Please Don't Wake Me

 On the plane to Miami in 1964 

Arriving at the press conference

 

September 5, 1966 -- Arriving to talk about How I Won the War 

Beatles USA '66

Photo by Bob Bonis

 

Beatles USA '66

By Jerry Leighton (Chief DJ Caroline North)

Disc Music

August 27, 1966

    New York, Tuesday: Time for the reckoning. Now that the Beatles' American tour is over the halfway hurdle, I could give a firm answer to the $64,000 question: Are the Beatles still as popular with stateside audiences? There has been a lot of talk in the press that their popularity is on the wane, but the boss's office provides the answer.

     Brian Epstein tells me that more people have come to see them this year than last. This means, of course, that the gross takings are far greater, so that's cleared up the big question of  '66 and knocked the knockers for six. 

    Cincinnati was rained out, but it didn't dampen the spirits of the kids. They just stood there getting soaking wet for four hours. There was no canopy over the stage, and the equipment was spoiled by condensation, which made it dangerous for the Beatles to use. So the show was postponed until 12 noon the next day, when the kids turned up by the 1000s to see the world's greatest group. 

    Another thing that had us a bit worried: the concert in Memphis, Tennessee. There was threatened trouble from the so-called Bible Belt, but when we arrived, we were greeted so warmly and with such genuine enthusiasm. We really wanted to stay forever. The police, the fans, and the people in the street just went out to make us feel at home. Even at the religious meeting held at the same time as the Beatles concert, the people prayed for the forgiveness of our audience and all of us!

     As I'm writing, we have just arrived in New York for Tuesday's concert at the Shea Stadium. Everywhere we have been, hundreds of kids have been hanging around our hotel, hoping for a glimpse of the Beatles. But the security arrangements have been very tight, and not many of the fans have been lucky. "We come out here to do shows, and if we show our faces outside our room, we would be torn apart. So it has to be this way, " George told me. "After all, the main thing we want to do is stay alive." Sounds fair enough.

    Paul tells me the decision to release "Yellow Submarine" and "Eleanor Rigby" was Brian Epstein's alone, although it is usually up to the boys. The reason is that it wasn't really scheduled for release, but Brian thought the two best tracks should be made a single before anyone else could cover them. He seems to know what he's up to, judging by the success of the record. Brian adds he expects the boys to bring back over one million dollars to Britain, which should help the financial scene quite a bit. The trouble is we can't give them MBEs all over again. Perhaps a knighthood this time?

     Now for the other acts in the show. It's quite a lineup. The Cyrkle, whose "Red Rubber Ball" reached number two out here; Bobby Hebb, number one at the moment with "Sunny"; and the Ronettes, who, of course, have had so many hits and are expecting to release a new one soon.

     Incidentally, Veronica of the Ronettes is getting married to Phil Spector in the near future. They're all great to be with, and it's a real happy show. 

    There is quite a thing here with those granny sunglasses, the ones with the small lenses and gold rims. Nearly all of us wear them. I think I've got the weirdest selection so far with triangular ones, big squares, oblongs, ovals, etc. I always get John laughing when he sees me wearing any of them, but maybe it's not just the glasses. 

    On the plane from St. Louis to New York, John said he'd heard that Radio Caroline is now the number one station in Britain; he thought it was right to be this way. We spent about half an hour discussing the difficulties confronting the marina radio stations, and between us, we have got the whole problem solved. 

    While we were talking, George was working on a wild-flowery sort of doodle. Believe me, it was really wild! The fellows are looking forward to reaching Los Angeles, where they will have a rest before returning home to Britain. 

    If you want to see them arrive at London Airport, you will have to get up early. Our plane is due in at 6:30 a.m. on August 31. We're hoping to see you there. Until then, from John, Paul, George, Ringo, and me. Goodbye for now.

John with the paper

 July 14, 1971 

Brian snapped by Paul

Photo taken by Paul McCartney 

 

Safe in India

 July 6, 1966

Beatles are Jeered in Scuffle (1966)

 July 5, 1966 -- Beatles leave Manila.  George and Paul look very concerned as they wait to leave.  

Beatles are Jeered in Scuffle

No author Listed

Birmingham Evening Mail

July 5, 1966

    (From Manila) The Beatles were booed and jeered in an airport scene here today as they received the coldest sendoff of their careers. At one point, an airport worker pushed a member of the group's seven-man entourage.

