An online Beatles fan club for and about Beatle fans
January 31, 1969
I know it isn't really a concert, but in my mind, the songs the Beatles played on January 31, 1969 at the Apple Studios was a like a concert. They could not play songs such as Let it Be on the rooftop, so they performed the rest of the songs in the studio. And what a performance they gave!!
Tonight I am starting a three-part story about a group of fans that were able to go to several stops on George Harrison's 1974 Dark Horse tour. As usual, it was more than just seeing George, but also the adventure that occurs that makes these stories so interesting.
Written by Brenda Lo
With a Little Help From My Friends
December 1974
Well, by the time this gets into the newsletter, a month or
more will have passed since the Chicago shows of Mr. Harrison. But ohh, will the memories always be
there!
I couldn’t even imagine me at a “Beatle” concert, but when I
finally realized I’d be seeing FOUR of George’s it was like a dream come true!
(just for the record Paul is my fave!)
The day came to finally fly out to Chicago, about a 3-hour plane ride and we touched down in Chicago at O’Hare. Plans were that about 25 of us would be
staying at the Holiday Inn down on Lakeshore Drive by Lake Michigan. Most of us had sent in our reservation to
Barb so that was all set.
I got an airport bus right out of O’Hare which would be
taking me right down to the Inn. And on
the way out of the terminal on the bus, I saw a mucky green airplane which I
later discovered was George’s! And by
that time it was too late. Oh well.
Being a stranger in town I finally got to my destination at
the Inn. I was a bit tired and wanted to
get to my room, so I stood in line for two hours to get my room (I flew in alone)
and when I finally got to the desk, they said there was no reservations under
my name or Barb’s. So, upset as I was, I
put my suitcase down by a door in the lobby and waited. There were so many people running
around. I didn’t have a clue if any of
them were there for the concert or not. After about 15 minutes a girl came in the door
and I noticed a Yellow Submarine pin on her coat so I asked if she was there
for the concerts and she said yeah. I
was so relieved! Key was with the
Cincinnati people (Barb, Sue and Stephanie) so we all stood around in the lobby
and I had told them what the desk had told me about reservations, so we all
stood confused and then Kathy and Chris came in and along about 5 Barb trudges
in and gets our reservations all straightened out so we all got our rooms.
A few hours later some more kids from the Chicago area
showed up and most of us were standing around in the lobby and someone said
something about Ravi and the gang staying at our hotel. No sooner said than
done, and I looked over by the elevators and there stood Mr. Shankar
himself! About that time alarms and
bells started going off because an elevator had gotten stuck.
Well, Bonnie and I decided we wanted to get Ravi’s autograph, and about that time he stepped into the elevator and the door closed (we had
found out he was in room 916 earlier). So,
Bonnie and I in desperation ran up 9 flights of stairs to try and catch
him. Bonnie was about 3 flights ahead of
me and when I finally got to the 9th floor, she came around the
corner from the elevator and said “I got it.”
So, I walked around to the elevator and there he stood, so I got his
autograph and we started talking to him about the tour and an elevator opened
and we all got in (Ravi too) and headed for the lobby. Ravi was very nice to us and when I told him
I’d come from Oregon just for the concerts, he smiled and goes “Really?” He seemed pleased. Also said how long it had taken George to
learn to play the sitar and stuff.
We got back to the lobby and Ravi got out (as we did) and
went around to the front desk for something.
(Meanwhile, they had gotten the elevator unstuck and were taking a guy
out on a stretcher). Then he went back
to the elevator and we were still standing there, so we rode back up with him
and talked some more. He was probably
glad to get rid of us even if he was being nice to us! I really don’t think Ravi could be mad at
anyone.
Anyway, later on that night, well, into the evening, we were
so sure that George was staying there too, so some of us waited in the lobby
for a while. There were some members
from the band and road crew hanging around in the lobby too. A guy from the India group were there, so I
went over to him and talked to him for a while. His name was TV. He really enjoyed talking to us and he was
really great. And of course, there were
some guys from the crew wearing “Dark Horse” shirts and that’s how we knew they
were part of the tour.
Long about 12:30am members of the band were still arriving,
and we were so confident George would be along too. So, this tall dude with blond hair looks at
us all and goes “George Harrison is NOT staying at this hotel. Will you kindly leave!” HE had a British accent and we just stood
there. How the Hell could we leave when
that’s where we were staying! We had
just as much right to be there as he did!
That was one thing we were all floored about. Of all the Holiday Inns and other hotels in
Chicago, Ravi and friends picked the one we did! It wasn’t planned or anything because we
didn’t know Ravi was there until we had our reservations!
