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ABOUT THIS INTERVIEW:
On February 22nd 1964, the Beatles were interviewed by Pathe News upon their arrival in London, returning home from their first American visit. When this interview had ended, they then were immediately interviewed again by David Coleman for BBC-TV's Grandstand. While the news of their unprecedented success in America had already reached home, it was now time for Britain to get the full details first hand. Both the Pathe News and BBC Grandstand interviews are presented below.
It is interesting to notice, during the BBC interview, the early appearance of one of Ringo's famous malapropisms - as he jokingly utters the phrase "Tomorrow Never Knows" as an off-handed quip, so long before the days of the 1966 Revolver album.
- Jay Spangler, www.beatlesinterviews.org
PATHE NEWS INTERVIEW:
Q: "George, your fans obviously enjoyed it over there, I assume the press enjoyed it, did you enjoy it?"
GEORGE: "Yeah, it was marvelous. You know. Everything. Every bit of it was a knock-out."
Q: "Even the work?"
GEORGE: Yeah, we enjoyed it, you know. It was different working in different places with the audience all around us."
Q: "What impressed you most about the place? Did you have time to take anything in properly?"
GEORGE: "Oh, yeah. I think I enjoyed the sun in Miami most of all. You know-- healthy."
Q: "You're the healthy one of the four?"
GEORGE: "No, but the sun was sort of very healthy."
Q: "Did you have a chance to get away from anybody at any time on the trip?"
GEORGE: "Yeah."
RINGO: "He got away from me-- twice!"
(laughter)
Q: "What did you most like about the trip, Ringo?
RINGO: "Oh, I just loved all of it, you know. Especially Miami-- the sun. I didn't know what it meant till I went over there."
Q: "Don't you get it up in Liverpool?"
RINGO: "No, they're finished up there, you know. They've cut it out."
(laughter)
Q: "Did you ever have a chance, John, to just get away on your own without anybody recognizing you?"
JOHN: "Yeah. We borrowed a couple of millionaires houses, you know."
Q: "You could afford to BUY a couple of millionaire's houses, couldn't you?"
PAUL: "Naw."
JOHN: "Yeah, we'd sooner borrow 'em. It's cheaper.
(laughter)
JOHN: "And we did a bit of water-skiing. Well, sort of, anyway."
RINGO: "Yeah, we had a great time."
Q: (to John) "Did your wife enjoy it over there?"
JOHN: "She loved it. (comically) Who?? Who??"
PAUL: "Shh-Shh."
RINGO: "Don't tell 'em he's married. It's a secret."
Q: "What about the taste of the fans over there. Did you find the same stuff?"
PAUL: "Yeah."
JOHN: "He never bit any."
(laughter)
PAUL: "We expected them to be very different, but they weren't at all. The accent was the only thing, you know. That was the only difference."
Q: "Did they reckon you sang in an English accent or an American accent?"
PAUL: "No, some fella said, 'How come, because you're from Britain, and you still sing in an American accent,' or something. We were trying to explain it to him.... oh, it was funny."
Q: "When you came back from France you told me that they like the sort of quicker numbers."
PAUL: "Yeah."
Q: "But what did you do? Did you just do all the same routine as you do here?"
PAUL: "Uhh, yeah."
JOHN: "We did the older song."
GEORGE: "Most of our records are hits over there."
PAUL: "Oh yeah, we had to do 'Please Please Me' over there. We hadn't been doing that for a long time here, but it's in the charts there."
Q: "That's history, here. What about the Beatles' styles-- all these wigs and suits and things? Are they catching on over there?"
GEORGE: "Yeah, they're selling well."
RINGO: (jokingly) "15 million a day!"
Q: "I hear that the four of you have been millionaires by the end of the year."
GEORGE: "Oh. That's nice."
(laughter)
Q: "Have you got time to actually spend this money?"
BEATLES: (in unison) "What money??"
