Interview for Disc And Music Echo

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BRIGHT and early on Sunday morning four fellows with flat hair styles and Merseyside accents will trek up the gangway of a plane bound for the sun. And The Beatles will be off on a 12-day holiday in the Canary Islands.

They’re heading for Tenerife to get away from it all… well almost — they’ll be taking along their guitars, for as John Lennon puts it,

“we couldn’t be without music for all that time. And who knows, we may be able to make those Canaries swing!”

As we chatted about the trip, the boys lulled into reminiscent mood and talked about some of their earlier holidays — before the days of big record royalties and fat concert fees.

Paul McCartney and George Harrison frequently hitch-hiked their way around Britain.

“Once we decided to visit the West Country and spent a few glorious days going all over the place. By night we slept on the beach, but by the time we had come up to South Wales the weather had got bad and we needed some shelter,” said Paul.

“We asked the police if we could sleep in their cells,” said George, “but no dice. However, they gave us permission to kip in the stand of a football ground. What a night that was!”

“As a matter of fact, it was a holiday that introduced us to these hair styles,” John Lennon said. “Paul and I set off on a hitch-hike to Paris. Well, it was going to be a hitch-hike but we ended up in taking the train all the way—sheer laziness.”

“Speak for yourself, whacker,” cut in Paul with a deep Liverpool flavour.

“Anyway,” continued John, ignoring the interruption, “we bumped into a photographer we had met in Germany and he had a flattened-down hair style with a fringe in the front which we rather took to. We went over to his place and there and then he cut—hacked would be a better word—our hair into the same style.”

● a sight

“What a sight they looked when they arrived back,” recalled drummer Ringo Starr. “George and I made them change their styles back again, but later George went to the baths and came out with his hair soaking wet and all flattened down—we all thought it looked great so The Beatles’ style was born.”

Now barbers up and down the country are offering The Beatles Special and thousands of teenagers are wearing hair styles that were created almost by accident!

More holiday memories came flooding back. Memories like the time John and Paul hitch-hiked to Reading to appear as the Nurk Twins.

“It was no joke getting lifts with two guitars, two amplifiers and our cases — we had to hide that little lot in the bushes until the cars had stopped,” they said.

But it’s for sure they’ll each have a new set of memories after next week — their first holiday in style.

And I’m betting they’ll be hilarious memories, too.