Well most of us finally decided to go n up to our rooms,
giving up hope for George’s arrival. So
about 1:00am the people from Cleveland arrived – Pat, Joy, Tempy, Maria, Deb
and Deb’s sister Patti. They were all
beat after the seven hour drive and Pat had worked that day, so we called it a
night and hit the sack.
The next day, Saturday November 30 was THE day! I had managed to get a scalper ticket for the
3rd row about 4 feet from George!
I had three cameras – an Instamatic, 35 mm, and a movie camera. They were playing some new George songs
before the concert over the amps and then the lights dimmed and they played
“Lumberjack,” a funny little song. So
after that a guy walks out with a funny little hat on and sunglasses over the
hat, with a scarf, obviously being the quiet lad, Mr. Harrison! The crowd
roared as the rest of the band came out, and they started out with an
instrumental. I was so surprised that I
wasn’t in hysteria since it was my first concert and second sitting of one of
them. I just kind of stared for a few
minutes, pinching myself to make sure it wasn’t a dream, and then I started
taking pics. One time when I had my movie
camera going, he looked into it as if to say “what the Hell’s she doing with so
many cameras – and a movie one to boot!”
That look almost killed me!
I had gotten to be friends with a chap next to me, and he
could never get a pic of George looking to his camera. So, he kept holding his camera way up into
the air so George would look over at him.
Well, George DID look over at him, and when he saw what this guy was
doing, he held HIS hand up and looked at me and laughed. Of course, THAT sent
me straight through the ceiling. Wow! I’ll never forget it!
Well – after about 45 minutes or so the Indian part came and
George stayed on the stage the entire time Ravi played. During the 2nd show he was off to
the side booging to the music and having a good time and he intruded the Indian
musicians by saying “We’ll enlarge a bit and add 16 members to the band – well
really there’s only 14 but I’m a liar.”
You can really get into the Indian music if you’re right in front where
you can observe what is going on. But if
you are way up in the balcony and can’t see a bloody thing, you just kind of go
to sleep. I know because that’s where I
got planted in the 2nd show.
And the Indian music was rocked up a bit with electric guitars and the whole
bit. It really wasn’t too bad.
And I dunno how the
rest of the concerts were, but when Billy Preston (or William Everett Preston
as George called him!) came on, he really got the crowd rocking. And that cute little dance George and Billy
did! Fantastic! (I got it on my movie film!) It was so great!
And the end of Billy’s number, George
smiles and goes, “That Billy – he’s a gas!”
It was so good.
In the first show, they started to play “Sue Me Sue You
Blues” and George raked his fingers really hard over his guitar strings and one
of the strings broke. He threw his hands up in the air and goes” Hold it! Hold it!
“Then the music died out. “I just
snapped a string here.” He then looks
around for another guitar and shrugs – “Oh well, guess I’ll play without one
string.” So, he did! And you couldn’t really tell. He also snapped
a string at the evening show, plus nearly dropped a guitar once. He didn’t have a strap on secretly enough and
he caught his guitar just before it hit the floor and he had trouble keeping that
strap onto the guitar throughout the rest of the concert. Also, that scarf he was wearing, he said Emil
knitted it for him, and he kept getting the scarf tangled up with his guitar
strap. He wasn’t too coordinated, but
Yeah George!
And to sum the concerts up, about the only bitch most people
had was all the songs, lyrics were changed around. Such as “Something in the way she moves it,”
“While my guitar gently smiles” and in the song “In my Life” he goes “I love
God more.” “My Sweet Lord” and “What is
Life” were pretty good. He also sang
“Dark Horse” and “Maya Love” – great songs!
He also said after “In my Life” “God Bless Paul, John and Ringo and the
ex-ex-ex’s” In the beginning of the second show he said, “Good evening, Chicago
– and it’s windy, just like they said it was!
I might add in the first show he had a t-shirt on that was
promoting “Walls & Bridges” - it had John’s eyes (From the LP) across the
front of it, and then “Walls & Bridges” around the sleeves. It was really cute. They also of course sold tour books at $2 a
shot, all money from them going to the Appalachian Regional Hospital – that’s
one thing about George – he’s always trying to help and aid the ones who don’t
have it so good and show need help. I’ll
always admire that about him – his concern and thoughtfulness of others.
And for all f you who didn’t notice at the concert and
otherwise, George does wear an earring in his right ear! But as I was saying about the program – it
has some NICE photos of George in it.