    

     About 50 passengers, reporters, airport workers, and others crowded in, shouting questions and insults as the Beatles filled in exit forms as they walked to their plane. About 500 people lined the airport observation platform, shouting, "Go to hell, Beatles! Go home, Beatles!" The Beatles were even subjected to the indignity of walking up to the second floor with their own baggage. The airport manager, Mr. Gilliromo Jurado, had turned off the power for the escalator. 

    The Beatles and their party were finally allowed to leave after their tour promoters settled a tax case that had threatened to disrupt their travel plans. But unlike the roaring welcome they received on their arrival on Sunday from 1000s of fans, which included massive security, the Beatles were a sad sight on their departure today. 

    They had to go through all the ordinary procedures instead of being given the VIP treatment through customs, and one of their party, Alf Bicknell, fell after being kicked in the leg. The Beatles' manager, Mr. Brian Epstein, was pushed to the ground during a brief scuffle, and one witness said he was kicked. Another witness said that someone tried to punch Ringo Starr.

     Even after they were on board the plane, their troubles were not over. Mr. Epstein had to disembark and sign a letter concerning the Beatles' tax payments in the Philippines. The Internal Revenue claimed that the Beatles owed the equivalent of £ 6,600. 

    The crowd's reaction was apparently in reply to an alleged snub by the Beatles when they failed yesterday to show up for the luncheon at the Presidential Palace. A group of young girls crying at the airport kept shouting to the crowd, "It was not the Beatles' fault!"

     The British Embassy issued the following statement. "The Embassy were not consulted at any stage whatever about the Beatles' visit to Manila. The Embassy deeply regrets any offense which might unfortunately have been caused. The Embassy have been assured by the Beatles that no discourtesy of any kind was intended."

     President and Mrs. Marcos issued a statement late this afternoon, saying they regret the incident at the airport. The statement said there was no intention on the part of the Beatles to slight the First Lady or the government of the Republic of the Philippines. President Marcos called the incident a "breach of hospitality."

On the way to Manila

 July 3, 1966

Up in the Air

 June 29, 1966 -- on their way to Tokyo

Taking off

 April 1971 

In the Inner Circle

 

Jet set life

 

Former Beatle Hard at Work (1981)

 Former Beatle Hard at Work

By Patrick Riordan

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

March 8, 1981

    Just past the white-washed bridge not far from the carpenter shop, up the steep unmarked road that turns off to the right between the two ancient mango trees, is the sign Paul McCartney drives past every day about 1pm local time: Air Studios, Montserrat Ltd, strictly no admittance, except by prior arrangements.

    Beefy guards from Professional Security Group Inc of New York stand watch over McCartney's personal safety and his 4.6 tons of musical luggage. From the looks of it, some secret project may be going on. Some people speculate that there will be a Beatles reunion record in memory of John Lennon, who was shot to death December 8. 

    "Not so," says George Martin, the legendary electronics engineer who was dubbed the fifth Beatle for his masterful recording techniques for the rock group during the 1960s.  Martin, who happens to own AIR Studios, indicated the recording project is a McCartney album without the former  Beatles group Wings.

     Their tribute to John is in themselves," Martin said in an interview at the studio on Sunday. "To go and make a tribute album is cashing in, I think, on John's death."

     Fueling the Beatles reunion rumor, were the presence recently of ex-Beatle Ringo Starr for a recording session, and reports that the third living former Beatle, George Harrison, may record some tracks for the album later in London. 

    The album that McCartney and Martin are working on will be the first they have produced together since Abbey Road, the last Beatles album. "We're trying to get back to something we had before," Martin said. "The album is expected to be completed by the end of March and is to be released later this year."

     Except for a minor car accident that McCartney had with an Associated Press photographer recently, his month in the British West Indies has gone smoothly. He has declined to be interviewed by the newspaper and television reporters who converged on the isolated island after rumors began circulating earlier this month that the surviving Beatles were reuniting for an album.

     Someone who is close to McCartney and who asked not to be named said that the singer-songwriter's only complaint has been the lack of wind surfers on the island. He waterskis a lot in Woodlands Bay.

     McCartney drives to the studio from his rented villa on the island's Northwest coast. The villa is a converted monastery overlooking the nearby island of Redonda. He works hard in light of the February 28 deadline to put down his tracks for the album. "They start about 1pm, and they don't get out of the studio until midnight," a spokesman for AIR studio said of McCartney and Martin.

     Locally, McCartney's visit inspired only moderate interest. While much of the outside world has hung on every word of a possible Beatles reunion, local folks still think last year's visit by the soul-oriented group Earth, Wind & Fire was more exciting.

