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If the biggest band of all time is tired, it is tired. On July 3, 1966, the Beatles Manila, the capital of the Philippines, reached a jet lag. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr politely informed them that they were incredibly for the reception of First Lady Imelda Marcos next day. They wanted to prepare for the two concerts as part of their asient tour instead of eating with 200 people with 200 people in the presidential palace. Unfortunately, the family of rule around Ferdinand Marcos, his sign, accepted an unlimited dictator and Kleptocrat, no “no”. Madame Marcos was angry like a fury: a party without the Beatles!
At that time, the four still thought that the marijuana could be their biggest problem in their travel bags.
The next morning they were woken up by knocking and rumbling. There was unrest in the hotel corridors. Two officers entered and said cool: “You should be in the palace. This is not a request. We have our commands.” The band members answered drunk asleep: “What do you talk about? We don’t go to a palace.”
Starr and Lennon growled the stomach. They sinked out of their beds and wanted to have breakfast delivered via the room service. But at the other end of the line there was only ominous silence. So they switched on the television at the past. The pictures showed waiting crowds in front of the presidential palace. Children were in their finest twine. The commentator said with outrage: “And they are still not here. The Beatles should be here!” It dawned the Fab Four. The band had apparently insulted Manila’s majesty.
Sorry on television
Manager Brian Epstein, now worried, decided to have an apology on state television. Because apparently the presidential family thought the band’s cancellation was canceled. When the formal explanation was to be sent in the early evening, the sound of channel 5 switched off due to a higher power. No signal. Everything that the Filipino people got to see was black silence. Just in time for the end of Epstein’s apology speech, the technical disorder was over. The evening program showed a zettering first lady and children faces dissolved in tears.
The chauffeurs, which the Beatles were supposed to bring to the Rizal Memorium Football Stadium for the first concert, initially drove in the wrong direction. With oh and noise they reached their goal. The Beatles played two acclaimed concerts in front of 30,000 and 50,000 visitors. It should remain the largest number of people in front of which the musicians ever performed within a day. The group was amazed at the sized changing room and the nausea meal, from which they could only identify the cornflakes with spoiled, clumpy milk as food. They have not yet sensed what they would expect the next day.
On the run from an angry mob
On the morning of July 5th, the daily newspaper arrived with the headline “Beatles breaks the president”. McCartney, Lennon, Harrison and Starr always felt more uncomfortable. They hastily packed their seven things together and asked to be driven to the airport. In the hotel hall they were insulted in Spanish and English. Both the motorized escort and the police accompaniment with which they were received on their arrival had disappeared.
In a car and a cheap motorcycle, you cuckled to the Manila International Airport. Instead of cheering fans, an angry mob awaited her, armed with sticks, ready for violence like a horde of hooligans. Shots sounded in the air. In a gauntlet run, rioters chased the Beatles and their companions through the halls, hit, kicked and spit.
“Lil says that I love her”
The airport staff was no help. “We treat them like ordinary travelers. Ordinary travelers!” Said the emotionless information. Thank God there are clergymen. Lennon and rigid saved themselves behind a group of Catholic nuns, George was looking for refuge in a Buddhist monk. Star fell to the ground as a result of a chin hook. When he crawled away, he was kicked. Someone hit Brian Epstein’s face. In the crowd he wade his ankle.
“When we reached the machine, we kissed the seats”
Bleeding and littered with blue spots, the refugees reached the escalator. They hoped to be able to escape the attackers faster because they were invalidated by hauling the instruments and amplifiers. But by a “coincidence”, the escalator was out of operation. They hurried to the exit and ran to the plane. “When we reached the machine, we kissed the seats,” said McCartney. “It felt like a refuge.”
But as soon as they seemed to be safe, the intercom sounded: the management was ordered outside. The assistant of Evans feared a conviction or even prison. When he got out of the plane, he had his wife aligned: “Says Lil that I love her”.
Outside, they were forced to give a “fee to leave the airport”: 74,450 Filipino pesos, the equivalent of $ 18,000. This amount matched the sum that the Fab Four deserved at her concerts on Manila. The machine started with a delay that lasted 44 minutes.
Never again Manila
Ringo Starr, actually nothing else to get out of rest, later remembered the trip to Manila as “the most terrible experience of my life”. John Lennon said: “I wouldn’t even fly over this place.” Even the peace -loving George Harrison could not keep: “The only reason to come back to this place would be to drop a bomb over it.”
After their trip, the Beatles took a oath of never returning to Manila.