It was 60 years ago today, in June 1964,  that the most famous band in the history of rock and roll arrived in Australia for the first and only tour down under.

The version of the Beatles that Australia saw in 1964, with their mop top hair cuts, and neat black suits, took the country by storm, but it almost didn’t happen.

In fact it was little more than dumb luck that the Fab Four were ever booked to come to Australia.

The tour was a frenzy of teenage energy, swept up in what was known around the world as Beatlemania.

But did they also spark the beginning of an overdue generational and social shift in this country?