Sunday 13 July 2014

1964: The Beatles in Sydney - Response to recent Facebook Group Post byThe Beatles Australian Tour 1964 Group

IIt has come to my attention that a post has been made on a Facebook Group "The Beatles Australian Tour 1964" relating to a blog entry relating to The Beatles visit to Sydney in 1964.

Lets clarify some points that the group has made:


"Just the effort that's gone in sourcing the finest images alone was enough for them to take home the gold,"

Isn't the point of blog entries here based on what has been covered in the papers? Much better than browsing Google Images. I'm under no obligation to source items from anywhere specific. I just wanted to share some images that I found, pure and simple. 

"The image below was taken from the first two concerts." Magic!" 



I will stand by my decision to post them because they were from the first two concerts. They sum up the emotions of The Beatles fans that attended the concert. The photos themselves were published on Page One of The Sydney Morning Herald on June 19. If those photos were "bad", they would not be on page one at all.

"The winner of the sh**tiest blog and recipient of the gold perpetual trophy for the next 50 years, goes to 'Fab Sydney Flashbacks' with their marvelous blog '1964: The Beatles in Sydney'"

I will not be bothered by this "award" which is not an award at all because there was no announcement about the award and the inviting of nominations. In fact they are probably going as low as saying that this blog is by far the worst. I think there is far worse out there. In fact one person goes on to comment that I am embarassment to all bloggers??? This blog has only been around two months. There was reference to other "entrants", but there was none. 

Even worse is their factual error in giving this blog the name '1964 the Beatles in Sydney', when the blog is known as "Fab Sydney Flashbacks". 

Plus they forget that this is not mean't to be a serious blog not one that is "painstakingly researched", though I try to be accurate as possible. At this point in time, this is not a professional blog, where I seek to derive an income. 

I was only contacted about the wording of the Adelaide and Melbourne visits. I knew that Adelaide was the first city that they did concerts in but both Adelaide and Melbourne hosted the first few concerts of the tour. I was right in a sense. Yes I didn't word them right to start with but this was bought to my attention and changed to avoid confusion. If the members of the group were concerned, why didn't they have the decency to contact me about the errors. 

I have also corrected the error relating to the concert statistics. Sadly it could have be done under more appropriate circumstances. Initially I had been led to believe that four concerts were staged in Sydney. Going by details, crowd numbers will be hard to guess and my initial 40 000 could be a conservative figure. The Sydney Morning Herald on June 19 reported a combined 20 000 watched the first two concerts, the next night is unknown while about 10 000 were reported at the final two concerts on June 20, going by an article on June 21 in The Sun Herald. The total over the six concerts would add to about 40-50 000, which is about halfway between the initial 40 000 provided by me, and the 60 000 that a member of the group is claiming. I'd like the group to mention their source/s in crowd figures. before they go and accuse me of being wrong

I know as a Teacher Librarian about the importance of reliability of information and have pointed out that this blog should be. In fact I strive for accuracy and absolutely welcome acknowledgement of errors by visitors. I do accept my mistakes in a constructive manner like the person who was concerned about the Adelaide and Melbourne visits, which I was happy to accept and oblige. I apologise for being inaccurate. We are human.

By the way I did make it clear, I only sourced material from The Sydney Morning Herald, as I was keen on presenting their perspective on the events of that time. 

And for those who don't like what is posted here, go elsewhere. That's what I do when I'm not happy with what I read on a website. 

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