Grand Prix in Spain

 June 4, 1978

Playing guitar on the beach

 October 23, 1966 

Leaving Spain without Kyoko

 

April 26, 1971    Yoko looks so sad in these photos.   My heart breaks for her when I think about how long she looked for Kyoko and did not see her again until many, many years later.    Unless a mother is abusive, no mother should be removed from a child's life like that.   

Spanish guitar

 

Ringo in thought while visiting John in Spain

 

Strawberry Fields in a fisheye

Spanish bass

The Beatles in Spain

Arriving in Spain

Notice that look the girl is giving the boys?   Yeah---she has some Beatlemania for sure.

A drunken man

This photo was taken July 5, 1965 in Madrid Spain when the Beatles were guests of the mayor, who had a party in their honor.   According to the caption of the photo, Paul is here pretending like he is a drunk man.   Pretending?    No one will know for sure!

Ole Los Beatles Espana (part 3--Barcelona)

Ole Los Beatles Espana

By Juan Agueras and Richardo Gil

Sgt. Beatles Fanclub

They headed to Barcelona next Saturday at 2:45pm.  It was quite a hot day.  They flew with a Superconstellation from our national company Iberia with flight number IB 214.  Juanita Biarnes, a photographer, will never forget it as she managed to take pictures of the Beatles themselves on the plane.  “When I boarded the plane” she remembers, “I noticed that the four of them and their people were in the back.  Together with them, there was a typewriter, two sound engineers, a sort of assistant who did all the chores requested by them (the latter three were also bodyguards), and the manager, a quiet man, unsuspicious and always watching and controlling in silence everything which took place around his lads.”   As her pictures clearly showed us, the Beatles did not travel as stars.  She was marveled by their availability and kindness.  They were traveling in a regular flight, without special security measures.  John and Paul were sitting quite close to the toilets, just like George and Ringo, who hid their eyes behind dark sunglasses.   Instead of landing on runway 17 – as previously announced, they did it on a different area of the El Prat airport, opposite the restaurant.   Here you have a relayed anecdote:  the Hungarian novelist, Lajos Zilahy altered his timetable so as to avoid all the chaos he expected the Beatles were to generate at the airport.  There were about 200 fans waiting for them.  Brian Epstein got off the plane before the Fab Four and then Franciska, a singer in fashion at the time presented the Beatles with four monteras (a type of cap used by bull fighters) with compliments of the promoter.   Paul toyed with his cap and played the fool pretending it was a goblet.  They also received from the hands of a pretty woman four little dolls dressed with typical Andalusian suits and some keyrings from Elisa Estrada, a member of the Spanish Official Beatles fan Club.  To please the photographers, they went upstairs and downstairs once again.   A Cadillac took them to the Hotel Avenida Palace, in Gran Via Street, at the center of Barcelona.  Their rooms were located on the first floor. 

 The press conference turned to be very funny – rather an improvisation and it began at 7pm.  Only 20 journalists turned up, maybe due to the fact that the promoter was reluctant to give away free tickets for the concert.  Juanita Biarnes was lucky once again, “After the press conference, I told them I wanted to be with them.  They said yes by means of pointing their thumbs up, a Beatles common practice.  At 7:30pm the five of us went into their rooms.  There were records spread all over their beds, lots of hardbacks, a badly looked record player, a Spanish guitar.  Ringo was lying on a bed reading.   George was not present.  Nothing special on the shelves:  no perfumes or the like.  A hair dryer.   They smoked a lot, all types.  Ringo always smoked tipped cigarettes.  There was a table with plenty of drinks and fruit.  John did not cease to play the Spanish guitar for a moment.  He played many classical Spanish pieces.   They talked to me about Albeniz.  They loved flamenco dancing.  They wanted to write some songs with a Spanish touch.  They told me to sing a rumba, a word which by the way, made them laugh.  I admitted I had no idea about rumbas.  Nevertheless, I taught them to palmear (to handclap in flamenco like style) and some Catalonian expressions.  After this friendly conversation, a casual dinner was held in the suite.  This was the menu:  john—a chicken sandwich with a lot of tomato sauce, Paul had a cheese and ham sandwich, George and Ringo—fried eggs and beans.  They drank tea with milk.  After the dinner, they were told they had to get ready to go to the show. “

The 18,000 (three quarters of the total capacity) who gathered at the venue to watch the Beatles seemed to be more patient when it came to listening to the guest artists.  Torrebruno was once again the host.  As the other groups, who began to play at 10:45pm, were on stage, the Beatles were somehow stuck on their improvised dressing rooms.  Mass media harassed them even when they felt like going to the toilet.   Paul, a natural born PR, posed next to he police officers, mimicking their salutes.  By the way, Barcelona officers seemed to be more tolerant than their Madrid colleagues.  Eventually, around midnight, they went onto the stage through the bullpen’s door.  The scenery was simpler than in Madrid.  Just like in Madrid, John, with his hat on, stood on the right, Paul on the left, sometimes changing places with George, who stood in the very center, right in front of Ringo.  As usual they played the same repertoire as the previous show in Madrid, which was 12 songs, 8 by Lennon and McCartney, and 4 cover versions.  The song list had been especially devised for the mini European tour which had begun in Paris on June 20 and which was about to come to an end.