And then the rest of the members of the band. And just for the record, outside of the
concert hall, Krishna people were giving out Indian cake, or something like
that. No way was I going to eat any of
it, but some of the other girls that had the courage to eat it said it was
pretty good.
So after the concerts, we went back to the Holiday Inn and
went to our rooms. And about 15 minutes
later, I was sitting on the can and a girl from outside the door goes “Where’s
Brenda? Where’s Brenda”” “A guy from the tour wants to talk to
Brenda!” I scrambled right out and went
out in the hall, where everyone was standing around this guy. So I walked up to him and someone goes, “He
wants that pin of George you were wearing at the concert – the one that flashes
on and off.” I said I hadn’t been wearing a pin, just a George shirt. He’d mistaken me for someone else, but we all
got to rapping with this guy, and his name was Jeff Raven and he did publicity
for the tour and made the hotel arrangements.
He was telling us how George has a museum in his house in England, and
that he collects old Beatles things and he wanted that button that flashed on
and off. So since we couldn’t give him
that, everyone scrambled to their rooms and dug up something Beatle, ranging
from a George coat hanger to a portrait of George. So, Jeff said that we’d all been so nice to
him, he was going to invite us all up to his room so we could preview George’s
new album (which wasn’t out at the time).
So about 20 of us went up to his room and sat and listened to the new
LP. It has about 8 songs on it, but they
are long ones. And despite George’s
hoarse voice, it’s pretty good. About
1:30AM, we all split and thanked him.
After that, most of us went to our rooms, rapped a while and
then went to bed because some of us had to get up early and head for
Cleveland. So the next morning me,
Tempy, Barb, Richie, Deb and Patti got up around 8:00 and went down and had
breakfast. The restaurant was always
swamped for breakfast, so by the time we were done eating, the rest of the gang
were just getting seats to eat.
Around 11:30 (Sunday) the kids that were going back home to
Cleveland and the Cincinnati kids and me that were headed for the Cleveland
concerts had to get on the road. We all
met in the lobby and got a group picture of everyone that’d met there for the concerts. After that, I noticed TV standing in the
lobby watching us, so I went over and said goodbye to him and told him I’d see
him in Cleveland at the concerts and he seemed really surprised I’d be at the
Cleveland shows! Then I made him pose
for a pic and he smiled greatly as I snapped the photo. And a sad goodbye as we headed to
Cleveland. There were three carloads of
us altogether – Pat, Joyce, Kris and Marla were in Pat’s car and Deb, her
sister, Tempy and me in another, and then the Cincinnati kids in their car –
but they didn’t leave Chicago until a few hours after we did.
Well, after stopping at a truck stop in Gary, Indiana (blah-
the food was rotten – yuck!) and eating we went on and the further east we got,
the worse the weather got. It was
snowing like mad almost all the way to Cleveland. We left Chicago at noon and pulled into
Cleveland at 11:30 that night – over 11 hours on the road when it normally
takes 6 hours to drive! So we pulled into Pat’s house and were all hungry and
cold. Her mom was good enough to fix
spaghetti for us! So we all ate
spaghetti and watched an Elvis movie, “Speedway” (not Red Rose).
Then we wondered if George would cancel out his Cleveland
gigs because of the bad weather. So Monday morning (December 2) it was still
snowing and a lot of airports had been shut down, including Chicago. So Pat called Jeff Raven in Chicago and told
him there was no way they could make it to Cleveland for the concerts because
the roads were so bad and the weather was zilch for flying. So Raven said
George definitely would NOT cancel, and they would fly to Columbus and go up to
Cleveland by bus from there. We were all
worried and concerned about George’s safety trying to fly and drive, but there
was nothing we could do but keep our toes and fingers and legs crossed. So we headed off to the Coliseum around
2pm. Halfway there, they announced over
the air that George had canceled both of his Cleveland gigs. We were relieved that they weren’t going to
try to fly in and even if they had driven, there was no way they would have made
it in time for the show and his equipment was already there. But at the time we were relieved about the
cancellation we felt sad because of so many Cleveland kids who were really
counting on his shows and who were not fortunate enough to be able to get to
Chicago or anywhere else for a concert.
The Get Back film has brought Billy Preston back into the spotlight again. Billy was an amazing musician and person. He always seems like a happy man with a wonderful smile, great fashion, and someone that tried to spread peace, love, and kindness to everyone. And obviously, he had a big amount of talent -- his keyboard playing is great beyond words. I spotted this interview with him from 1985 with Beatles Unlimited and thought it was interesting.
