PETE BEST: "I WAS A BEATLE"

To the die-hard Beatles fans,we all know that Ringo Starr wasn't the original drummer in the band we all loved.But to others who were neither a fan of the Beatles or rock music,Pete Best is somewhat unheard to most of them,unless you were a Liverpool native,I guess,where our beloved fab four were known as "saints" and "local heroes" or perhaps to many,"god-like status".

The life and times of Pete Best with the group was shrouded with mystery.He joined the Beatles before they got into fame,at the time they were still playing in clubs and doing local gigs at their hometown of Liverpool,England.He did made a recording with the band in which they first auditioned with Decca Records  wherein they were flatly refused and rejected by the company.I guess Decca regretted it later on when they turned them down not knowing that a phenomenon would come in the not so distant future,sealing the band's now legendary status.Best's recordings with the Beatles[ mostly demos which were made around 1961] later surfaced on the Anthology 1 album which was released in 1995 and debuted straight to number one on the Billboard 200 charts,where they say Pete got a share of the royalties the other Beatles had from the album sales.

(photo:the Beatles John Paul and George with Pete Best on the extreme left)


Actually when Pete was in the group,the Beatles were already famous locally on their hometown of Liverpool.According to Bob Spitz's 2005 book the Beatles,Pete Best was so popular among the crowd that their road manager Neil Aspinall had to steer him away from the lovely ladies while the other three had to wait on their touring bus as Neil,anxiously trying to pull him out of the crowd's adoring grip.

So was  Pete Best outgrowing the band that the other three decided to get rid of him?  Spitz's book accurately describes that during the band's immense popularity in Liverpool-it was Pete Best who got the crowd's adoration and had the girls dropping dead on his feet and not Paul McCartney who later on became the cute Beatle we all know today.So was it jealousy among the band? Spitz's book however,was marred with criticisms regarding the inaccuracies of the dates and years especially when he labeled the classic photos of the fab four.

I was a bit lucky to have a friend from Liverpool and had some first hand info about the Beatles' early days.Im not mentioning his name here as a respect to his privacy but I always call him grandpa not only as a means of  respect but I do feel like he's my real grandfather.He used to be neighbors with Paul McCartney before the fab four came to fame.I think its really nice to have infos from other people outside the Beatles' books.One story I heard from him on why Pete was sacked is because Pete had a fight with John Lennon's girlfriend at the time- well Im not  sure if this was Cynthia--the mother of Julian who we know as the eldest Beatle kid and in contradiction to what Bob had stated on his book,Pete Best was an excellent drummer with my 'grandpa' in Liverpool even telling me that he used to watch him play with the fabs at the Cavern.Well at least Bob was right when he mentioned the constant booing Ringo had when he first played with the band on guess where? The story circulated at the time that when Ringo was introduced by the Beatles as their new drummer the audience was angry and shouted curses asking where the hell Pete was,"Where's Pete? You traitors! We want Pete!".The crowd was chanting "Pete forever Ringo never!" which made Ringo uncomfortable at the start.Others support the change and there was a huge debate on who was the better drummer with the fabs,was it Pete or Ringo?

Ringo on the other hand,was Liverpool's most sought after drummer,and he would play on all the Beatles albums(unless otherwise noted) from their debut album Please Please Me in 1963 up to their last album Let It Be in 1970,the year the band eventually broke up.

There is still no clear answer up to this day on why Pete Best was sacked,others claim that Pete's hair was wavy and couldn't be turned into a mop top thats why he no longer fit with the band when the Beatles changed their hairstyle.Other books claim he was not a good drummer and would tangle on Paul's bass thats why he was dismissed.Whatever it is,nobody knows.

Brian Epstein-the band's manager was asked by the other three to do the 'dirty work' and tell him that his bandmates doesn't want him with the group anymore.Pete later on stated that when he got home after hearing the bad news from Epstein he broke down and wept.With his dismissal however,the Beatles would then be forever known as John,Paul,George and Ringo.

(photo:the cover of the Beatles' 1995 album Anthology 1 where the photo of Pete Best was ripped off and with Ringo's head inserted in its place)

His life after the Beatles was quite a sad one though he managed to form various groups:Pete Best And The All Stars,Pete Best Four, and the Pete Best Combo but none of them were successful.It was said that he attempted suicide at the height of Beatlemania after seeing his former bandmates dominate the entire globe but was talked out of it by his mother Mona.He was reportedly so depressed that he never wanted to talk about his association with the Beatles when he was approached by Beatle biographers.

He later on appeared on David Letterman's show in 1982,and talked about his life with the Beatles.It seems he got over it all by joking and doing the mock crying in which everybody had laughed on. But I guess he's still crying on the inside coz his eyes can tell how bitter he was for being sacked by the greatest rock band in the world.Is it his fate coz the Beatles were destined to have Ringo as their drummer? Nobody knows.Dave did console him on the show by saying "Im sorry it didn't work out for you" while shaking his hand.

