Boomerangs over Melbourne

 June 16, 1964 

A Beatles - eye view

 

Hello John!

 

June 16, 1964 -  Melbourne, Australia 

Up above the crowd

 

The balcony

 

Not the Best Welcome in Auckland

When the Beatles landed in Auckland, New Zealand on June 24, 1964, they did not know that they weren't going to have the security that they were accustomed to.    When their plane touched down at the Whenupai Airport, 300 fans were waiting for them, but the fans were not allowed to wave to the Fabs.   The Beatles were taken straight to their Royal Continental to hear for the hotel.   Glenn A. Baker's great book, The Beatles Downunder takes it from there--

(Lloyd Ravenscroft speaking) 'The Royal Continental was rather inconveniently located on a hill with a lane-way running behind it and a tiny car park descending from the lane.  O one occasion our Cadillac got to within 30 feet of their entrance and because there was only a handful of police on duty, it stopped dead in the middle of a surge of people.  So Mal, Neil and I squeezed out, locked the boys inside and pushed in inch by inch towards the garage door, a process that took about 20 minutes.   All through this, girls were fainting in the middle of the crush and we were passing them over our shoulders to safety, only to discover five minutes later that we were handling the same girl.   We managed to get the steel door open and we carried about 200 fans into the garage with us.  So we kept the Beatles locked in the car until we had removed them one by one.' Somehow the fans did get their hands on the group.  John said, 'It was a bit rough.  I thought definitely a big clump of my hair had gone.  I don't mean just a bit.  They'd put about three policemen on for three or four thousand kids and they refused to put more on.  They said, 'We've had all sorts over 'ere, we've seen them all,' they said they h ad seen them all as we went crashing to the ground.'    Dave Lincoln explains, "that was the one time I saw John really lose his temper, particularly as Ringo had got a bit hurt.  He virtually went on strike, refusing to play any more shows until he was assured that there would be enough police when they needed them.  It was times like that he showed very clearly who the leader of the group was.

The Beatles made it inside of the hotel and appeared to the fans in the street below while standing on the fire escape balcony.   Here I will let Bruce Renwick from his book The Beatles in New Zealand explain what occurred

The seething mass erupted and as the four waved to them a girl rushed around the balcony and planted a kiss on Ringo's cheek before a burly security guard picked her up and carried her away.  After a few more more minutes of waving, the Beatles disappeared inside and the crowd started to simmer down and disperse.  

A Kiwi's welcome for the Fab 4!

The Beatles were set to land in Wellington at 4:30 in the afternoon.  Fans started to show up at the airport as early as 7:15 that morning.   7000 fans showed up to welcome the Beatles to New Zealand and they were given a traditional welcome.   Six Maoris of the Te Pataka were waiting by the plane to present the boys tikis and pois to each Beatle.   The custom of the Maori's is to rub noses with visitors while touching foreheads.   They do this to symbolize that they are welcome to the land and are to consider themselves to be one of the people and to belong.   Each of the Beatle received this welcome and a lot of photos were snapped.   Ringo got the most attention because he is the one known for having a big nose.   The head of the group, Nancy Manunui got the honor of rubbing noses with Ringo.

Ringo Starr being greeted with the hongi, Wellington, June 1964
Photographer: Morrie Hill
Reference number: 1/4-071854-F

Black and white original negative

Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library.

They then got into a tiny truck and rode along the fence line and waves to the screaming fans.   They then were transferred into a car and sped off to the hotel.

The Beatles got to the Hotel St. George without any issues and the fans didn't even realize that the Fab 4 had arrived. until they appeared on the balcony.   After about five minutes of waving, two boys climbed up the fire escape from the hotel verandah and were stopped by the police.  However, one of the boys was able to shake Paul's hand!

Here is a first hand account of what was going on:
"I couldn't even try to get close to them but my friend did.  He actually spoke to one of them.  He went right up to the car and said, 'Hello there lad,' to Ringo and he said 'hello' back.  Then they were hustled inside.  My friend came back--he had lost his shoe, but he was a happy man."  Barney Richards

The Beatles on the balcony of the Hotel St George, Wellington, [ca 20 Jun 1964]
Photographer: Morrie Hill
Reference number: 1/4-071852-F
Black and white original negative
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library.