Interview with Billy Preston
By Mees Van Ditzhuyzen
Beatles Unlimited
August 1985
Billy Preston is always a welcome guest on the European continent. He manages to hop over quite regularly to do
some concerts or promote a new record.
IN May Preston visited the Netherlands to sing his new single “Here
There and Everywhere” on a few TV programs and do some live shows in
discotheques. A good opportunity for us
to have a talk with probably the only man to work closely with both Beatles and
Stones. The interview took play on 14
May 1985 at “De Bios” in Amsterdam.
Special thanks go to Indisc Records for their kind cooperation and to
Arthur Mathezing for his editorial assistance.
Q: First a few
questions about your cooperation with The Beatles. Was the first time you met them in Hamburg?
B: I met them a
little bit earlier than that, in Liverpool, probably a week before
Hamburg. They were on a show with Little
Richard and Sam Cooke and that’s who I was touring with. We became friends because they would always
come up to me and ask me about Little Richard and Sam and America and
everything.
Q: Did you lose sight
of them for all those years until 1968 or 1969?
B: No, I ran into
them again in L.A. when they first came there, on their first trip to America,
and I saw them in San Francisco, and we hung out and I went to the Cow Palace
concert with them. Then I didn’t see
them anymore until 1969 when I was in London with Ray Charles. He was doing a concert at the Festival Hall
and George Harrison was in the audience.
He didn’t know I was in the show and kept wondering if it was me. He sent a message backstage for me to call
Apple the next day. I did and he invited
me over. When I went down to the studio
they were recording and asked me to sit in.
Q: Up until then you
had made some records with organ instrumentals for Capitol, so you had to
change labels.
B: Yes. That happened overnight. They asked me if I wanted to be on Apple and
I said that I did but that I was on Capitol.
The next day they said, “You are now on Apple.”
Q: What that, your
music changed as well.
B: That was the first
time I had a chance to sing and to do my own songs that I had written. It was a great outlet for me.
Q: There is a story
that George Harrison wrote “What is Life”, especially for you but that in the
end, he recorded it himself.
B: You mean “My Sweet
Lord?”
Q: No, it’s on the
same album.
B: He never told me
that. We did kind of help him with “My Sweet
Lord.” It originated in a dressing
room. We were on a tour with Delaney and
Bonnie and they asked me how to write a gospel song. So I started playing some gospel changes and
that’s how the song became a song.
Q: No influence from
“He’s so Fine?”
B: No.
Q: You’ve played with
the Stones for six or seven years, and with several Beatles on a couple of
albums. Yet there’s a lot of influence
from the Beatles: covers, a tribute on
your latest album. But I don’t see any
influence from the Stones.
B: That may be on the
next album. I’ll get around to all of
them, they’ve all been an influence to me.
The tribute was to thank them for giving me the opportunity.
Q: What was touring
with the Stones like?
B: Oh, it was
fun. Wild times, all the time.
Q: People were
surprised you played with the Stones.
After all their lifestyle was very different from yours.
B: Yes, very much
so. But it was exciting for both of
us. The first time they ever played in
the key of E Flat was when they played my song “Outa Space” They were thrilled
because of that. When I did that song in
the show and started dancing, Mick Jagger would come out and chase me around
the stage and he had a thing he used to swing over the audience.
Q: Are you still in
contact with the Stones?
B: I haven’t seen them lately, because I’ve been busy
working on my own stuff. I had to kind
of shy away from being with them sometimes because they took up a lot of time,
and I had my own career.
Q: You played with
the Beatles on a few McCartney songs and after that, you played with John,
George, and Ringo on their solo albums.
But you never played with Paul.
B: Paul was always in
Europe, and I didn’t have a chance to catch up with him. The last time I saw him was at a Stones
concert, but we said we’d get together, but in practice, it’s very hard.
Q: Still he did
invite a lot of superstars for “Broadstreet.”
B: A lot of times
they just don’t know where I am. Ringo
thought I lived in New York.
Q: Speaking of
superstars: you weren’t involved in the
USA for Africa project.
B: I was over in
Europe when they recorded that, so I missed out on that. But I just did something similar with all the
stars who were born in Texas, Charlie Pride, and a lot of football players. It’s also a tribute for Africa, but it hasn’t
been released yet.
Q: You worked with
Syreeta a lot, but you’re not on their latest album.
B: My sweetheart,
she’s great. Unfortunately, she couldn’t
make it this trip because she’s recording right now. Her latest album is a solo album. We’d like to do something together again, but
at the moment we are both trying to get our careers going. Sometimes when you do too much together
people think that you are a permanent due.