Q: "Doesn't he (Brian Epstein) give any to you?"
GEORGE: "No, no. Have you seen that car of his?"
(laughter)
Q: "Is there any intention for you to go back to America-- or in fact, join the brain-drain and a big guitar-drain and stay there?"
RINGO: "We'd like to go back. We wouldn't stay there. We love England."
BBC-TV GRANDSTAND INTERVIEW:
Q: "Welcome back, boys. How does this reception here compare with America?"
RINGO: "Oh, it was great! It was every bit as good."
JOHN: "It was better."
PAUL: "Better."
RINGO: "It was better."
Q: "I must say even you boys looked surprised as you came down the aircraft steps."
PAUL: "Yeah."
JOHN: "Well, wouldn't you be?"
GEORGE: "It's so early in the morning."
JOHN: "Yeah, we only just got up."
RINGO: "We haven't got up, we haven't been to bed yet. Don't forget, it's four o'clock in the states now."
Q: "What do you think about America? Is it very different from your point of view?"
RINGO: "It's bigger."
Q: "Did you get lost then, George?"
RINGO: (jokingly) "I'll pass you on to George now."
GEORGE: "No, I didn't get lost, George."
PAUL: "Nobody let him out, you know. He was in the hotel the whole time."
GEORGE: "Yeah, as soon as we got there they strapped me up in bed."
(laughter)
PAUL: "But it's a marvelous place. We loved it."
Q: "Is it very different for performance over there than performing here?"
GEORGE: "Yeah."
Q: "In what way?"
GEORGE: "You don't play theatres over there, you know. The places we played-- Carnegie Hall and this place in Washington."
RINGO: "A big stadium."
GEORGE: "Yeah, a big stadium with the audience all around
and the acoustics were terrible."
JOHN: "So we sparred up, you know, before we got..."
RINGO: "Yeah, it was good."
GEORGE: "But it was good for, you know-- It was quite a novelty, wasn't it, John?"
JOHN: "Yeah it was. (jokingly) I'll pass you on to Paul."
(laughter)
PAUL: "It was, too. Yes."
Q: "Now Ringo, I hear you were manhandled at the Embassy Ball. Is this right?"
RINGO: "Not really. Someone just cut a bit of my hair, you see."
Q: "Let's have a look. You seem to have got plently left."
RINGO: (turns head) "Can you see the difference? It's longer, this side."
Q: "What happened exactly?"
RINGO: "I don't know. I was just talking, having an interview (exaggerated voice) Just like I am NOW!"
(John and Paul begin lifting locks of his hair, pretending to cut it)
RINGO: "I was talking away and I looked 'round, and there was about 400 people just smiling. So, you know-- what can you say!"
JOHN: "What can you say!"
RINGO: "Tomorrow never knows."
JOHN: (laughs)
Q: "George, how do you like being described as the Prime Minister's secret weapon?"
GEORGE: "It's great, yeah. The thing is-- I didn't get the bit where they said, 'Earning all these dollars for Britain,' like, are we sharing it out or something?"
(laughter)
Q: "But we're told that you've come back from America millionaires."
PAUL: "Naw, you're kidding."
JOHN: "Next time."
Q: "Now what about Miami? I mean, you were in the millionaire's playground."
RINGO: "Oh, that was marvelous-- Miami!"
Q: "You lived well, did you?"
PAUL: "Yeah. Well, we borrowed these houses, you see. These people rang-up and said, 'Do you want our house, lad?' So we said, (American accent) 'By gum, we do!'"
(laughter)
PAUL: "And we went across there, and we all water-skied, and fishing."
(Paul gestures a two-foot fish with his hands. John demonstrates a one-inch fish with his fingers)
RINGO: "He caught a monster!"
Q: "How did it compare with New Brighton?"
PAUL: (laughs) "With New Brighton? It wasn't as sunny, of course, as New Brighton."
RINGO: "Of course, we missed the docks."
