The bizarre moment Chuck Berry fled New Zealand, pursued by a promoter
There aren’t too many other figures from the early history of rock and roll who are considered quite as pioneering as Chuck Berry was to the genre, but this has often come with a handful of caveats.
As talented as he was as a guitarist and songwriter, many have commented on how the legendary musician was a tricky customer to deal with on a personal level, and one of the things that has often tainted others’ perceptions of him over the years is his unpleasant character rather than his contribution to the world of music.
Regularly seen as arrogant, chauvinistic and generally a nuisance even to those closest to him, Berry was adept at making enemies of those who were unfortunate enough to encounter him at his most troublesome. While he had earned a reputation back home in America for his exacting temperament, this would seemingly spread to other pockets of the globe when he embarked on worldwide tours.
It was during a tour in 1978 when he unleashed his tyranny on the music industry in New Zealand, proving to be just as troublesome as many had warned him to be when he was invited to play in Auckland. Local promoter Ian Magan unfortunately fell victim to his boorish ways when working on the show he had arranged for the Father of Rock and Roll to play in the city.
Placed on the same bill as Bo Diddley, another pioneering figure from the golden age of rock and roll, Berry was scheduled to perform two shows at Trillo’s, a local cabaret venue, with a matinee at 6pm and a late slot at 9pm. However, it turns out that Berry had other ideas, which involved him ducking out early and instead attempting to flee as far as he possibly could from the venue.
“Chuck shot through,” Magan explained in an interview with New Zealand publication Stuff following the guitarist’s death in 2017. “We had pre-paid him, because Berry always insisted on being paid before he played, in cash. So him and Bo Diddley did the first show, then in the interval, somebody came out from backstage and told me he’d taken off in his car and was on his way to the airport.”
As uncouth as Berry’s actions may have seemed, an incensed Magan was determined to ensure that Berry was returned to the venue swiftly so he could fulfil his contractual obligations. “I wasn’t gonna let him get away without a fight, and it nearly developed into one, too,” Magan added. “I took off after him at high speed, and caught up with him at the airport just as he was checking in for the evening flight to Los Angeles.”
After an altercation between the two parties, Magan said that Berry “buggered off into the distance,” with the guitarist taunting him with provocative retorts of “stop me if you can” as police were helpless to prevent Berry from absconding. There wasn’t anything that could be done to stop Berry from fleeing the scene, and as Magan reports, the scuffle at the airport was the last time he ever laid eyes on the musician.
Magan ended up returning to the venue and having to apologise to the audience with a reimbursement for having missed out on the co-headliner. “We gave them half their money back, and Bo Diddley played a longer show, bless him,” he concluded. “He was a lovely man, whereas Chuck Berry was a mean old bastard.”
