One factor of my performance that i need to work on is stage presence as a great presence on stage goes hand in hand to create a great live show. I began looking into the musicians and performers that inspire me to see how they would deal with the pressures of performing live and came across John Lennon.

Shea stadium – North American Tour 1965

In 1965 The Beatles and their team had planned an American tour that would see the band play shows in Toronto, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Bloomington, Portland, San Diego, Los Angeles and Daly City. However the Beatles started off the tour on the 15^th August in New York City at Shea Stadium, at this point Beatlemania was at the first of many peaks in the bands career with Fifty five thousand and six hundred fans attending.

At the end of the the Shea Stadium show the Beatles played their finale ‘I’m Down’ and this saw Lennon swapping from his Rickenbacker 325 to the Vox Continental organ a giving a truly invigorating performance at Shea Stadium despite the level of noise from the crowd; he was completely in the sprit of the moment, just as the fans were.

https://vimeo.com/146526352 

The footage of ‘I’m Down’ shows John is in full swing, playing the Vox continental, frantically waving his hands in the air and was smashing through the chords like he had become another being.

“Because I did the organ on I’m down, I decided to play it on stage for the first time. I didn’t really know what to do, because I felt naked without a guitar, so I was doing all Jerry Lee – I was jumping about and I only played about two bars of it. It was marvelous.” – John Lennon

In this performance you can see from John’s eyes and his body language that he is completely out of character, this was because he was playing a completely new instrument onstage for the first time, in front of a crowd of over fifty-six thousand and he felt uncomfortable and “naked without a guitar” so decided to create a show for the fans to see.

Just before the solo section begins in the ‘I’m Down’ John throws his arm up into the air at 01:16 and proceeds into playing the organ with his elbow, grabbing the attention of Paul who spins round whilst laughing before the band progresses into the final double chorus.

“ That was one of the great things about John, If there was ever one of those tense shows, which this undoubtedly was, his comedy routines would always come out. He’d start the faces, and the shoulders would start going, and it was very encouraging. He kept us jolly” – Paul McCartney

 I believe this shows that when playing tense shows interaction between band members is key, this is because it eliminates any sign of nerves, which could make performances crumble.

In order to give a great performance I believe every member of the band has to feel comfortable when performing on stage in front of a public audience, to a certain extent, although a few nerves before a show are ok as it shows us that we are human.

Nerves can also fuel something wonderful and thrilling as can be seen in John Lennon’s performance. He had played the organ part in the studio on the recorded version of “I’m Down” and wanted to perform that part for the first time in a live setting, and that live setting turned out to be The Beatles first appearance on their 1965 North American tour in front of Fifty six and a half thousand people at Shea Stadium.

John Lennon must have been so nervous to play the organ lines, but as we can see from the footage of his performance he is completely in control of the situation at hand.