(photo:Pete Best in 2005)

In the latter days,Pete Best did show up on Beatle festivals and I guess his wounds were slowly healing itself.

Few people who knew the Beatles may not know Pete Best but to die hard Beatles fans he seem to be what they christened as "the forgotten Beatle" along with Stuart Sutcliffe.A 1994 film about the Beatles' early days in Hamburg,Germany called BACKBEAT featured Pete Best and original bass player Stuart Sutcliffe,but the film was more focused on the latter person.


(c) Keith Vernon Adagio

Jimmy McCulloch:The Unsung Guitar Hero

There's Jimmy Page,Eric Clapton,Jimi Hendrix,Mick Taylor,Keith Richards,George Harrison to name a few.These guitarists were known to be masters of their own craft,If not certified virtuosos,each has garnered fame on their own right with the bands they were known for as members.

But I do think that another guitarist from the seventies has somehow been forgotten and really deserves credit,and that is none other than Jimmy McCulloch-the baby face guitarist on Paul McCartney's rock band in the 1970s -Wings.

Wings was formed in 1971 after Paul McCartney released two solo albums when the Beatles disbanded in 1970.Paul later revealed that he got the name "Wings" for his new band after praying extensively for Linda's difficult birth with their daughter Stella on that same year.

Some people say that with Paul forming a rock group on the reason of being in a band and being on the road again was oddly ridiculous to the point that Paul was in total control and domination of the band,well a lot of groups were into that kind of scenario like the Jimi Hendrix Experience for instance.Paul at that point had nothing more to prove considering his tremendous work with the Beatles plus two successful solo albums to his credit but he slagged it off anyway and formed Wings in 1971,c'mon guys,the man wanted to have fun and he really did enjoyed the seventies with Wings as one of the biggest stadium rock juggernaut of that decade,selling concert tickets and albums by millions.

Wings had eight configurations from 1971 to its demise in 1980,with original members apart from Paul and Linda and Denny Laine,the original 1971 lineup was with Denny Seiwell on drums and Henry McCullough on lead guitar,the latter two would last until 1973,after a brief argument over money,and Paul Linda and Denny went on to record the colossal Band On The Run without the two of them.

Jimmy McCulloch got into the band in 1974,after playing extensively with other bands in the late sixties namely Thunderclap Newman which was produced by his mentor Pete Townshend of the Who.Jimmy was also an excellent session musician,having played on John Entwistle's solo album Whistle Rhymes.Jimmy was also a friend  of the Who and his former band in 1967 called One In A Million supported the band when the Who toured Scotland in 1967.A Scottish native,Jimmy was born in Glasgow and his early works as a guitarist in his native Scotland and as a session musician proved to be a perfect resume for his place as a lead guitarist for Wings.

Jimmy was also known to have feuded with a fellow Wing,drummer Geoff Britton resulting the latter's departure from the band.Britton was replaced by American drummer Joe English,and Wings went ahead.

The Wings world tour of 1975 and 1976 was said to have been McCulloch's finest hour,playing non stop tours with the band.A guitar solo with "Maybe Im Amazed" which was re-released and amazingly went to the top 10 of the Billboard singles chart gave McCulloch the respect other guitarists have when he performed a beautiful guitar lick on the song which was taken from a live performance on one of Wings' gigs on the American leg of their tour,thus,the live album Wings over America was conceived.The album went to number one in America and with Paul's re-working of the song "Maybe I'm Amazed" by slowing it down and adding an ending to the song in which the original version was to have a fading instrumental break,one would say,it was one of the most beautiful love songs ever written.And not bad for a song which by then was seven years old to make it to the top 10.

Another excellent guitar solo by McCulloch was with 1974's "Junior's Farm" which was said to have been his first hit with Wings.The albums he made with Wings were Wings At The Speed Of Sound which went to number one on the US charts in 1976 and the latter half of what would be Wings' 1977 album London Town.

McCulloch left the band in September 1977 to join the newly reformed Small Faces.Playing with his new band's tour of England and releasing one album '78 In The Shade.

Tragedy struck two years later,when Jimmy McCulloch had  a heroin overdose and died on Sept 27,1979.He was only 26 years old.

A lot of great guitarists had come and gone and became legends in their own right,becoming"saints" of the rock industry.Jimmy McCulloch was one of the martyrs of rock n'roll.In the same vein as Kurt Cobain,Jimi Hendrix and Brian Jones-his excellence in guitar playing deserves a place in rock music history.

Jimmy McCulloch-guitar virtuoso,gone but not forgotten....

(c) Keith Vernon Adagio

PAUL IS DEAD HOAX

There's nothing funnier and sillier in the same vein as the Apollo moon hoax,and that is none other than the rumour that had spread around 1969 and 1970 that Paul literally died and was replaced by an impostor unknown to many Beatles fans.

