At the end of this press conference, George Harrison is surprised as he is presented a Rickenbacker 360 electric 12-string guitar by B-Sharp Music, a local area guitar shop at the time. It was the second of this particular model of guitar that George was able to add to his collection. Harrison would play his new Rickenbacker on stage that evening. As George received the guitar, John Lennon smiled and joked: "That's fab, that! Where's mine?"

Their concert that evening at the Met was yet more proof of their undying popularity. Any holdout diehard midwestern skeptics wanting to believe Beatlemania was on the wane would be quieted. The excitement in the crowd grew during the opening acts, including King Curtis, Cannibal and the Headhunters, Brenda Holloway, and Sounds Incorporated. Then the moment had come when the Beatles would take the stage. Over 28,000 screaming fans finally had their chance to be with the Beatles.

"I've never seen a mob like this in my life," Deputy Sheriff Douglas Sherry was quoted as saying in the Minneapolis Tribune. "I thought Frank Sinatra was bad, but the mob for this thing has him beat all to pieces."

Following their Minneapolis performance, the Beatles were flown to Portland Oregon as their 1965 tour of North America moved forward.

                                          - Jay Spangler, www.beatlesinterviews.org

GEORGE: "I think Ringo is! Ringo!"

JOHN: (gestures to Ringo, singing cheesy showbiz theme music) "Da-da-da-dah, Da-da-da-da DAH!"

RINGO: (to John) "I think YOU are."

JOHN: "Oh no, I think YOU are."

RINGO: "YOU are!"

JOHN: (hugging Ringo) "No, it's YOU!"

(laughter)

Q: (asks a question away from the microphone regarding finances and taxes)

RINGO "We don't see it, really."

PAUL & RINGO: "We pay a lot of taxes."

Q: "You're in a high income bracket."

RINGO: "Yeah, that's why we pay a lot of taxes."

(laughter)

Q: "Ringo, do you have any time off in this tour, and if you do, what do you plan to do during the time off?

RINGO "We have about five days off in L.A. starting monday, and we're just gonna sit 'round, you know."

Q: "How is your stock going? Up or down?"

RINGO "It's going up, I beleive."

JOHN: (jokingly to Ringo)"Yours is? You never told me you've got stock."

RINGO: "I've got your stock."

JOHN: "Oh, Northern Songs."

Q: "Would you ever start your own label, and if so, where is it going to be?"

JOHN: "We'd never start our own label. It's too much trouble, you know."

Q: "Are you going to invest heavily in some other company as the Beatles?"

JOHN: "I don't know. That'll be all up to (Beatles manager) Mister Epstein, you know."

Q: "How long before your contract does terminate with Capitol (records)?"

JOHN: "I don't know. I don't even remember signing it!"

(laughter)

GEORGE: "It'll last another year."

JOHN: "Oh."

Q: "Once you've written a song, how do you decide which of you will sing it?"

JOHN: (jokingly) "I think whoever knows most of the words by the time we get to recording it."

(laugher)

Q: "I'd like to ask you all a personal question about your hair. How can you sleep at night with it that long?"

JOHN: "Well, when you're asleep you don't notice."

(laughter)

PAUL: "True, true. Ha! That told him."

GEORGE: "How do you sleep with your arms and your legs still attached? It's the same."

RINGO: "You get used to it."

GEORGE: "Maybe that's why we've been up every night."

PAUL: "Yeah, maybe THAT'S why we have parties. That's it. We can't sleep with this long hair."

(chuckles from reporters)

PAUL: "Great!"

JOHN: "People have only had short hair since the world war. So they've been sleeping for all those thousands of years with long hair."

PAUL: "It's not a problem, I tell ya. It's just as much a problem as having short hair, which to you seems like normal."

JOHN: "It's more of a problem having short hair, having to keep it short."

Q: "It seems whenever you come to perform in this country, it's always in the form of a grand tour..."

JOHN: "It's not worth coming over for one or two performances. We may as well go to as many places as we can when we come, you know."

Q: "You expect it to be annually."

RINGO & JOHN: "Yeah, I think so."

RINGO: "We don't really know, as our manager does everything."

Q: "Also, your stage costumes that you use, or apparel that you wear... Let me ask you, who does your tailoring for you?"

JOHN: "A man called Douglas Millings."

PAUL: "Millings of London."

JOHN: "He makes them to what we order, you know. We tell him how to do it, and he makes them."

Q: (to Paul) "Do you have plans for getting married?"

PAUL: "No, not particularly."

BOY: "Ringo?"

RINGO: "Yes?"

BOY: "I got my start playing drums from you. Ever since I listened to you, I started playing them."

RINGO: (jokingly) "Ahh, you'll never get anywhere if you listen to me!"

(laughter)

RINGO: "Yeah, go on."

BOY: "I was wondering how long you've been playing your drums?"

GEORGE: (jokingly) "Thirty years, isn't it?"

(chuckles)

RINGO: "No, it's about seven years now."

PAUL: "How old are you?"

BOY: "I'm fourteen."

PAUL: "You're the same age as us. Great!"

JOHN: (jokingly, to the others) "By the time he learns it, they'll have a machine do it."

Source: Transcribed by www.beatlesinterviews.org from video and audio copies of press conference