Jessie
• Siegmund Wilhelm List, WWII German field marshal

Places[link]

• List, Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost village in Germany, on the island Sylt

Work titles[link]

The List may refer to:

• The List (magazine), a Scottish magazine
• The List (South Park), an episode of the television show South Park
• The List (The X-Files), an episode of the television show The X-Files
• The List (2007 film), a film based on the novel by Robert Whitlow
• The List (album), an album by Rosanne Cash

See also[link]

• Liszt (surname)
• Listing (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

The Beatles
The Beatles in 1964 Top: John Lennon, Paul McCartney Bottom: George Harrison, Ringo Starr
Background information
Origin	Liverpool, England
Genres	Rock, pop
Years active	1960 (1960)–1970 (1970)
Labels	Parlophone, Swan, Vee-Jay, Capitol, United Artists, Apple
Associated acts	The Quarrymen, Plastic Ono Band
Website	thebeatles.com
Members
Principal John Lennon (1960–69) Paul McCartney (1960–70) George Harrison (1960–70) Ringo Starr (1962–70) Other Stuart Sutcliffe (1960–61) Pete Best (1960–62)

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music.^[1] The group's best-known lineup consisted of John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals). Rooted in skiffle and 1950s rock and roll, the group later worked in many genres ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic rock, often incorporating classical and other elements in innovative ways. Their enormous popularity first emerged as "Beatlemania"; as their songwriting grew in sophistication, by the late 1960s they came to be perceived by many fans and cultural observers as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the era's sociocultural revolutions.

As a five-piece line-up of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison on guitar and vocals, with Stuart Sutcliffe (bass) and Pete Best (drums), the band built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960. Sutcliffe left the group in 1961, and Best was replaced by Starr the following year. Moulded into a professional act by manager Brian Epstein, their musical potential was enhanced by the creativity of producer George Martin. They gained popularity in the United Kingdom after their first single, "Love Me Do", became a modest hit in late 1962, and they acquired the nickname the "Fab Four" as Beatlemania grew in Britain over the following year. By early 1964 they had become international stars, leading the "British Invasion" of the United States pop market. The band toured extensively around the world until August 1966, when they performed their final commercial concert. From 1966 they produced what many critics consider to be some of their finest material, including the innovative and widely influential albums Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (1968) and Abbey Road (1969). After their break-up in 1970, the ex-Beatles each found success in individual musical careers. Lennon was murdered in 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in 2001. McCartney and Starr remain active.

The Beatles are the best-selling band or musical act in history, with estimated sales of over one billion units according to Guinness World Records.^[2] They have had more number-one albums on the UK charts and have held the top spot longer than any other musical act. According to the RIAA, as of 2012 they have sold 177 million units in the US, more than any other artist, and in 2008 they topped Billboard magazine's list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists. As of 2012, they hold the record for most number-one hits on the Hot 100 chart with 20. They have received 7 Grammy Awards from the American National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and 15 Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. They were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of the 20th century's 100 most influential people.

[edit] Formation, Hamburg, and UK popularity (1957–1962)

In March 1957 John Lennon, then aged sixteen, formed a skiffle group with several friends from Quarry Bank school. They briefly called themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to The Quarrymen after discovering that a respected local group was already using the name.^[3] Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a guitarist shortly after he and Lennon met that July.^[4] In February 1958 McCartney invited his friend George Harrison to watch the group. The fourteen-year-old auditioned for Lennon, who was impressed by his playing but initially thought him too young for the band. After a month of persistence, Harrison joined as lead guitarist.^[5][6] By January 1959 Lennon's Quarry Bank friends had left the group, and he began studies at the Liverpool College of Art.^[7] The three guitarists, billing themselves at least three times as "Johnny and the Moondogs",^[8] were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer.^[9] Lennon's art school friend Stu Sutcliffe, who had recently sold one of his paintings and purchased a bass guitar, joined in January 1960, and it was he who suggested changing the band's name to "Beatals" as a tribute to Buddy Holly and The Crickets.^[10] According to band historian Mark Lewisohn, they used the name through May, when they became "the Silver Beetles", before undertaking a brief tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer and fellow Liverpudlian Johnny Gentle. By early July they changed their name to "the Silver Beatles", and by the middle of August to "the Beatles".^[11]