It started around September 1969 through a college  paper in Drake University in Iowa,the article talks about the rumours asking the same question,"Is Paul McCartney dead?" The rumour spread across the United States through disc jockeys discussing clues on how Paul died on several Beatles albums.

The hoax is perhaps the greatest rock n'roll swindle ever to reach the tables of  the rock music press even though the said "clues" were silly and ridiculous enough for one's own dismissal.Well,it got several journalists a little richer by cashing in through the whole story.

The rumour goes that Paul McCartney died in a motor accident in London in 1966 and was secretly replaced by a look alike.One would argue that how come his mysterious successor has a dead ringer of a voice? And how come the bass lines and the music the Beatles were recording in the studio around 1967 until 1970 started to change,could this be it that Paul has died indeed and the Paul we knew who sang Hey Jude was a bogus one? There may have been thousands of clues,from albums to backmasking and one of the most famous myths I guess was that the band themselves had a Paul McCartney look-alike contest somewhere at the end of 1966 wherein the winner was,they say, mysteriously unannounced.We all know Paul already answered on how he changed the style of his bass playing in the late sixties  so theres no more doubt left in that matter.The Beatles were already proficient in their craft by the time their debut album Please Please Me was released and they got even better as they release more albums with a remarkable six month gap between each albums and  by changing their musical style while experimenting and recording their finest work in the studio.Michael Jackson had two great albums in ten years,Thriller and Bad in the eighties,but the Beatles never ran dry and there were an average of two albums released every year[not counting the singles] during their heyday between 1963 and 1970.

One remarkable clue on the said hoax is on the cover of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band,where it was pointed out that the band had put on some clues to their album sleeves to tell their fans that Paul was already dead.One such clue is the gravesite in front of the band where the word Beatles were spelled by flowers and a left hand bass was also shown.The OPD badge Paul had on the cover however,could this mean Officially Pronounced Dead? Maybe,but then Paul had been given a police badge by the Ontario Police Department in the same year the album was about to be released,so there you go...

 OTHER ALBUMS AND BACKMASKED MESSAGES:

Magical Mystery Tour

 This album as they say,the band left a lot of "clues" to send a message to their fans that their beloved Paul had died.One is the walrus costume at the bottom they say Eastern mysticism view the walrus as a symbol of death and the raised hand above Paul's head is a symbol of death as well.

One such eerie recording from the album they say the band was putting out some clues is on the outro verse of Strawberry Fields Forever where John Lennon was eventually heard  saying the words "I buried Paul",other skeptics would argue that John was saying "Im very hoarse" or "Cranberry Sauce".But on the Anthology 2 version of the song John can be heard saying the latter clearly.The album sleeve however,Paul is dressed in a walrus and the song that carries that name,"I am The Walrus" was in fact,for scandal and rumour inventors was a sign of death citing reference to the walrus in the novel written by Lewis Carroll Alice In Wonderland wherein the walrus killed a few oysters.


And then there was a raised hand above Paul's head as they say a Hindu death sign.Sounds morbid?  Wait till you see what comes next...

 Yellow Submarine

 Talk about the hindu death sign,clue finders' claims doesn't end there,in fact on this cover of the Yellow Submarine album soundtrack we can clearly see another hand raised above Paul's head.Were the Beatles really giving a clue to their fans that Paul has already died? 

That Paul look alike contest they made in 1966 I mentioned earlier here, where as they said, no winner was announced-was the band searching in a guise of a contest,a replacement for their dead bass player? 

The story goes that a young Scotsman named William Campbell has secretly replaced Paul and has been playing with the band in their recordings from 1966. It  was noted also in the rumours circulating at the time that John,George and Ringo secretly went off to Scotland to find a Paul look alike who can play terrific bass.Well lets say that Paul died in 1966,well how come his mysterious successor had  a dead ringer of a voice?

Going back to the song Yellow Submarine-it was first heard in the Beatles' 1966 album Revolver before it was made a soundtrack album of  the movie of the same title.At the song it was said that John was heard saying "Paul's  a queer".Doubting on Paul's existence perhaps?

 The White Album

The Beatles which was swiftly dubbed as the White Album was released in 1968 and for clue finders,has the most messages-well backward ones stating that Paul had died...

One song in particular was the experimental sound collage the Beatles made called "Revolution 9" where theres no singing but only a mixture of noises and dialogues.The phrase where Paul was saying "number nine number nine" was said to have been played backwards and the hidden messages said "Turn Me on Dead man" which clue finders say a message from the Beatles that Paul had died and was no longer with them.

