Ringo Starr recalls The Beatles escaping Manila: “We were spat on, we were humiliated”
Throughout their pioneering career, The Beatles relentlessly ventured into new ground both sonically and geographically. In 1966, they were the most important musical entity on the planet, and while riding high, they were invited to Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
The Fab Four accepted an offer to perform in Manila, which was far from a typical tour stop in the eyes of the Southeast Asian country. Securing the services of The Beatles was a cultural coup for the Philippines, which planned to roll out the red carpet for the four-piece and treat them like true A-listers. However, the reality unfolded from the sky-high expectations.
The Beatles, despite their stratospheric success, still saw themselves as a rock band and didn’t want to act as dignitaries. In their eyes, they were paid to be in the Philippines solely to play a concert, and the idea of schmoozing with powerful figures after the show wasn’t of interest. Little did they know how this decision would land them in jeopardy; overnight, they went from heroes to villains.
At the time, Ferdinand Marcos was the president of the Philippines, and his wife, Imelda Marcos, was particularly infatuated with The Beatles. She made it her mission to meet the band, but they weren’t interested, leading to a hate campaign against the Fab Four across the Philippine media, putting their lives in danger.
Thankfully, The Beatles did successfully flee Manila, but only because they implemented extreme tactics to escape the Philippines, relying upon the kindness of nuns.
In an exclusive extract provided to Far Out from Peter Brown and Steve Gaines’ new book, All You Need is Love: The End of the Beatles, Ringo Starr delved into detail about the harrowing ordeal, revealing how The Beatles miraculously managed to escape the country without being seriously hurt. Unsurprisingly, they never returned to the Philippines.
Read the extract taken from Gaines’ interview with Starr below.
Ringo Starr explains how The Beatles used nuns to help them escape Manila…
SG: Manila? Did you get beaten up?
RS: No, we didn’t get beaten up in Manila. We arrived in Manila, and there was a motorcade of cops and security and madness, we played the gig.
PB: I remember we went on a boat first.
RS: That’s right, we did go on a boat . . .
PB: And Neil was left behind because they wanted to search his handbag. Or something.
SG: The baggage didn’t go on the boat?
PB: That’s where they wanted you to stay, we said, “No, we’re not going to stay on this boat.”
RS: I thought the boat was just to have a drink and say hello to Manila.
PB: No, I think they wanted you to stay.
RS: The main point of the story was that Mrs. Marcos wanted to see us, but we said no, because we didn’t want to do it. We were doing the gig, and those functions aren’t the most fun anyway. But she said, “You’re not going anywhere.” John and I don’t know anything about it. We woke up in the morning and phone down for the newspapers. We want to see what they like about us, and did the show go over well? Nothing. We figured it was just a weirdo town where they don’t give you room service. I called down again to get the papers. Nothing. Madness. We turn on the TV and we see the news and they pan up to all these little kids, and they were saying that we didn’t show. So it was all over the TV. They hated us, and we were left with one policeman, after coming in with a thousand. We get to the airport, and it was madness, and John and I were hiding behind nuns. We thought because it’s a Catholic country, if we hid behind the nuns, they won’t get us. They wouldn’t let us go anywhere. They sent us upstairs? We sat up there, they hassled us about the tickets, we came down again, they just came, moving us around while people were shouting at us in this weird language. Then we finally got to the plane. They spat on us. No one got punched.
PB: Mal was pushed over.
RS: Okay, you want to make it a big story? Mal was tripped. I didn’t see Mal get tripped. I was not punched in the back. None of us were physically hurt —we were spat on, we were humiliated, but we were not physically damaged. So we get to the plane, and there’s an announcement that our press man, Tony Barrow, and Mal Evans had to get off the plane. We thought, now they’re taking us off two by two to shoot us. We didn’t know. But they just took them off for several minutes, they got back on, and we flew off. Anyway, that’s how we got out of Manila. We went to India.
All You Need is Love: The End of the Beatles by Peter Brown & Steven Gaines, published by Monoray £25 www.octopusbooks.co.uk
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