On This Day, July 16, 2008…
Billy Joel played the first of two nights at New York’s historic Shea Stadium, the venue’s final concerts before its demolition.
Held at the home of the New York Mets, the show saw Joel welcoming several guests, including Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks, Steven Tyler, Roger Daltrey and Paul McCartney. During the second concert, on July 18, McCartney was driven to the stage by the same groundskeeper who drove The Beatles onto the field when they played Shea Stadium in 1965.
Demolition on the venue began in October 2008.
A documentary of the shows, The Last Play at Shea, premiered in 2010 at the Tribeca Film Festival and later played at Citi Field, the stadium that replaced Shea. A CD and DVD of the shows were released in March 2011.
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