Another song was the John Lennon composition "Im So Tired" where John's misheard blubbering at the end of the song was,when played backwards were saying the words "Paul is dead miss him miss him miss him".Well a lot of religious groups were often associating backmasking to satanism and the Beatles was not alone in that category,other rock bands who were the Beatles' contemporaries like Led Zeppelin for instance,became a subject of rumours and religious outrage accusing the band that they had secret messages on their songs when played backwards,and apart from that,had been secretly promoting devil worship through their back masked messages-well that was the story anyway.One representative for Led Zeppelin dismissed the accusations saying that their records played only in one direction--forward that is.

 I tried to listen to these backward messages myself, particularly on the White Album I think there must've been an explanation here somewhere--is it our mind saying that we're hearing things,messages perhaps? Or is it just the nature of the tape when played backward there seem to be words created by it.Whatever it is,I dont know.

 Abbey Road

 Perhaps the most wide ranged subject of rumours is the Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road where clue finders pinpoints the Beatles on a mock funeral procession,one could imagine John all dressed in white and scandal finders would obviously dub him as the preacher,Ringo dressed in black was the mourner,George in the back dressed in casual clothes was the grave digger and Paul they say,was the corpse,not only he looked half dead but he's not wearing any shoes as well and we know that most countries bury their dead barefoot.

Other so-called "clues" on the album was the beetle volkswagen parked not far from the band,the license plate on the car's back they say if you look closely was 281F which the clue finders interpret as Paul's age 28 IF he had lived. Paul was born in 1942,and on the album's release he was 27 years old at the time,and we all know that the Beatles was into eastern mysticism where these religions believed that a man is born a year old--makes sense.

Another "clue" on the album is Paul holding a cigarette on his right hand,we all know that Paul is left handed,could it be an impostor crossing with the other three Beatles?   

CASE DISMISSED AND AFTERMATH JOKES 

In 1970,after the Beatles officially disbanded two journalists from Life magazine finally got a hold of Paul when they finally located his farm in Scotland,where as they say in the "middle of nowhere".Paul,Linda and their daughters Heather and Mary went up to their farm when the Beatles' scene got heavy.It is where as Linda have said their family found sanctuary from all of the madness that was going on and all the business problems the Beatles were having during that time.

The so-called rumours was dismissed by the man himself,telling the two reporters from Life that he is very much alive and well. "I am dead am I?  Why does nobody ever told me anything?" "Can you spread around that Im just an ordinary person who wanted to live in peace? We have to go now,we have two children at home".

And yes LIFE confirmed and dismissed all the rumours that Paul had died,in fact he is alive and well with his family. Fast forward forty years later,the rumour was still a subject of jokes when Paul appeared at the Late Show With David Letterman,where Paul was even joking about his existence when Dave literally asked him If he is alive or dead."Well this is him" referring to himself as the rumoured William Campbell.

Perhaps the most striking and damning remark was that of John Lennon's when he took reference to Paul in his song "How Do You Sleep".The lyrics were disturbing and vicious towards his former songwriting partner, where John screamed and sang the words "Those freaks was right when they said that you was dead" .



(c) Keith Vernon Adagio

RINGO

In the past,a drummer was the least being noticed in a group or a band,its either he/she is at the back or at the side hardly attracting any attention.Just slouching and concentrating on the timing and tempo.A percussionist is somewhat important on adding that flavor to the music,without the snare,the cymbals and the bass kick drum,music will sound flat and dull.A few early drummers like Gene Krupa and his collaboration with Armand Zildjian contributed on how they developed the cymbals and tom toms that rock drummers were all crazy pounding today.

The Beatles were the first rock band ever to have the drummer noticed by the public.Instead of putting him aside or at the lower back,they put the drummer on an elevated flatform so all the audience could also see him play.We all know that the Beatles were four different persons with different personalities,its like"hey we're not leaving our drummer behind,he's part of it too." And thus started a different approach and different meaning on how the public would react on rock drumming.

One such character is Richard Starkey aka Ringo Starr,who was born on July 7,1940.An only child and the eldest among the Beatles,he was born out of poverty and was a true rock n' roll rebel at a very young age.He claimed having started smoking at the age of eight,in which he contracted pleurisy and TB as a child.And it was in the children's hospital[where he was reportedly coming in and out] where he first got interested on playing drums."A lady would bring some toy instruments and we would play on them" said Ringo,as he narrates on how he got interested on playing the drums.

As a teenager,he became a drummer for various skiffle groups like John,Paul and George,whom he would later meet and join.He became a regular drummer with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and was so popular throughout Liverpool that other bands were so eager to have him.He first met the Beatles in Hamburg,Germany and was already friends with the other three even though Pete Best was still in the group.

When Pete Best was sacked by Brian Epstein upon the suggestion of the three other Beatles and George Martin,Liverpool's most famous and most sought after drummer filled in for the Beatles-who would later and forever be as John Paul George and Ringo.The story goes that John Lennon and Paul McCartney went to the trailer where Rory Storm and his band were staying at the time while they played in a club somewhere in Wales.Rory Storm's guitarist Johnny Byrne knew right away that the two Beatles wanted Ringo when they came during the early hours of the morning.Rory Storm was at first angry upon finding out that John and Paul were pressuring Ringo to go back with them to Liverpool,but the Beatles were waving a recording contract and finally he let Ringo free,upon a condition that he would finish off the week with two more gigs.He mentioned not feeling sorry for Best,for he felt that he is a better drummer than him.

