How the Beatles’ trouble with Imelda Marcos led to Sgt Pepper
It would be a memorable day, even for four young men by then living remarkable red-letter lives. Fifty years ago, on July 4, 1966, the Beatles were to play before 100,000 fans in Manila during a lightning stopover hurriedly tacked on to a series of Tokyo dates.
Tokyo had been tense for the band; they received death threats for daring to play the Nippon Budokan centre. To Japanese conservatives a Western rock band playing at Budokan was disrespectful to the country’s war dead, for whom services are conducted there.
The Japanese government mobilised 30,000 men in uniform to line the road from the airport to the Beatles’ hotel — including sharpshooters on the overpasses — at which they were essentially imprisoned, albeit with five stars.
The boys were glad to leave Tokyo to make their way to The Philippines, via a refuelling stop in Hong Kong.
The combined one-day audience for the Beatles in Manila would be their biggest, and for many years the world record for any band. The venue was the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium. Jose Rizal, a national hero, paved the way for Philippines independence and was executed by Spanish colonialists.
By 1966 a much less noble man ran The Philippines. Ferdinand Marcos had become president six months earlier. He was already a murderer and would evolve into a vicious dictator, killing and jailing his enemies and, with wife Imelda, would steal billions and impoverish his nation. Imelda, a former Miss Manila, had yet to secure her infamous reputation but the Beatles were to get a taste of what Filipinos had coming.
By: Alan Howe
Source: The Australian