     Montserrat is a study in isolation, a crown colony that cultivates the image and, in large measure, seems to achieve the reality of the perfect, unspoiled Caribbean island. Few planes arrive. Indeed, one of the attractions of the 39-square-mile paradise, first colonized by the Irish, is that the difficulty of getting here discourages low-rent tourism. 

    No jets can land here to disgorge economy fair vacationers. The aircraft of choice is the British Norman tri lander, a tri-motor airplane with two propellers on the wings and a third mounted on the tail, known locally as the Mini Concord. It is the workhorse of Leeward Island air transport (LI A T), the only airline servicing the island. Most tourists arrive from Antigua, about 50 minutes away by propeller plane. Landing is a thrill. Planes fly low over the waves directly toward a sheer rock cliff until they're within a few 100 yards of land.

The Honeymoon's Over

 February 24, 1966 -

George and Pattie look tanned and relaxed after a lovely honeymoon in Barbados.  

George and Pattie Honeymooning

 February 8, 1966

Ringo and Nel

 

Departing the plane

 

Arriving in Cannes

 January 27, 1976

He didn't know Ringo?

 December 12, 2025

You most likely have heard this story recently.  This guy was in an airport lounge at Heathrow and doing a live stream.  Ringo comes up to see what he is doing, and the live streamer has a very laid back conversation with Ringo -- asking him where he is from (Liverpool) and saying how he had been in Manchester recently.    Someone in the chat of his livestream said it was "Beatle Ringo."  

When they got on the airplane, the livestreamer took a selfie with Ringo and Barb.  Some people are just lucky like that! 

I Want To Hold Your Hand... (1965)

 I Want to Hold Your Hand

By Steve Nidetz

Hartford Courant

November 21, 1965

    Miss Gisa Kothe is not a teenager. In fact, she will never see 20 again, but almost any one of 20 million teenagers would have eagerly traded places with her that late summer afternoon when Paul McCartney, one of Britain's four famed mop top Beatles, took her hand and said to her, "Thanks so much, luv, for the wonderful flight." 

    The momentous moment happened at the end of TWA Flight 703 from London to New York. Miss Kothe, 21, from East Heartland had just spent seven and a half hours as a transatlantic hostess for the Rock and Roll idols of the teen set. The attractive girl was chosen for the flight for two reasons. She was Miss New York press photographer and Queen of the Forest Hills festival for 1961

     When she learned of her selection, she was terribly excited. "I took an extra uniform skirt and had my hair done," Miss Kothe said. Before the plane could take off from London's Heathrow Airport, the mop heads were shuttled aboard in secrecy. Miss Kothe's reaction when the Beatles stepped on board was one of surprise and excitement. Of McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and John Lennon, the blue-eyed brunette said, "They were very reserved during the flight."

     Besides eating Chateau Briand lobster and cheese and crackers with wine (George's favorite), the fearless foursome occupied its time playing games (Paul won the navigation game), drinking champagne, and watching a movie. 

    Excitement on board the flight was provided by 20 teenagers who formed a Beatles fan club on the spot. Most of them were tense and nervous trying to catch a glimpse of the Beatles Miss Kothe said the airline staff was prepared for the teenage assault on the first class section and handed out photographs and autographed records. But seven and a half hours is a long time for a teenager to be satisfied with just a picture or a record, especially when the live stuff was around. Many young ladies tried to catch glimpses of the Beatles by peering over the partition separating first-class and coach passengers. However, the alternating screaming and swooning eventually subsided.

     But while the noise-making was going on in the coach department, the Beatles were very unconcerned. Miss Kothe said, "They were more typical than the typical first-class passenger."

     The five other first-class passengers included a college professor and his wife, who were returning from Saudi Arabia, and three businessmen, one of whom passed out cigars. The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, his secretary, Wendy Hanson, and two of the Beatles' road managers also occupied seats in the first class section.

     "Throughout the trip, John wore a pair of wild sunglasses that looked like mirrors." Miss Kothe said, "but when I asked to try them on, he said, 'No, I'm sorry. Maybe next time.'"

     When the plane was near New York, the secret landing instructions were opened, and it headed for runway 31 at Kennedy International Airport. By the time the plane stopped on the runway to let the Beatles off so they could avoid the crowds, many Beatles souvenirs had been collected. The pursuer on the flight took all the towels and silverware off the flight and was auctioning them off to teenagers the next day. 

    Miss Kothe said her rewards included an autographed picture, a record, and, of course, a handshake. "They were just being the Beatles," Miss Kothe said when it was all over. "I enjoyed the trip and I'd do it again." So would any female between the ages of 10 and 18.