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The Beach Boys headline this New York concert at the enormous Yankee Stadium. The venue has a capacity for 70,000 but has sold only a disappointing 9,000 tickets, despite the varied bill. The concert promoted by TAJ Enterprised and advertised to begin by 7:30pm, does not get under way for almost an hour and a half after that time. Appearing in chronological order are The Cowsills, The McCoys, The Marvelettes, The Byrds (who are a recent addition), Jerry Butler, Stevie Wonder and The Jimo Tamos Orchestra. Ray Charles and The Beach Boys are saved until the last. The Gentrys and The Guess Who are billed but presumably do not appear. Jonathan Randal in The New York Times (June 11) reviews the happening but writes mostly about the 66 finalists in a dance contest who ride around the bullpen on bicycles, demonstrating a new dance called The Bike.
Richard Goldstein in Village Voice (June 16) terms the occasion worthy of Federico Fellani. "As the Byrds emerged from the home-team dugout, a bell-bottomed body burst from a nearby box and tried to leap the fence. She was stopped by a flying wedge of police. The group raced down the plywood path to the stage, but they had to wait a full ten minutes before their equipment could be assembled. Finally connected to their amplifiers by electrical umbilical cords, they began to play. But the sound wasn't worth the amps. The group seemed incapable of sustaining effective harmony in person, and their ambiguous raga-rhythms lost themselves in a maze of echo and feedback. Priceless details (Jim McGuinn doing a neat two-step as he sang, Gene Clarke's phosphorescent buttons, the grin on Mike Clarke's face as he dutifully pounded the drums) were lost on everyone in the audience who had neglected to bring a high power telescope."
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