Rock & roll swept America in the 1950s. Musicians like Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry defined popular music for a generation of youth. But by the 1960s, rock and roll had fallen out of fashion in the pop world, replaced with vocal acts less interested in nifty guitar work.
In Britain, many of the rock and roll records did not achieve popularity until the 1960s, meaning the UK was about five years behind America in musical tastes.
The Beatles
Ed Sullivan had done a great deal to promote Elvis the previous decade, and now his show did the same for the Beatles. On February 9 1964, the Beatles played a live set, exposing American audiences to their music. With 73 million viewers, it was the perfect platform to launch Beatlemania.
After the performance Life magazine wrote: “In 1776 England lost her American colonies. Last week the Beatles took them back.”
Shea Stadium in New York sold out all its seats when the band hit the stage in August 1965. With an at-the-time record 55,600 people in attendance, this was when Beatlemania was at its absolute height. Screaming teenagers in the crowd drowned out practically the whole performance. Some fans even tried to rush the stage and had to be pushed back by the small army of security guards.
Because of its legendary status, Shea Stadium posters are highly sought after by collectors. When in good condition and sold through reputable auction sites, they can fetch big money. One sold in 2024 for $137,000, but another sold in 2022 for a whopping $275,000.
The following year the Beatles gave another classic American performance, this time at DC Stadium. Also on the bill was the Ronettes. While full-size posters from the concert are rare, even smaller handbills sell for large amounts. This concert, while famous, does not have the legendary appeal of Shea Stadium, but one handbill in fine condition sold for over $2000 in April 2025.
Other handbills from 1966 also sell well. One from Busch Hall, Missouri, part of their last American tour, sold for nearly $2000 in 2024.
The Rolling Stones
One of their most famous early concerts was at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in 1964. Appearing alongside The Supremes, Chuck Berry, The Beach Boys, and James Brown, fans remember being left awestruck by the sheer volume of the Stones’ set. Nobody could remember any band playing that loud before.
Posters from Santa Monica are rare and expensive. Others are available from the ‘64 tour, such as the concert at the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio on November 13th. One sold for a respectable $14,375 in 2023.
The most controversial Stones concert of all time was the Altamont Speedway concert of 1969, widely seen as the concert that ended the “hippie” movement. Infamous because of the death of one fan, posters for the event still fetch thousands. In April 2025, one in average quality went for over $18,000.
The Who
Part of that violence spilled over into the live performances. The Who became infamous for their on-stage antics, with Pete Townsend regularly destroying guitars at the end (or sometimes slightly before the end) of performances. In the early days before the band made it big, singer Roger Daltry admitted that they were smashing up far more equipment than they could replace and getting into serious debt.
Unlike the Beatles and Stones, The Who took a while to get going in America, sealing their fame with Woodstock in 1969. They played in several smaller concerts on other North American tours, including at the Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento in July 1968. Due to the high status of the band, even a simple handbill from the concert can go for $2,500 when in good condition.
Other Bands
Several bands that are less well known today also swept America in the wake of The Beatles. These included The Small Faces, The Kinks, The Dave Clark Five, and The Yardbirds (a certain lead guitarist in the Yardbirds would go on to conquer America for a second time after he formed Led Zeppelin).
Very often British invasion bands would be on the same advertisement. One such poster from 1965 advertising The Dave Clark Five, The Beatles, and The Kinks sold for $645 in February 2025, even though it was in quite poor condition.
The Yardbirds came to the scene slightly later than most other invasion bands, with one of their more famous concerts at Santa Rosa fairgrounds in 1967. By this point, guitarist Jimmy Page was already thinking of forming a new band, and was even playing early versions of songs that would go on to be on the first Led Zeppelin album.
Yardbirds posters can go for reasonable amounts these days because of the allure of Page. Posters in decent condition from the performance rarely go for less than $2000.
The Kinks (famous for Lola and You Really Got Me) were one of the first British bands to experiment with amp distortion, producing an aggressive sound emulated by countless others. They were in the invasion from early on but gained the most traction in America towards the end of the 1960s. One poster from their ‘69 American tour sold for $1200 in 2021, but the price will have increased since then.
The Dave Clark 5 has not retained as much popularity as other bands mentioned, so their posters tend to sell for lower amounts. In good quality, they can still fetch decent money. A poster from the Seattle stopover of their 1964 American tour sold for $800 in 2024, and another poster from their performance at Charlotte Coliseum went for $250 a few years back.
