Friday, June 27, 2014

Three Beatle press conference

Of all the press conferences the Beatles gave while they were touring, only a very few of them didn't not have all of the Beatles present.  Of course the ones during Ringo's illness and Jimmie Nichol took Ringo's place, Milwaukee in 1964--John was not there because  he had a sore throat and wanted to save his voice for the concert and Dundin, New Zealand.   John was not present at the press conference because he was still angry about the way he was treated and how he got hurt when they were entering the hotel earlier.  


John apparently didn't miss out on anything because the press conference was crowded and full of the same old silly questions that had (even by late June of 1964) been answered a million times before.

One of the only photos I could locate of the press conference...


In this story from the NZ Listener (June 1984), Nick Collins talks about the press conference and how he was a decoy for the Beatles.



Every man and his dog was at the Dunedin press conference asking idiotic questions.  'Which one is which?  Have any of you played for the Rolling Stones?'  There is a photo of me interviewing Ringo.  I'm in my flashiest suit and my hair is Brykreemed back.  Ringo was heavy into country music-  he told me he had a collection of Hank Williams and said if he had his way, he'd do more county.           Later that night the promoters asked me to be a decoy while the Beatles sneaked into the Town Hall .  The others were Russell Clark, Max Merritt and one of the Meteors.  The promoter said, 'If you do this for us, you'll get to meet them later for supper.  Turn your collar up, comb your hair forward, put your head down and race through the crowd to the limousine.  It's as simple as that lads.'  We all thought it was great fun, so we did it, but as we did, the crowd surged forward and there were people yanking and pulling at our hair.  At that moment I wondered why I said yes, because it was quite terrifying.        Before the car could move, the noise inside was deafening with everybody bashing on the outside and there was lipstick smeared all over the car.  So off we went and I can still see two old ladies outside Hallenstein's waving frantically so we got right into the act and waved back.   Meanwhile the Beatles scurried out the back entrance of the hotel amongst trash cans and got into a little Ford.  They went around to the bottom end of Maire Place and came in the side entrance.  They were in and out before anyone knew.       I said to Paul McCartney, 'I can't believe you go through that performance every time you leave a hotel-- you must be battered and bruised.'"
 

1 comment:

  1. I can't believe you have a picture from this conference! I've searched many times for one!!! Thanks!!!!

    ReplyDelete