Their lack of a full-time drummer posed a problem when the group's unofficial manager, Allan Williams, arranged a resident band booking for them in Hamburg, Germany, so before the middle of August they auditioned and hired Pete Best. The five-piece band left four days later, contracted to club owner Bruno Koschmider for what would be a 3½-month residency.^[12] Lewisohn writes: "They pulled into Hamburg at dusk on 17 August, the time when the red-light area comes to life ... flashing neon lights screamed out the various entertainment on offer, while scantily clad women sat unabashed in shop windows waiting for business opportunities".^[13]

Initially placing the group at the Indra Club, in October Koschmider moved them to the Kaiserkeller, after he closed the Indra due to noise complaints.^[14] When he learned they had been performing at The Top Ten Club, a rival venue and thus in breach of contract, Koschmider gave the band one month's termination notice,^[15] and reported the underage Harrison,^[16] who had obtained permission to stay in Hamburg by lying to the German authorities about his age, causing his deportation in late-November.^[17] A week later, Koschmider had McCartney and Best arrested for arson after they set fire to a tapestry on the wall in their room; they were also deported.^[18] Lennon returned to Liverpool in early December, while the newly engaged Sutcliffe remained in Hamburg through late-February, staying with his German fiancée Astrid Kirchherr.^[19] Kirchherr took the first semi-professional photos of the group,^[20] and she encouraged Sutcliffe to comb his hair forward in the pilzkopf or "mushroom head" style popular among university students in Germany and France at the time.^[21] In 1961, during their second Hamburg engagement, she cut his hair^[22] in the "exi", or existentialist style that was later adopted by the other Beatles.^[23] When he decided to leave the band in early 1961 and resume his art studies in Germany, McCartney took up the bass.^[24] Producer Bert Kaempfert contracted what was now a four-piece group through June 1962, and he used them as Tony Sheridan's backing band on a series of recordings.^[25] Credited to "Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers", the single "My Bonnie", recorded in June and released four months later, reached number 32 on the Musikmarkt chart, and was group's first worldwide release.^[26]

After completing their second Hamburg stint the group enjoyed increasing popularity back home in Liverpool, particularly in Merseyside, where the Merseybeat movement was gaining popularity. However, the band were also growing tired of the monotony of numerous appearances at the same clubs night after night.^[27] In November, during one of the band's frequent appearances at the Cavern Club, they encountered Brian Epstein, a local record store owner and music columnist.^[28] Epstein later recalled: "I immediately liked what I heard. They were fresh and they were honest, and they had what I thought was a sort of presence and ... star quality."^[29] Epstein courted the band over the next couple of months and was appointed manager in January 1962.^[30] He made efforts throughout the winter and spring to get them released from their contractual obligations to Bert Kaempfert Productions, and he negotiated for the band to provide one last recording session, at the end of May, during their next visit to Hamburg, to secure an early release from the contract.^[31] Tragedy greeted them upon their return there in April, when a distraught Kirchherr met them at the airport with news of Sutcliffe's death the previous day from a brain haemorrhage.^[32] After Decca Records rejected the band in early February with the comment "Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein",^[33] George Martin signed the group to EMI's Parlophone label in May.^[32]

Abbey Road Studios main entrance

The Beatles' first recording session under Martin's direction took place at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London on 6 June 1962.^[34] He immediately complained to Epstein about Best's poor drumming and suggested they use a session drummer in his stead.^[35] The band, already contemplating his dismissal,^[36] replaced him in mid-August with Ringo Starr, who left Rory Storm and the Hurricanes to join them.^[34] A 4 September session at EMI yielded a recording of "Love Me Do" featuring Starr on drums, but a dissatisfied Martin hired drummer Andy White for the band's third session on 11 September, which produced recordings of "Love Me Do", "Please Please Me" and "P.S. I Love You".^[34] Initially, Martin selected the 4 September version of "Love Me Do" with Starr on drums for the band's first single, though subsequent re-pressings included the White version, with Starr on tambourine.^[34] Released in early October, "Love Me Do" was a top twenty UK hit, peaking at number seventeen on the Record Retailer chart.^[37] In mid-October, they made their television début with a live performance on the regional news programme People and Places,^[38] and a late-November studio session yielded their second single, "Please Please Me",^[39] after which Martin accurately predicted, "You've just made your first No.1."^[40]