Beatles Interview: Returning To London From Manila 7/8/66 7/31/2006
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ABOUT THIS INTERVIEW:
While in the Philippines, the Beatles had been invited to a reception at Malacanang Palace by Imelda Marcos. The Beatles have stated that they had never agreed to appear at the party. They remained unaware of any problem until the next morning. As they turned on their hotel television, the Beatles learned of accidentally snubbing the First Lady by not appearing at the palace. The Beatles also found that the government-run media was now fueling a firestorm against them via television news reports of the snub. There was a scene at the airport as the Beatles attempted to leave the country.
This interview finds the Beatles at Heathrow airport in London, returning home and describing the events that had taken place in Manila just a few days earlier.
Q: "At the airport, did they come up and start physically threatening you?"
PAUL: "We got to the airport and our road managers had a lot of trouble trying to get the equipment in because the escalators had been turned off, and things. So we got there, and we got put into the transit lounge. And we got pushed around from one corner of the lounge to another, you know."
JOHN: (impersonating, and demonstrating by shoving Paul repeatedly in the shoulder) "'You're treated like ordinary passenger!! Ordinary passenger!!' ...Ordinary passenger, what, he doesn't get kicked, does he?"
(Beatles laugh)
PAUL: (laughs) "And so they started knocking over our road managers and things, and everyone was falling all over the place."
Q: "That started worrying you, when the road manager got knocked over."
PAUL: "Yeah, and I swear there were thirty of 'em."
Q: (turning back to John) "What do you say there were?"
JOHN: "Well, I saw sort of five in sort of outfits, you know, that were doing the actual kicking and booing and shouting."
Q: "Did you get kicked any?"
JOHN: (giggling) "No, I was very delicate and moved every time they touched me."
(Beatles laugh)
JOHN: "But I was petrified... I could have been kicked and not known it, you know. We'll just never go to any nuthouses again."
Q: "Would you go to Manila again, George?"
GEORGE: "No, I didn't even want to go that time."
JOHN: "Me too."
GEORGE: "Because we'd heard that it was a terrible place anyway, and when we got there... it was proved."
Source: Video copy of the film footage
