You don’t get to become the biggest band in the world without amassing some truly bizarre experiences along the way. During their rapid rise to fame, The Beatles certainly had their fair share of unbelievable tales, ranging from the strange to the downright scary. For instance, not many other bands can say they were forced to escape a country after upsetting an authoritarian dictator, but that is just what happened to the Fab Four during their 1966 world tour.
By now, it is common knowledge that The Beatles weren’t particularly fond of live performances. Their early years in Hamburg had seen the group craft an energetic spectacle of a live show, but as Beatlemania set in, live appearances became increasingly trying. Not only could the group not hear their own music over the legions of screaming fanatics, but appearing in any kind of public place became something of a risk for artists of their fame and fortune. However, it was the band’s 1966 world tour that put the final nail in the coffin of The Beatles as a touring band.
The 1966 tour had been utterly disastrous from the very beginning: riots in Germany, typhoons in Japan, and threats of violence and even death at virtually every stop along the way. By the time the band arrived in the Philippines in July, they were exhausted, but, as it turned out, the worst was yet to come. Immediately upon arrival in the capital city, Manila, The Beatles were swarmed by armed guards and military personnel, which became a common theme throughout their time in the country.
While in the Philippines, the Liverpudlian lads were due to play two concerts at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila. Other than a few sound problems, those shows went off without a hitch. However, the band were invited along to the palace of the dictator, President Marcos, after the shows, where the problems started to arise. “He tried to kill us, President Marcos,” George Harrison recalled years later during an interview.
“We were in bed,” he continued, “And someone knocked on the door of our hotel suite and said, ‘Come on, you’re supposed to be at the palace.’ We said, ‘No, we’re not.’ We didn’t have any engagement anywhere, but some smart guy had said, ‘Sure, I’ll get The Beatles up to the palace.’” Unbeknownst to the band, manager Brian Epstein had already refused the invitation to Marcos’ palace while The Beatles were still in Japan during an earlier leg of the tour, but the President had clearly not accepted that refusal.
“We turned the television on, and there was this big palace with lines of people and the guy saying, ‘Well, they’re still not here yet.’” Harrison remembered. “And we watched ourselves not arrive at the palace, but we were never supposed to be there.” There began a dangerous and frightening experience for The Beatles, as they suddenly became the target of President Marcos’ anger.
Harrison seemed fairly unbothered by it all, later explaining, “What they did was they said ‘Beatles snub first family’, which I’m glad we did – even in those days we had taste.” However, he also noted, “Consequently, he set the mob on us and tried to beat us up, which they did. They beat up a lot of people in with us and wouldn’t let the aeroplane leave Manila until Epstein, our manager, had to get off the plane and give back the money we earned at the concert.” The former Beatle summed up the experience of playing in Manila, saying, “So, that’s what I think of Marcos…old twat, he was.”
Thankfully, The Beatles did manage to escape the Philippines relatively unscathed, although Ringo Starr later described the saga as “the most frightening thing that’s ever happened to me.” In the aftermath, various other Western rock and pop bands refused to perform in Manila as an act of solidarity with The Beatles. The band themselves chose to stop performing altogether after the tour, with their final scheduled public concert happening in San Francisco on August 29th, 1966.