Here is another interesting first-hand account
"I managed to secure a Spanish guitar for Paul McCartney on a Sunday, which was no mean feat.  I got the manager of Beggs music Store in Wellington to open up his shop and get one out for him.  He wanted to work on a composition, but I'm sorry to say I can't remember which song.  In return for that I was allowed to get a great deal of exclusive interview material.  I hung around in the Beatles suite with all the Beatles all the time they were in Wellington.  They were very easy to be with." - Pete Sinclair



Information came from:
The Beatles Downunder (book) by Glenn a. Baker (1982)
The Beatles in New Zealand by Bruce Renwick (1999)
"Fab! Said New Zealand, It's Them!" by Chris Bourke for the New Zealand Listener June 23, 1984

The Beatles at the Melbourne Town Hall

When the Beatles attended a reception with the mayor at the Town Hall in Melbourne, it seemed almost like a repeat of the reception the boys attended in Washington D.C. in February of 1964.   Originally there were 150 special guests invited, but that number grew to 350 people because the mayor was a very nice man who gave out invitations to fans who wrote to him asking for one.   

Prior to the reception the Beatles were to appear on the balcony of the Town Hall.  15,000 people showed up in the street to see them.   The Beatles, along with the mayor and his young daughter, Vikki stepped out to the balcony and waved to the crowd belong.  She remembers, "People were even hanging out of the windows of the Manchester building."

Vikki recalls standing on her tiptoes and looking over the side, amazed by the large crowd.

Originally there was a "no autographs" rule in place at the reception, but that rule was broken by the mayor himself and suddenly pure insanity broke out.  The attenders of the reception were pushing, shoving and doing whatever it took to try to kiss or touch one of the Beatles.  Derek Taylor stopped one person from repeating what happened in Washington D.C., when he saw one man trying to get a hold of Ringo's hair. 

One fan named Annie Cooper had a wonderful time and had this to say in 1982,
"My mother wouldn't let me go to the Southern Cross on Sunday, and I had to content myself with watching it on TV.  But on Monday I received an official looking envelope from the City Council which included a very formal invitation from the Mayor to attend his civic reception for the Beatles.  It turned out that a lady who knew how Beatle crazy I was had written on my behalf asking for tickets, but hadn't told me.  What I remember best is arriving at Swanston Street, seeing all those thousands of people in the streets and being able to walk right in the front door.  When they made their speeches and the Mayor said they would be mingling with the guests, my friend and I stood frozen for about ten minutes but we finally got enough courage to shake their hands.   I think we ended up shaking hands with each of them about six times.  If they did notice our recurring faces they never gave any indication."


Annie and her fellow Beatle fan friends may have been having a good time shaking the Beatles' hands, but the Beatles themselves weren't having a fun time.  After one fan pushed the Mayor's wife to try to kiss Ringo, the Beatle drummer demanded that they leave immediately.   So the Mayor took the boys into another room that was on the second floor. 

Here is where the Mayor's 11 year old daughter, Vikki had her most wonderful Beatle memories.

As luck would have it, there was a piano in the room.  Paul McCartney sat down at the keyboard, George, John and Ringo, gathered around with Vikki, her sisters Liz and Ann and her brother Peter making up the circle.  "They were sort of giggling and laughing and enjoying the casualness of everything," Vikki  says.

Vikki recalls, "The Beatles came and as a family we sat around and Paul played the piano.  We had sandwiches and drinks and we sat around singing with them--well they were doing the singing thank goodness.  But that was pretty special."

No one seems to really recall what Paul played on the piano while the other sang, but some think they sang snippets of Beatles songs.  

And like all guests of the lord mayor, the lads signed the visitors' book, which Vikki has in her possession. George's handwriting is rather neat, Ringo's messy, Paul's clear with a flourish and John's a scrawl that can hardly be read.  Her mother also had a patch that came off of Paul McCartney's shirt. 

Besides sitting around singing, they also listened to a university student named Noel Kemp play the didgeridoo.  Because of the insanity of the crowds, the Beatles stayed half an hour longer than planed and Brian Epstein called their time with the family as "the most happy informal moment since the tour began."   For Vikki Curtis, it was one of the happy memories of her life.  How many Beatle fans can say that they got a private Beatles concert?

Information for this article came from

The Beatles Downunder (book) by Glenn Baker (1982)

Back in '64, who could ask for more? (article)in the Age, author not listed,  from October 20, 2002

A Brush with the Beatles: Famous Melburnians celebrate 50 years on (article and video)  in the Sydney Morning Heldard by Neil McMahon March 1, 2014

Hello down there!