ALL THESE PLACES HAD THEIR MOMENTS
THE BEATLES’ THIRD WORLD TOUR
IMELDA STOOD UP: FIRST FAMILY WAITS IN VAIN FOR MOPHEADS
– Newspaper headline, Manila
After the restful, and then creative, beginning to the year, The Beatles embarked on another summer world tour. Jaded at the prospect, the band didn’t fit in time to rehearse, and at their first gig in Germany, Paul forgot the words to ‘I’m Down’. Still, the German leg of the tour did provide a special moment when they reunited with their Hamburg pals.
This proved to be the last positive experience on the tour. They flew into Japan amid a swirl of controversy and protest due to their having been invited to play at the Nippon Budokan, considered by many to be a sacred venue purely for the practice and showcasing of martial arts. So troubled were the Japanese authorities by The Beatles, that the band were accompanied by 35,000 security personnel.
Worse was to come when they landed in the Philippines. The band were expected to visit Imelda Marcos for a morning reception at the Malacañang Palace, but there was a miscommunication between the tour promoter and government officials. The Beatles were unaware of the invitation and didn’t show up. In the morning, having switched on the television in their hotel room, they watched a live broadcast of the reception, the cameras lingering over disappointed, crying and angry faces.
The Filipino media cried foul, and their visit became increasingly dangerous. Death threats were sent to their hotel and to the British embassy, and Epstein quickly arranged a camera crew to film an apologetic press statement. But on broadcast a mysterious surge of static wiped out the footage. The Beatles and their team decided to leave the country quicksmart. Their security was withdrawn, a tax commissioner told them they couldn’t leave without paying taxes on their share of the two shows’ takings (despite the promoter having withheld it), and the tax was to be deducted from the promoter’s share. Epstein paid up anyway.
They were jostled and kicked as they made their way from the hotel to the airport, where they were left to manhandle all their luggage and equipment. Then the escalators were powered down. Epstein, Mal Evans and Alf Bicknell were pushed, punched and shoved through to the departure lounge, and The Beatles, in a smart – or cowardly – move, depending on your viewpoint, hid behind a group of nuns until they got on the plane.
Before the plane took off, as everyone was taking their seats, Evans and press officer Tony Barrow were called off the plane. Unsure whether they would be allowed to get back on, Evans told George to tell his wife Lil that he loved her. Back in the airport, Filipino officials declared that the plane couldn’t leave as there was no administrative record of the band and their entourage’s arrival. After much scrabbling around, proof was at last provided and the plane was allowed to take off.
Back in Britain, when a reporter asked George what was next, he replied, ‘We’re going to have a couple of weeks to recuperate before we go and get beaten up by the Americans.’ This comment turned out to be more prescient than he could’ve known.