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.
ps.
Happy Independence Day America and Happy Filipino- American Friendship Day!
this was a repost from my initial post dated July 5, 2007
-paddylast-
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