Seemingly
strange occurrences marked the circumstances surrounding the Beatles concert in
Manila on July 4, 1966, the 44th year of which we are celebrating today. But
when investigated considering the milieu, they turn out to be just madcap
manifestations of the period's innocence and changing times. In this
commemorative article, those circumstances are exposed to put them in correct
perspective, enabling one to tell what really happened to John Lennon, Paul
McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr when they had a taste of Pinoy
people and culture for three days. Panic over briefcases at the MIA runway. The
Beatles briefcases contained their stock of herbal drug, particularly
marijuana. By 1966, the Beatles have turned into potheads. The recreational
chemical habit was introduced to them by Bob Dylan during their first meeting
at the Hotel Del Monico in New York in 1964. When those briefcases were left
unattended on the runway when they disembarked from the Cathay Pacific plane
and speeded up to the press conference at the Manila Yacht Club along Dewey
Blvd. (now Roxas Blvd.), the Beatles panicked! Neil Aspinall, in charge of
transfer of those bags, snatched and loaded them in his service car,
immediately following the speeding car that carried the Beatles. They knew
drugs were illegal items in most countries, the act being out-and-out drug
smuggling.
George stated in desperation, “This is it; we’re going to get
busted.”
As it turned out, they were not apprehended as
the illegal stuff was not detected. We had lax airport procedures back then,
and the cache was not discovered. The Beatles sighed with relief when they
reunited with their precious bags. This act, if apprehended, would have exposed
them as drug users and most likely land them in jail. It was also a big public
scandal since Queen Elizabeth inducted them as MBE (Members of the British
Empire), thus being appropriately addressed with a “sir.” But the Beatles’
worst concern, of course, was that they would have had nothing to use for their
recreational drug habit.
Araneta Coliseum or Rizal Memorial Football Stadium?
The twin concerts (one at 4 p.m. and the other
at 8:30 p.m.) was held at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium in Vito Cruz St.,
Manila. No doubt the twin concert (one at 4 p.m. and the other at 8:30 p.m.)
was held at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium in Vito Cruz St., Manila. Why
then did some Beatles biographers erroneously identify Araneta Coliseum in
Cubao, Quezon City as the concert venue as the case of Bill Harry, who wrote
thus in The Ringo Starr Encyclopedia? Poor research and/or bad knowledge of
topography? The four-color lithographed stickers issued to promote the concert
clearly indicated Araneta Colisuem as venue. That was because the concert was
really planned to be held there but had to be transferred from the Big Dome to
the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.
Why the
change? Because its 17,000-person capacity was not big enough for the expected
attendance and since Araneta Coliseum has a strict ticketing system, it did not
allow Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ business manager, his “brown bag” (more on
this below). That was why the four-color promo stickers had to be changed with
Rizal Memorial Football Stadium as venue.
Marooned at the Elizalde yacht.
The plane carrying the Beatles landed at the
tarmac of the Manila International Airport on July 3 after five shows at the
Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan from June 30 to July 2. They were given two
shows on July 4 and would depart for India on July 5. Included in the entourage
were Brian, press officer Tony Barrow, road managers Neil Aspinall and Mal
Evans, tour organizer Vic Lewis, and goffer Alf Bickell.
As soon
as the entourage got off the plane, members were whisked to the Manila Yacht
Club for the customary arrival press conference. After which they were herded
to Marina, the private yacht of Don Manolo Elizalde, off Manila’s south harbor.
They were supposed to stay there during the duration of their stay for security
reasons. But the problem was there were so many high society friends that Don
Manolo brought there to party, bothering the Beatles, specially George, like
pesky mosquitoes no end. The distraught Brian complained to the promoter Ramon
Ramos. Ramon was with Cavalcade International Inc. which had previously brought
Matt Monro, The Everly Brothers, Dave Clark 5, the Searchers, Shirley Bassey
and Peter & Gordon to Manila. John, Paul, George and Ringo were moved to
The Manila Hotel at 4 a.m. the following day, the concert day and hours before
the supposed Malacanang Palace invitation.
The Beatles’ “snub” of Imelda
Theoretically
speaking, the Beatles did not snub First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos’s
invitation for an 11 a.m. luncheon at the Malacañang Palace on July 4. They
were supposed to meet with the First Family (Pres. Ferdinand Marcos, First Lady
Imelda Romualdez Marcos and their children Imee, Ferdinand, Jr., and Irene)
plus 300 children of a motley of military and diplomatic personnel. Brian did
not accept.
While the Beatles were still in Tokyo, Tony
got an invitation to the Malacañang Palace from Ramon. Brian did not give an
answer as the quartet usually did not attend such parties. What he did not know
was that such an act would be considered rude in this hospitality-conscious
country. The problem was complicated when Ramon took the silence as a
confirmation of the invitation.
Expectation
of the Beatles’ attendance at the Malacañang Palace was fomented when The
Manila Times run the story the previous day. When Malacañang asked the Beatles
to be picked up from the hotel when they failed to appear at the Palace, the
Beatles and Brian were taken aback. When asked if they could make a quick drop
at the Palace, Brian refused as John, George and Ringo were still in bed. Paul
went to the financial district of Makati with Neil, aghast at the sight of the
squatter colony in the shadow of the high-rises. He did not want to rouse the
three up as they slept very late because of the Marina yacht to Manila Hotel
transfer. The British ambassador advised Brian to reconsider his decision since
the Beatles’ security was courtesy of Marcos. But Brian stood pat.
The
local media quickly called the non-appearance as “snubbing” the First Lady, the
Beatles getting the brunt of the Marcos friends and followers, fast at hatching
a retaliation scheme.