Q: Stairsteps, an old
George Harrison group, have a lot of musicians on your albums.
B: The group was
great. I saw them years ago when I first
went to New York to the Apollo Theater.
They were little kids then. I ran
into them a little while later and they’d broken up and quit the business. I got them together again, introduced them to
George and he encouraged them to do an album, which I co-produced for
them. A couple of them are still playing
today, making disco records.
Q: And then of course
there’s Ray Charles, the man who started it all.
B: Ys, that’s my
idol, man. We have plans to do something
together, but again the schedules are so hard to work out. But as soon as possible we’ll get together.
Q: On your more
recent albums there were no superstars
There was a trend for a while to invite a whole lot of guests on
albums. For instance, you have worked
with Stevie Wonder, Joe Walsh, the Crusaders…
B: I will do
something like that eventually, but on my latest album I concentrated on doing
most of it myself. With the synthesizer
and everything, you don’t really need a whole lot of musicians.
Q: Do you have any
idea how many records you’ve made?
B: I’ve been
recording since I was 16, and I’m 38 now.
So maybe an album a year.
Q: You were with A
& M Records for a long time, then things were a bit messy: Motown Records, Mirror Records, two gospel
LPs. Why was all that?
B: I had been with A
& M for 7 years which is a long time.
It ended because it seemed they had done as much as they could do and
that we couldn’t get any further.
Sometimes it’s good to change because I work with a lot of different
audiences, and that gives me a variety of things to play, and sometimes it’s
hard to be pinned down. Some people
don’t work together unless they’re on the same label, and you have to look for
the right combination of people, and someone who will back your records, things
like that.
Q: Did Motown give
you an entrance to all the Motown stars?
B: They worked pretty
much together as a team, but it was hard for me to be an individual in that
type of situation because I never worked that way. I did try, but it didn’t work. I had to move on.
Q: Will your new
album have only your own songs or will there be covers?
B: Most of them I’m
writing together with other writers, mostly lyricists. I write all the music, and sometimes I have
an idea, a verse, a chorus, or something like that and I have them finish it
with me. There’s about three songwriters
I work with pretty regularly One is
Ralph Benatar, and there’s a lady, Sylvia Smith, who’s another good lyricist to
work with, and there’s Bruce Fisher.
Q: Do you have any
plans for more film music? You were
involved in “Fast Break.”
B: Yes, we did a film
called “Blame it on the Night,” but I don’t know when it’s going to be
released. It’s a kind of rock n roll
film. Mick Jagger had some time to do
with it, writing the screenplay or something.
And I make a cameo appearance in it.
Q: Do you think you
attract different audiences, doing gospel music on one end and disco on the
other?
B: I don’t know. I like music.
Period. Different people like
different kinds of music, but I’ve been blessed to play all kinds, and I like
playing classical music as much as playing reggae or anything else.
Q: Classical music? Any favorite composer?
B: Rachmaninov. My first classical piece was by him. I have a song called “Minuet For Me” on one
of the albums for A & M.
Q: Does your
involvement in gospel music mean that you’re religious, and how do religion and
play with the Stones go together, with their rather rough reputation?
B: They’re very sweet
people, underneath the image. I asked them why everyone thinks they’re devils,
and they said “We just let it happen.
That’s our publicity, that’s what made us famous.” They are really nice guys, but I always
preach to them. I believe in God. I believe that everything that happened for
me has been a blessing from God because I never auditioned or sought fame or
anything like that.
Q: Did you have
discussions with George Harrison about religion?
B: Yes, he shared
Krishna with me. In fact, in his studio, he has a picture of Jesus, one of Krishna, of Buddha, everybody. He’s sharing his beliefs with me. Not that I’m going to cut my hair and shout
“Hare Krishna” all day long.
Q: Is there another
life next to music?
B: No. Music is my life. I’ve been playing since I was three years
old. I never worked at any other job, I
don’t know anything else but music.
I am not sure if I have posted this photo before. I tried to look for it and then stopped because who cares? It is a great photo and if it has been posted before, then I am posting it again.
Congratulations are in order today in Billy Preston's memory because he was (finally) inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame! Billy was such an important man in The Beatles story. He met the Beatles back in Hamburg and remained friends with George. He was a performer on the Apple label, played the amazing piano on "Get Back" (and is the only person to be named for their work on the single), played with The Beatles on the rooftop, went on tour with George on the Dark Horse Tour of 1974 and toured with Ringo as part of the All Starr Band on several occasions.
Billy not only was an amazing piano player but a great singer and a wonderful performer. A much-deserved recognition.