Back in their rooms, they celebrated the end of the tour.  Some hotel customers complained about the noise.  Francisco Bermudez, who was taking part in that party, recalls that an Italian customer man was about to smash him.   Likewise he recalls, “We were all celebrating the success of the great ever and most satisfactory experience of my life.”  He was said that he, the promoter, lost money, however, later on he said he had actually earned some 600,000 peseta’s.  “Not too bad, I think.”    Brian Epstein suggested he could help him to organize a tour through South America.  

The Concert in the Bull ring

Backstage with the Beatles

Another press conference

Last stop: Barcelona, Spain

Ole Los Beatles Espana (part 2 Madrid)

 Here is the continuation of the information that I posted yesterday about the Beatles in Madrid.   There is a lot of information here that was new to me!   I had no idea that 6,000 fans could not get in to see the Beatles and that the police were so violent towards them!  Wow!  

Ole Los Beatles Espana

By Juan Agueras and Richardo Gil

Sgt. Beatles Fanclub

Many pictures were to be taken the following morning, Friday July 2^nd, during a pseudo-official reception organized by Bodegas Sherry at the very Fenix hotel.   The Beatles were awarded with a gold badge and signed, using pieces of chalk, on four casks brought especially from Jerez for the event.  They tasted the wine, served by Julio Moreno, a “venenciador” (a person who serves wine directly from the cask by means of a long, thick stick).  John tried to take his first steps in the technique.  Miguel Primo de Rivera, Jerez’s Mayor, presented him with the exotic stick.  Lennon exclaimed, “Ole!”  Going on the clichés, flamengo dancing was also scheduled.  Ringo and Paul tried to imitate the dancers, who later on became “Las Hermanas Hurtado,” a combo of comedians.  The Beatles’ bass player, innate public relations, gave a wink to the TV cameras.  This ceremony was to be registered in history as having taken place in Andalusia, which is not true as it was held in Madrid. 

 In the afternoon they were interviewed in their rooms by Jose Luis Alvarez and Roberto Sanchez Miranda from Fonorama magazine, a nice gesture of Brian Epstein whom they had talked on the phone.  They had met some month before.  “A record less record player,” Roberto Sanchez remembers, “Paris Match magazine open showing a page which featured themselves, a table with plenty of sorts of bottles and glasses.  John woke up form a brief doze, the sheet line printed on his face and fidgeting with a venencia.   George went out of his room looking like Adam.  They made me sing ‘She Loves you’ in Spanish.”  Jose comments, “John suggested a picture of us all together.  He kicked off the table so that everything fell onto the floor.”  The meeting was brightened up when some English friends entered the room.  The two journalists summed up this overall impression, “four wonderful lads, really natural and with no affectation at all.”

Friday July 2^nd, Plaza de las Ventas.  The surroundings of the venue began to become stocked with people, mainly youngsters, who had been queuing since early in the afternoon.  Police forces, which had put cordons around the place and which were on horse back, were busy repressing those people who were too much enthused.   Likewise, those who looked suspicious were not allowed to enter.  The show started at 9:30pm, just as it had been scheduled, with 12,000 people assembled at the place (half the venue’s capacity).  The most expensive seats were occupied by celebrities.   Spanish musicians and lots of Americans, the later’s presence being quite conspicuous all along the show.   Nevertheless, the Beatles were to play much later on.  The host, Torrebruno remembers that due to the fact that the Beatles were due to appear on stage at a really late hour, the audience got really excited.  “They wanted to see the Beatles and nobody else, just the Beatles.”  The Fab four got to the Plaza de Toros at about 9pm.  They went straight into the medical section, which had been prepared to serve the purposes of a dressing room.  While the four from Liverpool were waiting for their performance to begin, and once the first part of their show was over, special scenery was laid out.  Yet the set’s concept was closer to a variety show than to a Rock n Roll concert.  

