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Paul and Sid in the 1990's--long after this interview |
Interview—Sid Bernstein
All Things must pass fanzine
August 1980
On May 25, we visited Sid Bernstein in his midtown Manhattan
office. The following is the complete
transcript of our interview with him.
ATMP: What can you
tell us about the advertisement you placed in the New York Times about two
years ago, imploring the Beatles to reunite?
Sid: No, it was eight
or nine months ago. There was a second
ad that appeared in the Times last September.
ATMP: Are you
continuing in your effort to reunite the Beatles?
Sid: Well, let me say
this…That last ad in September 1979 cost $18,000 to place in the New York
Times. So it’s not easy to do this kind
of thing all the time. However, I felt
this was the only effective way to get the guys to consider getting together
one more time. Whether they did it
collectively or individually, doing their own thing on stage, but all of them
in one place at one time. I didn’t hear
from Ringo, didn’t hear from George, didn’t hear from Paul, but I did hear from
John Lennon. Lennon called and asked for
more details of my plan. I gave it to
him on the phone and he said, “Sid, why don’t you write it all down in great
length and send it to me.” This was
about two weeks after the ad appeared around October first of last year. I then wrote all the details down. It took a lot of time but it gave a complete
picture of what it could accomplish in terms of saving lives, particularly
young peoples’ lives, the kids who were on the boats at that time, who had no
homes and couldn’t find a haven: the
boat people. It centered on the children
of the boat people. I delivered the
letter personally, because I wanted to be sure that it didn’t have to go
through a messenger, and I would have to worry whether the messenger gave it to
the right doorman. So I delivered it
personally to the Dakota on 72nd Street, which is just a few blocks
from here. That is where John and Yoko
live. I waited for an answer but I never
received one, so it seems almost hopeless.
My first two attempted go get them together for humanity have been
fruitless. However, when I have the mans
and the ability I will try it again, because I think it’s worth a number of
tries for the slim chance that they might get together, because of the good the
four guys can do for a lot of kids who are not as fortunate as the kids we
know.
ATMP: Can you give
our readers some of the details of your plan?
Sid: I believe it can
raise a half a billion dollars. I think
it could clothe, feed and educate for their lifetime one hundred thousand
children, if they were to get together and do this benefit appearance.
ATMP: Which of the
Beatles do you think are responsible for
preventing a reunion?
Sid: It’s my feeling
that if Paul and John were convinced, then the other two might join in. That’s my feeling---I have no real knowledge
of their problems. I can only guess at
their problems. When I ran my first ad in
1976, I didn’t get a response from anyone.
However, three months after the ad appeared, at the end of ’76 or the beginning
of ’77, Paul was asked about the ad in Venice, where he was doing a benefit to
save the city of Venice from sinking. He
was asked by a reporter from the Paris Herald-Tribune, which is a daily English
newspaper that goes throughout Europe, “What do you think of Sid Bernstein’s
plan for you four to get together?”
Paul’s reply appeared in the paper three months later. He said, “Sid places too heavy a
responsibility on our shoulders. We
can’t save the world.”
ATMP: Have you ever
tried to call them directly?
Sid: Yes. It’s hopeless. There were no results. You can’t get at them, and what’s why the ad
appeared. I figured they would read the
ad, which they did.
ATMP: Didn’t you know
the Beatles when they first came to America?
Sid: Yes.
ATMO: Can you explain exactly how you were involved in their
arrival in the U.S.?
Sid: I was taking a
course, as I still do, at the New School for Social Research. I was in about my fifteenth year at the New
School. All the courses have to do with
history and civilization. Part of the
requirements of my course consisted, in addition to books, of reading English
newspapers once a week. I learned about
the Beatles in Liverpool way back in 1962.
I watched their progress from Liverpool to London and decided they might
be right for America. Being a showman
and promoter, I looked up, after great difficulty, their manager, Brian
Epstein’s home phone number. I called
him at home in Liverpool, made a deal with him in that first call to bring the
Beatles to America for the first time a year later. They arrived February 12, 1964 {sic}. The following year I brought them to Shea
Stadium, and the year after to Shea Stadium again. My contacts with them were not frequent, but
the few times we were together were highly interesting, dramatic. We got to know each other very well. This was because we were on the verge of
history, breaking the Beatles in America.
So we became particularly close, especially Brian Epstein and myself.
ATMP: So you knew
them fairly well, especially John Lennon.
How would you say he’s changed from the Beatles you brought to America
in 1964 as opposed to the man who called you about the ad six months ago?
Sid: I guess we all
change. It’s been fifteen years since I first met them. He’s a mature individual, a very serious
individual. He’s approaching middle
age. John’s not the kid I met at
twenty-one or twenty-two. I’m sure he has
a different outlook on things now than he did then. I don’t know him intimately. I bump into him once in a while. I’m with my children and he’s with his wife
and child. We talk, and it’s a warm
embrace and good memories. But we aren’t
intimate, and I really don’t know what he’s thinking about, except that he’s
into children, and so am I, and that all we talk about.
ATMP: Are you still
promoting any groups now?
Sid: Yes, I do.
ATMP: so you haven’t
been able to stop since then?
Sid: No, I haven’t.
ATMP: Obviously if
the Beatles reunited it would be a huge financial success. But do you think it would succeed musically
and socially? Do you think they’d put
aside their differences and not embarrass themselves on stage?
Sid: I don’t know
whether it would succeed musically, because their voices have changed, and they
haven’t played together. They’ve also
gone in different directions
musically. But it would be
successful historically, it also would be socially successful. The fact that they’re together again and the
world sees four guys who have had some deep differences forget about them for a
day and do a thing for humanity. They
might teach the world a lesson; that people who’ve had deep differences can put
them aside and band together to do something important. Economically, it would be tremendously
successful. The whole world would tune
in, the whole world who likes music and who likes the Beatles and thinks about
the Beatles, especially the new world which never had a chance to see them will
tune in. they probably wouldn’t even
play together. John might recite poetry
or introduce the others. Since Paul is
still actively playing and George and Ringo occasionally play, they might play
together or do their own thing with their own friends. But the whole world might tune in to see the
four guys at the end of the program put their arms around each other and give
whatever message they have to give, explaining why they are doing the benefit
concert.
ATMP: On final note
for our American Beatle fans. Under your
plan would they play in the U.S. or some neutral spot, like Geneva?
Sid: If it were my
choice, but the ad doesn’t say I have to do the concert, it’s just that someone
should do it. But if the choice were
mine, I would say America, probably
somewhere in the Middle East, and somewhere in Africa. I would like to do three days and perform
wherever people are in the most trouble.
It is in those areas that I would like to see the concerts done.
Isn't the second photograph with Paul, Ringo and George with their photographer Harry Benson?(MarkZapp)
ReplyDeleteYes, I do believe so. If I'm not mistaken, that's Harry when he was visiting (and photographing) the band at the George V Hotel in Paris, January '64.
ReplyDeleteThat's definitely Harry Benson. No question about it. Not sure I've ever seen a photo of Sid with the Beatles in any year, let alone 1964.
ReplyDeleteSid was the part of the Beatle history that will forever be remembered -rip sir
ReplyDelete