Sunday, July 3, 2016

Beatles on a boat

Here is where the Manila story gets a bit confusing.  After the press conference, the Beatles were taken to the Marima yacht on the Manila Bay , which was to be their hotel for the night.    Supposedly rooms were booked at the Manila Hilton just to throw off fans and the Beatles were supposed to know all about the plans of spending the night on a boat.  

Some reports state that the Beatles were taken there without Brian Epstein or anyone else in their entourage allowed on board.   But that can't be true because  he played a big part in this part of the story plus he is seen in at least one photo from the boat.


So the Beatles get on the boat and all goes pretty well at first.    There were reporters on the dock that wanted to take photos of the Beatles through the windows of the boat, which made Brian made and he yelled at them "No photos!"   So there are very few photos of them from this event.

Brian looks like he will start yelling at the camera man soon




The only people on the boat   besides the crew were two children of don Manolo and a beauty queen.  The newspapers reported that the Beatles relaxed and listened to Indian music on cassette tapes.  They had a meal of fried chicken, filet mignon, mashed potatoes, carrots and sweet peas and there was plenty of Scotch and Coke to drink.




But things became uncomfortable.   It was unbearably hot and the mosquitoes were out and biting.  Plus the Beatles were uncomfortable and a bit frightened by the police holding guns that were guarded them.    There was also some report of at least one of the guys feeling sea-sickness.  

does this look like a guy that is having a fun time on a boat?


It was reported that Brian Epstein was unhappy with the whole thing from the start and wanted to stay at the hotel.   A group of 18 young people boarded the boat uninvited and stayed to talk to the Beatles.   Reportedly, this didn't bother the four guys, but pushed Brian over the edge.  

The Beatles soon figured out that they were expect to spend the night on the boat and stay there until one hour before the concert the next day.   They said that they needed more than just an hour to prepare their stage clothing and instruments for the concert and could not stay on the yacht.    Did the Beatles really need more than a hour?   I wouldn't think so, but I am sure that they felt trapped on that boat and thought it was nice enough for an evening, but not all night and most of the next day.

Brian got on the ship-to-shore phone and spoke with Vic Lewis (promoter) and yelled at him "We're not staying one minute longer on this bloody boat!  There's absolutely nothing to do and we do not want to spend anym more time on this ghastly little yacht!"

By the time the guys made it to the Manila Hilton Hotel, it was 4am.    

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