THE BEATLES

 With the Beatles,Ringo was the center of attention as he sang and played drums during a solo break wherein his other three bandmates would step aside and let him sing one or two songs at each of their performances."Boys" originally by the Shirelles is one of Ringo's signature songs with the band[ he also did the song with Rory Storm back then],on the band's debut album Please Please Me.With every Beatles album John Lennon and Paul McCartney would compose one song for Ringo to sing and on the other hand,Ringo also wrote several songs with one in collaboration with Lennon and McCartney..

Here are some songs Ringo sang lead vocals/wrote for the Beatles

1.BOYS written by Luther Dixon and Wells Farrell from the album Please Please Me(1963)

2.I WANNA BE YOUR MAN written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney from the album With The Beatles(1963)

3.HONEY DON'T  written by Carl Perkins from the album Beatles For Sale(1964)

4.MATCHBOX  written by Carl Perkins Single later to be compiled on the Beatles Past Masters Singles Compilation

5.ACT NATURALLY  written by Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison,from the album Help!(1965)
6.WHAT GOES ON written by John Lennon Paul McCartney and Richard Starkey,from the album Rubber Soul(1965)
7.YELLOW SUBMARINE written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney from the album Revolver(1966)
8.A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney,from the album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band(1967)

9.DON'T PASS ME BY written by Richard Starkey,from the album The Beatles aka The White Album(1968)


10. GOOD NIGHT written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney,from the album The Beatles aka The White Album(1968)


11.OCTOPUS'S GARDEN written by Richard Starkey,from the album Abbey Road(1969)*


*-the last song ever to be sung and written by Ringo while he was with the Beatles.


Ringo married Maureen Cox and had three children whom one of them would follow his footsteps,Zac Starkey,who became the unofficial drummer for the band Oasis.On the Beatles films such as A Hard Day's Night,Help! and Yellow Submarine it was Ringo who was the center of attention coz he seemed a little chuffed on being always lost and separated from the rest of his bandmates.
He later married Bond girl Barbara Bach after divorcing Maureen Starr.

POST-BEATLES

When the Beatles disbanded in 1970,Ringo like his other bandmates,released solo albums and had several hits and album chart success.The closest Beatles reunion so far,was at 1973's Ringo's solo album wittily titled RINGO,where all four Beatles contributed songs and played instruments in the studio with him.

Ringo had two number one hits in the US namely "Photograph" which he co-wrote with George Harrison and his own rendition of "You're Sixteen" ,both from his most succesfull album of the same name.He also acted on several films and was the voice of Thomas the tank Engine.

Ringo continues to rock around the world with his All Starr Band,with a number of guests and various artists playing with him onstage.

NOTES

Ringo Starr is the most influential drummer in rock music history,one may not agree in one way or another but a lot of rock drummers view Ringo as an influence.The Beatles were the very first rock group to employ and set the standard for a modern day rock band,on how the guitars will be arranged and the drummer's position which continues to be used today.They are also the first band to set the trend on backmasking,feedback,distortion and other recording effects which rock groups continues to use up to this day.

One cool praise about Ringo comes from former Genesis drummer and singer Phil Collins

" Ringo Starr is vastly underrated.The drum fills on "A Day In The Life"  are very complex things.You could take a great drummer today and say "I want it like that" . He wouldn't know what to do".-- quote taken from Mojo magazine.

Other rock drummers who regard Ringo as a big influence:

Steve Gorman(The Black Crowes)

Dave Grohl(Nirvana)

Eric Carr(Kiss)

Nicko McBrain(Iron Maiden)

Phil Rudd(AC/DC)

Thank you Ringo for coming to our lives! Thank you for shaping rock music drumming and taking it to a new level.God bless you Ringo!

(c) Keith Vernon Adagio

Rock music's worst nightmare:The Beatles in Manila

1966 proved to be a difficult and dangerous year for the Beatles in their entire music career.At the height of John Lennon's remark "We're more popular than Jesus" ignited protests among Christian sects around the world,particularly in America's Bible belt which is the deep south.Numerous death threats poured in,and the band found touring dangerous and life threatening instead of enjoyment and meeting new people along the way.

But none could be dangerous,sickening or perhaps hateful  than the Beatles' disastrous tour of the Philippines in the summer of 1966.