JOHN: "And the people didn't have as much money."
GEORGE: "And there was more oil on the sand in Miami."
Q: "We'd like to hear what you thought about (meeting) Mister Clay." (Cassius Clay, aka Mohammed Ali)
JOHN: "Very tall."
RINGO: "Oh, he's a big lad."
PAUL: "He's a great laugh, more than anything. He's a big lad."
GEORGE: "He's gonna get Sonny Liston in three."
JOHN: "...he said."
RINGO: "So he said."
PAUL: "That's what he said. I don't think he will, though."
Q: "I hear you were creeping up to Harry Carpenter in the training camp, Paul, and whispering things to him."
PAUL: "Yeah. Well you see, the only thing was-- He asked me who was going to win! And I would have told him out that I thought Liston was gonna win."
JOHN: (jokingly) "You coward!"
PAUL: (laughs) "I'm a coward! And it was in Clay's camp, you see, and there was all these big fellas around. I had to whisper, you know."
JOHN: (starts singing, and Paul joins in) "'Liston, do you want to know a secret.'"
(laughter)
RINGO: "Pluggin' you know. We're still trying to sell!"
Q: "How did Clay compare with you?"
RINGO: "He's bigger than all of us put together."
Q: "We're told that he was acting in a way that even the Beatles couldn't match."
PAUL: "Yeah. He was, actually."
RINGO: "He was good."
JOHN: "He was saying, 'I'z beautiful, and you'z beautiful, too!!'"
(laughter)
PAUL: "Yeah, he's a showman."
RINGO: "Oh, definitely."
Q: "Well now that you're back, you're out of the Top Ten for the first time for a long time."
JOHN: (comical choking sound)
Q: "What about it."
PAUL: "Uhh, I don't know."
JOHN: "What do you suggest?"
Q: "Have you got anything on the way?"
JOHN: "We could go straight, couldn't we."
GEORGE: "I'm going to try tap-dancing."
PAUL: "And Ringo's doing comedy on the high-wire."
Q: "But have you got anything on the way, apart from the film?"
PAUL: "We're doing recording next week."
JOHN: (to Paul) "Shhh!!"
RINGO: "Don't tell 'em."
PAUL: "We're not! It's a lie! Sorry! (whispers) We're recording next week."
Q: "We daren't ask you where."
PAUL: "No!"
RINGO: "We couldn't tell you."
JOHN: "Oh no. --DECCA!"
(laughter)
Q: "What about your impression of American adults? I mean, we hear your impression of teenagers and so on. I saw you, Ringo, being quoted as saying something about this."
RINGO: "What did I say?"
Q: "You tell me."
RINGO: (jokingly) "I don't know. You know, I'm quoted so much it's just ridiculous."
(laughter)
Q: "You tell him what he said, Paul."
PAUL: "I don't remember. About adults?"
RINGO: "They're older than I am!"
(laughter)
Q: "You said the adults were a bigger problem than the teenagers."
RINGO: "Oh, yeah. Well, you know, they've sort of gone potty."
PAUL: "Yeah, they were."
RINGO: "I mean, the teenagers will ask for the autograph, and take it, and leave it at that. But the adults want to know where you've been, and..."
PAUL: "Yeah. Cut your hair, too."
RINGO: "Yeah. Well, I don't know if it was an adult, but somebody did."
Q: "Did you manage to get much time away from all this, and really get away by yourselves?"
JOHN: "We got three days at the end, after the 'Ed Sullivan in Miami,' you know, we stayed on. Was it three days?"
PAUL: "Yeah."
RINGO: "It was around that."
JOHN: "Three days, you know... nearly three."
Q: "Anyway, nice to see you back, boys. Thanks very much..."
PAUL: "Thank you."
RINGO: "Good to see you. Keep kicking."
JOHN: (giggling to Ringo) "Keep kicking."
Source: Transcribed by www.beatlesinterviews.org from video copies of the archived film footage
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