 At 10pm Torrebruno, the host, delivered his introduction.  Meanwhile, the combo was heading for the stage’s right side stairs.  They were carrying their own instruments.  “And now the very moment has come” Torrebruno said “Yes dear friends, here they are for the first time in Spain, the wonderful ones, the unique ones, the Beatles!”   Once the introduction was over, Paul proved everyone that he had learnt Spanish at school when he was a boy by means of presenting each song in the language of the country they were playing.  The show went on with “She’s a Woman.”  John, who played bot h acoustic and electric guitar played harmonica on “I’m a Loser.”  Paul sang “Can’t buy me love,” Lennon and McCartney sang together on “Baby’s in Black.”  Then the people began to shout, “Ringo!  Ringo!”  “I wanna be your man” was the next song, which the drummer played as he shook his hair.  “A Hard Day’s Night” was given a tremendous hand just like “Everybody’s trying to be my baby,” sung by George.  When it came to “Rock and roll music” (Ringo had written Rock and Roll Sausages on a paper attached to his drums—it was an expression used in The Cavern era by someone who hated The Beatles).  “I Feel Fine” and “Ticket to Ride” were the songs they played right afterwards.  With “Long Tall Sally” the show was brought to its end.  It was song number 12.  Then Paul said goodbye to everyone after 45 minutes on stage.  Though people wanted more numbers, no encores were played.  Torrebruno returned to the stage and put an end to the night. 

One of the guest artists, Phil Trim, Trinidad Steel Band’s vocalist recalls how John Lennon asked him about “What the Eastern audiences were like.  We had just returned from Japan and Australia and they were about to visit those places.”  Pedro Ruiz Bermejo, a DJ evokes that “as nobody could speak English, I was commissioned to go and interview them.  I talked to George Harrison in Las Ventas.  It was sort of eating from a forbidden tree.”  Enrique Gines, journalist, was shocked when he could spot Ava Gardner among the people gathered to watch the show.  Miguel Rios, Spanish rocker, said he will never forget a man standing at the doorway with a gigantic pair of scissors and with a banner asking for a chance to shave the Beatles’ heads.  By the way, a rumor went that a gang of students had made plans to kidnap George Harrison so as to get his hair cut.  “I was literally having a trance,” Miguel Rios tells us, “I just remembered how shocked I was by that music, by their control upon everything.  It all was wonderful.  At the beginning of the show, they rushed their way onto the stage.  Quite the same happened at the end, after twelve songs they disappeared all of a sudden.  People were as if mesmerized.”

Rosa Montero, then a 14 year old daring girl, watched the show from a distant point.  “I remember the stage was mute and vulgar.  On it four fleas in black, always jumping to the rhythm.  A cold atmosphere.  Definitely, the people were not accustomed to this kind of show.  Everything seemed to be too big.  The Plaza de Torros was empty and it was too expensive.  The Beatles were too much for those people.  But getting into that place was like getting in touch with my generation.”

Paul was shocked by the amount of people that could not enter the place (there were 6,000 of them outside and they made more noise than those listening to the concert).  Ringo was shocked by the violence used by the police officers.  Even Francisco Bermudez, the one who had organized the Beatles to come to Spain, suffered from this erroneous police force’s attitude.  An officer mistook him for a fan when Bermudez was trying to make his way towards the back part of the stage.  Fortunately, it was but verbal violence.  “They sent three police brigades.  It was not a sell out, because people were afraid of the repression.  And that’s it.  I paid more attention to the security forces than to the show itself.  I could not even watch them play.  If the policemen saw someone stand up, then they rushed forward and took that poor fellow into a lorry.   They jailed about 300 youngsters that night and what were they guilty of?  Ignacio Matinez, a member of Los Pekenikes, a guest combo says, “There was a police officer for each of the members of the audience.  Just one more office and we could have conquered Gibraltar.”  Rosa Montero evokes events which took place after the concert in an underground station.  “As I was a bay, the despised me, but I could see them hit the young people there with unusual rage. The officers seemed to be crazy.  They were fighting against what they thought the Beatles stood for:  silent individual rebellions, revolutionary fringes, anxiety to change the situation.  It was the very first time I could see the grey ones at work.  Then I realized what being a Beatlemaniac really meant:  it was a fight against the values epitomized by those officers.  It made me understand that rock was not only music but a change to think about a different world.”               

After the concert, The Beatles and their court returned to the Fenix Hotel.  Antonio Fernadez, a member of the building staff at the time, was taken aback by their being isolated from the rest of the world, “They hardly left the room save for the show.  They spent the rest of the time indoors—in their rooms.”  If they managed to get away from their cloistering, nobody ever noticed.  Enrique Bartolome, the hotel manager hints that they might have gone out for a walk with beards and mustaches.  But as a matter of fact, the Beatles stayed sleeping, “the favorite activity” some magazines said, whereas Brian did not.  He had an appointment which had been arranged discretely.    According to the magazine Fonorama, it did not take place.  Eventually, Brian expressed his desire for knowing late night spots.  He was seen at Bourbon Street, a club visited by homosexuals.  All the reviews published the next morning had a common point:  the feared riots had not taken place.  This is an excerpt from the newspaper ABC, “Had it not been for the records and musical magazines, we would not have the slightest clue of the abilities of the Beatles.  The uproar prevented us from hearing them.”