The Philippines is an island nation off the coast of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean.A former Spanish and American colony,the Philippines is composed of 7,100 islands,about 693 miles southeast of Hong Kong and about 1,291 nautical miles northeast of Singapore.The Philippines was a commonwealth of the United States during the early 20th century and was granted independence in 1945.Manila is the capital city and it boasts a wide range of cultural diversity:Chinese,Spanish, and American mixed with native Filipino customs.The oldest chinatown in the world can also be found in Manila.Among the leading exports from the country were coffee,tobacco,bananas,jackfruits and pineapples.Perhaps the Philippines is best known today because of Manny Pacquiao one of the greatest boxers in history and the notorious Marcos clan who can be compared to chairman Mao.

The Philippines is also one of the poorest countries in the world.With more than 40 percent of its population on the poverty and even below poverty line. It was always said that only a millionaire can buy a car in the Philippines,with about 56 percent of slum dwellers and scavengers in Manila alone.

Before we proceed on the Beatles tour of the Philippines story I'd like to point out and correct some inaccuracies and wrong speculations other bloggers and websites have put on their pages.I dont want anyone to be mislead but as far as Im concern,this page that I wrote about the Beatles concert in the Philippines is the most accurate site so far.

I spent ages of research and asking my dad and some other Filipino elders who were there in Manila during the time the Beatles went there for a concert.

Here are some of the inaccuracies about the Beatles concert in the Philippines posted by other sites,myths I suppose:

1.The Philippines was under martial law when the Beatles came--WRONG! According to angelfire website the Philippines was under martial law when the Beatles came basing on Ringo's comment it was a dictatorship there in those days.Even though Marcos was already gearing up to be a dictator and monopolizing the Philippine government as far back as 1965 when he first took office[Marcos was already a notorious figure even before he became president of the Philippines],he didn't declare martial law until six years later on September 21,1972.

2.Paul McCartney went to Makati for a stroll--WRONG! Another website claiming that Paul went to Makati based on Paul's statement on the Beatles Anthology describing a "some kind of a Wall Street Area" when he went out on his own the next day after they arrived at the Manila airport.Well truth is,the Makati business district known as the Philippines' financial capital didn't exist during the 1960s so Paul was describing another place near the hotel they stayed and its absolutely not Makati!
The Beatles stayed in the Manila Hotel when they went there for a concert in 1966 so Paul was probably and more accurately describing the tourist belt in Manila known as Ermita district."Ermita" nowadays is still Manila's tourist belt,with tall buildings and hotels and business establishments side by side.Paul was even describing a shanty town where he bought some paintings in front of the "Wall Street Area" he mentioned on the book.Mabini Street,also located in Ermita has all the art stores and galleries which are still existing up to this day.
I even heard some elders who were there in Manila in 1966 when the Beatles came talking about Paul having a walk and taking pictures at the famous Rizal Park which is also located in Ermita district and not far from the Manila Hotel.And besides,all the business transactions and financial in the Philippines in the sixties were all located in downtown Manila alone,while the Makati business district started booming in the mid seventies,more than a decade after the Beatles came to the country.

TOUCHDOWN MANILA

After performing three shows in Tokyo,Japan,the Beatles headed to the Philippines and arrived in Manila on July 3,1966.According to the book Beatles Anthology,George Harrison already noticed a negative vibe when they arrived citing several airport police who were rude and disrespectful to them.George said "As soon as we got off the plane one fellow was screaming at us 'Leave those bags there,get in the car!!' We were being bullied for the first time.It wasn't respectful.We've been to other countries-America,Sweden,Germany,wherever and even though there was a mania whenever we came there was a lot of respect because we were famous showbiz personalities.But in Manila it was a very negative vibe the moment we got off the plane,so we were a bit frightened."

The Beatles were escorted down to a boat on a Manila harbour,surrounded by hordes of police and other armed people contrary to their original itinerary.Brian Epstein was said to be flustered the way his boys were being treated upon their arrival that they told the Philippine promoter to escort the band to their own hotel suites.The Beatles stayed in the Manila Hotel and like other places in the world,Filipino fans gathered a vigil outside the hotel and thus started the Philippine version of Beatlemania.

 MARCOS


The Beatles were invited the next day by then first lady Imelda Marcos for a dinner party at the presidential palace in which unknown to the band Brian Epstein had already declined.I guess it was some sort of culture shock between the two parties and those bureaucrats obviously won't take no for an answer.Marcos' vengeance comes next below this page.

THE CONCERT

The Beatles held two concerts at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium on July 4,1966,the first at about four in the afternoon and the second one was held at eight in the evening.The band was airlifted by a chopper from the hotel to the concert grounds and everyone was treated with a spectacle.