Winner concerts
The
30,000 and 50,000 fans who attended the 4 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. performances,
respectively, could not have been accommodated were they held at the Araneta
Coliseum. Ticket priced at P20 for the field reserved section and P30 for the
grandstand ringside section totaled $100,000 in sales for both concerts.
The
two-part concert opened with the singing of the Philippine national anthem.
This was followed by the overture with Eddie Reyes and D’Downbeats with the
D’Cavalcade Dancers, Dale Adriatico, Wing Duo, Pilita Corrales, Lemons Three,
Quartette (made up of Pilita and The Lemons Three) and The Reycard Duet as
front acts. After the intermission, the Beatles started to play the same
repertoire as the Japan concerts. The Beatles sang a total of 11 songs
including Chuck Berry’s “Rock And Roll Music” and their original songs “She’s a
Woman,” “If I Needed Someone,” “Day Tripper,” “Baby’s in Black,” “I Feel Fine,”
“Yesterday,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” “Nowhere Man,” “Paperback Writer” and “I’m
Down.”
Happily, no snags took place during the
concerts, that is, if the fans’ screaming overpowering the Beatles singing
could not be considered a hitch. There were also complaints that the front act
was unusually longer than the main act.
The airport lynching
Upon waking up on the morning of July 5, it
immediately became obvious to the Beatles and their entourage that they have
lost their security, and their lives started to be miserable. All of a sudden,
breakfast orders were not served, cars were not available to transport them to
the airport, escalators were not operating there, and they were getting pushed
and screamed at like slaves in contrast to their original treatment as kings.
The worst was being lynched. Alf Bickell was punched by a thug. Ringo dropped
on the floor when boxed while Brian was struck on the face and sprained his
ankle. Mal Evans was also hurt. Terrified, everybody had the common sense not
to fight back. To avoid more injuries, the entourage sought cover behind
civilians.
The Beatles plane held up
Once
they were abroad KLM flight 62, Brian, Mal and Tony were asked to get off,
clueless about the reason. As it turned out, they were asked to clear up a
passport problem and declare income tax. Their passports were not stamped entry
dates as required by our immigration laws. They also boarded without making an
income declaration and paying the corresponding tax. Philippine Tax Authority’s
Misael Vera would not make them leave without paying taxes. Brian issued a bond
for $18,000 as payment. This delayed the flight by 40 minutes.
Brian’s brown bag
It was the practice of Brian to ask the
concert promoter to place the quartet’s share of the undeclared income from ticket
sales of such concert. It was a tax evasion scheme to increase earnings and an
income tax reduction scheme in Britain. (Recall George Harrison’s “Taxman” song
where he complained about the confiscatory nature of the British taxation
system?) He asked such undeclared income to be placed in a brown paper bag (The
Beatles’ anti-Brian song entitled “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” has a line that
states “...in a big brown bag inside the zoo,” right?) which most of the time
he or his assistant hand-carried to the plane upon departure.
Brian
carried the concert’s brown bag upon boarding the KLM plane. The Beatles’ share
of undeclared income was in the bag. John confirmed that the brown bag was
confiscated and it was never accounted for. In 1971, the Beatles tried to
retrieve the bag’s content officially, allegedly totalling $17,000, but nothing
happened to the claim.
Victims of the Marcos ‘dictatorship’
Ferdinand
and Imelda Marcos were not yet tagged as “dictators” as Ringo called them in
the Beatles Anthology interviews. This is what happens when an incident is
taken out of the milieu—a misinterpretation of history takes place. In 1966,
Ferdinand and Imelda were well loved by the people, enjoying popular support.
Their manner of working as political animals were pretty much not yet exposed
in the same way the Beatles were not yet detected as drug users during that
time. If only we recognized the Marcoses’ “inhospitable” habits could we have
minimized the possibilities of Martial Law and the Ninoy Aquino assassination.
Dr.
Timothy Leary is right in calling the Beatles “evolutionary agents sent by
God.”
A Marcos conspiracy to kill the Beatles
Among the confidential documents retrieved
from the Malacañang files when Marcos fled to Hawaii as a result of People
Power were classified documents about a plot to kill the Beatles in India as a
retaliatory move for snubbing Imelda. For 25,000 rupees, a driver would ram
head on the American Cadillac the Beatles was in while on a sightseeing tour.
Supposedly, Marcos eventually backed off the James Bond scheme before it was
undertaken. His reason: He was attempting to develop good relations with
Britain.
Bottomline
Mid-1966
was a particularly unsettling period for the Beatles. After the debacle that
took place in Manila, the “more popular than Jesus” statement that John made to
Datebook writer Maureen Cleeve months earlier was taken out of context by the
American public. As a result, they were tagged as bigots, forcing John to make
a public apology. But it was too late. Damage was done, particularly on the
Beatles. This public relations trouble forced them to give up their last
concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. These unfortunate turn of events
forced the Beatles to stop touring as it has turned dangerous.
When they stopped touring and went into what’s
generally referred to as “the studio years,” the Beatles entered into their
maturity period, producing such albums as Revolver and Sgt. Peppers Lonely
Hearts Club Band and the single “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane.”
(By the way, Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Release Me” beat this double A-side
single to the number one slot of the British music charts, forcing producer
George Martin to pull them out of the planned Sgt. Peppers album.) Since
members were no longer constantly together as touring entailed, it started
their disintegration. John appeared in How I Won the War and started to be
unhappy about being a Beatle member.
By inference, it was the Manila concert that
forced the Beatles to re-form and reform, bringing them to their artistic peak.
But it had a negative effect, which is, bringing them to the pit bottom of
their professional career.