The Beatles' set list during the Manila concert were as follows:

1.Rock And Roll Music (Chuck Berry cover,from the album Beatles For Sale)
2.She's A Woman (Single,later to be compiled on the Beatles Past Masters Singles compilation album)
3.If I Needed Someone (from the album Rubber Soul)
4.Baby's In Black (from the album Beatles For Sale)
5.Day Tripper (Single,later to be compiled on the Beatles Past Masters Singles compilation album)
6.I Feel Fine (Single,later to be compiled on the Beatles' Past Masters Singles compilation album)
7.Yesterday (from the album Help!)
8 I Wanna Be Your Man (from the album With The Beatles)
9.Paperback Writer (Single,later to be compiled on the Beatles Past Masters Singles compilation album)
10.I'm Down (Single,later to be compiled on the Beatles Past Masters Singles compilation album)

ENCORE: Long Tall Sally (Little Richard cover,single,later to be compiled on the Beatles' Past Masters singles compilation album)
FEUD WITH MARCOS

After the invitation party was declined by Brian Epstein himself,the Marcoses were furious and obviously like I said,these bureucrats wont take no for an answer with Imelda screaming angrily live on Philippine television saying that the Beatles had insulted her and thus all Filipinos for not coming to the presidential party.Unknown to everyone,the Beatles have their own policy of not having themselves getting involved with politics as their management instructed them to,This isn't the first time that happened in the Beatles' career.During the first American tour in 1964,the Beatles' management declined President Johnson's invitation for the band to come to the White House to attend the presidential daughter's birthday party.Well President Johnson didn't react angrily and he absolutely didn't pay a mob and instructed his guards to beat up the Beatles and their entourage nor put their life into danger.So I guess it was kinda rude for those people to behave like that,what happened to the famous Filipino hospitality here? It was really as I say,embarassing.

The Beatles told stories of how they were mishandled after Brian,their manager,declined the dinner invitation.They even told about horror stories of how people would serve them rotten food at their hotel suite and about Ringo not eating in Manila for three days.

It was a terrible time for the band,and the Philippines sadly, once again added that bad mark on their culture and history.George Harrison said in an interview after the Beatles returned to England,"We heard it was a terrible place and when we got there it was proved." It was really sad.

But Marcos isn't finished yet,after all the police protection and band escorts disappeared,the Beatles went on their own to the airport and got themselves harrassed and their entourage beaten by supporters of Marcos.Ringo was punched in the face and John Lennon was kicked in the back by Marcos supporters.Their road manager Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans was badly beaten off the airport as they were trying to get on  the plane to go home.At the end,Brian Epstein was called back and all the money the Beatles earned during their Manila concert was taken from him.The Beatles left Manila with empty pockets but with a good feeling that they were all still alive.The following day after the Beatles left,the British embassy in Manila filed a protest following the Beatles' treatment when they came to the Philippines.Upon their arrival in England,the band told reporters of the horror they experienced in Manila and vowed never to return.

 AFTERMATH OF THE BEATLES' DISASTROUS MANILA CONCERT

1. NEMS,Brian Epstein's company in which the Beatles were managed cancelled two shows by Freddie And the Dreamers scheduled on August of 1966 and the upcoming Manila concert tour of Cilla Black also managed by NEMS.Manila was blacklisted by other British acts of the time after the Beatles incident.

2.The Rolling Stones were also scheduled to perform in Manila on the fall of 1966 but Brian Jones and Stones manager Andrew Oldham cancelled their upcoming show after hearing of the Beatles' incident.

3.In 2001, more than 30 years  after the Beatles came to the Philippines,the band was insulted in a variety show called Magandang Tanghali Bayan when one of the unknown Filipino comedians made a laughing stock out of the band and thus started a spark of anger between Beatles fans both Filipino and non-Filipino.MTB as it was known,was a notorious show in the Philippines for being rude and disrespectful to other people and was suspended several times by the Philippine censors.After a year of notoriety, ABS CBN known internationally as TFC finally dumped MTB and started rehabilitating some of its comedian hosts.

4.A scheduled Oasis concert tour of Manila in 2003 was cancelled by the band after they heard of the Beatles' treatment in Manila almost 40 years ago.

5.In 2004,a Filipino disc jockey and a group of mediamen and journalists from the Manila Bulletin and Philippine Daily Inquirer flew to London to interview Sir Paul McCartney.When Paul heard that the press around his office were from the Philippines,he immediately cancelled the interview and walked off leaving the Filipino press who traveled a thousand miles just for his interview.





(c) Keith Vernon Adagio


NOTE:Please dont take anything or copy contents from this article unless otherwise permitted by the author.

VICTOR SPINETTI:The funny man who drove the Beatles' movies

Ever wonder who's that musical director in the film A Hard Day's Night,the mad scientist in Help! and the army drill sergeant in Magical Mystery Tour? That is none other than Victor Spinetti,a Welsh comic actor who drove us all nuts on those Beatles films that we all loved.

Victor was a favorite comedian of the Beatles particularly George Harrison's.George even stating "You've got to be in all our films..If you're not in them,me mum wont come and see them coz she fancies you.."

Spinetti was born in Wales of Welsh and Italian ancestry,he attended the Cardiff College of Music And Drama.Waiting tables and a factory worker were one of his first jobs before entering showbusiness.Perhaps the most memorable role Spinetti had was from the Beatles' second movie Help! where he played the role of Foot-the mad scientist who got obsessed over Ringo's ring and later on the orchid essense which has the power to shrink things from its normal size.He teamed up with the late Roy Kinnear,who played Algernon-Foot's not so clever assistant.

Actually,it was in Help! that I fancied Spinetti even more.Sir Paul McCartney used to describe him as the man who makes clouds disappear.

Spinetti made his last appearance on a Beatles movie in the film Magical Mystery Tour where he played the role of a wacky army drill sergeant.Post-Beatles,Spinetti appeared on Paul McCartney's London Town music video.

The last musical appearance of Spinetti was in 1985 when he teamed up again with Roy Kinnear and did a comic stint on Mike & The Mechanics music video "All I Need Is A Miracle".Kinnear died three years later in 1988 when he fell off while horseback riding.

Spinetti is now a fellow at his alma mater  the Cardiff College of Music and Drama.

My tribute to Victor Spinetti with all the love and admiration...Thank you Victor for making us all laugh

 updated June 19,2012: Victor Spinetti died of prostate cancer at age 82.

In memoriam...Victor Spinetti (1929-2012)

 

(c) Keith Vernon Adagio

McCartney

It was April of 1970 when Paul McCartney announced the breakup of the Beatles and thus started a solo career for the band's bass player.Paul's announcement included the news about his first solo album,McCartney which was released two days ahead of Let It Be.

The Beatles' acrimonious split can be traced way back to the time when Brian Epstein,the band's manager,died of drug overdose.The band had always said that the death of Brian started the beginning of the end for the band for they felt like they lost guidance-though Paul kept on encouraging them to keep cool and concentrate on writing more songs and recording more new albums.After Sgt Pepper,the band embarked on a film project called Magical Mystery Tour in which the film was considered to bomb on the US market though the soundtrack album was highly praised by rock critics.More albums followed for the band,and it seems everything took its toll at the recording of the Beatles' self titled album THE BEATLES aka the White Album.People who witnessed on how the band argued and walked off each others songs during the recording sessions felt that the band is slowly moving towards disintegration.

They did,however,managed to create the last masterpiece Abbey Road in which was recorded with the discipline that they had during the band's earlier days.Bad business problems came along and Paul probably wanted to keep the Beatles together but he couldn't.The last album released by the Beatles called Let It Be reflected the signs of the times when the band had so many problems they believed they couldn't handle any longer.

It  is said that it was Paul who was badly hit by the split.He even recounted the time when he couldn't get out of bed and just did all these drinking.His wife Linda,sad seeing his husband depressed,encouraged him to write and record a solo album.Paul kept saying that he couldn't thank Linda enough for encouraging him that he was a very good musician during the time he felt that he was useless.

Paul got up from his stupor and recorded McCartney,his first solo album.He played all the instruments and was helped by Linda on the vocal harmonies.The album however,was held at the number two spot in the UK with Simon And Garfunkle's Bridge Over Troubled Water preventing it to reach the top spot.But it was quite different in the States where the album went to number one.

TRACK LISTING :

1.The Lovely Linda
2.That Would Be Something
3.Valentine Day
4.Every Night
5.Hot As Sun/Glasses
6.Junk
7.Man We Was Lonely
8.Oo You
9.Momma Miss America
10.Teddy Boy
11.Singalong Junk
12.Maybe I'm Amazed
13.Kreen-Akrore

Paul played all the instruments in the album and has described his debut as kind of a throw away during one of his interviews with Rolling Stone.Among the instruments he played was bass,guitar,drums,piano, and toy gockenspiel.The album was hailed as a masterpiece not only by McCartney fans but the whole rock music industry as well.The album was made at home where Paul had set up an eight track recording unit which is considered at the time as state of the art.With the album's lo-fi recording,many people see it as a precursor to those of indie rock bands of today where most of them were known to record their albums at the convenient of their very own homes.Well contrary to popular belief,the album wasn't really made entirely at the family household,though most of the tracks were recorded at Paul and Linda's house,they were polished at Abbey Road Studios where McCartney was seen working alone.

One song from the album called Maybe I'm Amazed stands out as one of the most beautiful love songs ever written.Paul wrote it for Linda at the time the Beatles' scene was getting heavy.The song was later rearranged and re-recorded by Paul and his band Wings with the live version taken from the concert LP Wings Over America reaching the top 10 of the US charts in 1977.

 (photo left:McCartney back cover CD,with Paul and his baby daughter Mary)

McCartney the album topped the US charts which is pleasing and very therapeutic for Paul.He eventually went on and released more solo albums and formed a band called Wings which is regarded as one of the greatest bands of the seventies and made him the most successful Beatle on his own solo career.Perhaps he realized to himself,in everything you do and things get a little messy,theres always a bright future ahead.