Press Conference following the MBE Awards

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On October 26, 1965, The Beatles visited Buckingham Palace to receive their MBEs (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth II. After the ceremony, a press conference was organized at Savile Theatre in London.

On October 26 The Beatles drove to Buckingham Palace in John’s shiny Rolls Royce Phantom Five (“just like Elvis has got but mine’s with smoked windows”) to collect their MBE medals from the Queen. In the wake of their visit, rumours were rife that the boys had smoked forbidden substances in one of Her Majesty’s lavatories. I saw them very soon after the ceremony because they showed off their medals to the media at a press conference we organised at London’s Saville Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, and although they were in particularly exuberant mood nothing about their eyes, their voices or their general attitudes suggested to me that they had been at the cannabis. I doubt if the group would have been foolhardy enough to take unlawful drugs with them into the Palace, which was crawling with all levels of security forces. Standing at their side for the press conference Brian Epstein enjoyed The Beatles’ quip that MBE stood for Mr Brian Epstein — but there was a dreamy, faraway look in his eyes that confirmed my impression that he felt Harold Wilson might have had the decency to recommend the award of a fifth Beatles medal for Personal Management services.

Tony Barrow – From “John, Paul, George, Ringo And Me“, 2012

PAUL: The man shouted out, ‘George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr.’ And Starr was the cue for us to walk forward. Left foot first. It was just like a show.

RINGO: Then we bowed, and then we walked to the Queen. Then we walked back and bowed, and then walked away.

JOHN: Left foot forward! We were drilled beforehand by some big guardsman fella. And every time he was reading out the names and he got to Ringo Starr, he kept cracking up!

RINGO: Nice man.

PAUL: There was nobody trying to get at us, though, they were all friendly, you know. In fact, we did about fifty autographs for all the people who were getting…

JOHN: We signed for all the people waiting to get their MBEs and OBEs.

Q: You were signing autographs to these people?

PAUL AND JOHN: Yeah.

PAUL: But they were all nice, you know. There was only one fella who said, ‘I want it for my daughter. I don’t know what she sees in you.’

JOHN: Did he say that?

PAUL: Yeah.

Q: What did you think of meeting the Queen?

PAUL: She’s lovely… very friendly. She’s got a keen pad. And I liked the staff. I thought they’d be like Dukes and things, but they were just fellas.

JOHN: She said to me, ‘Have you been working hard lately?’ And I couldn’t think what we had been doing so I said, ‘No, we’ve been having a holiday.’ We’d been recording, but I couldn’t remember.

PAUL: And then she said to me, ‘Have you been together long?’ And I said ‘Yes, many years.’ And Ringo said, ‘Forty years.’

RINGO: From the song of the same name.

PAUL: And then she laughed.

RINGO: Yes, she laughed.

PAUL: We all had a little laugh.

GEORGE: She just said, ‘It’s a pleasure to be giving it you,’ you know That’s what she said to everyone. And then she put John’s on, and said to him, ‘Have you been working hard?’

JOHN: I must’ve looked shattered.

RINGO: I was just butting in while she spoke to everyone else, you know. She said, ‘Did you start it all?’ And I said, ‘No, they did.’

PAUL: And then he said, ‘I’m the little one.’

RINGO: And I said, ‘I joined last. I’m the little fella,’ as I am.

JOHN: Isn’t that cute?

The Beatles were in fine form at a press conference which followed their investiture at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. But they were not talking about last week’s NME revelation that they had turned down an invitation to appear before the Queen in the Royal Variety Show on November 8 — a story that surprised the world.

Instead they wisecracked about their clothes, how they had avoided over-sleeping, and other award winners at the Palace.

Somebody asked George why he had chosen a navy blue serge suit with shoulder tabs. He quipped: “It was the only one that was pressed.”

Asked if they’d used alarm clocks to get them up in time John said: “No, I put my mother-in-law on.”

Ringo said he had been asked by the Queen if he had started the group and when he said how long have you been together now he had joked “40 years!”

Were any other members of the Royal family present at the investiture? “No,” said John. “Just a crowd of dukes.”

From New Musical Express – October 29, 1965

THE INVESTITURE in colour

HERE they are, complete with gongs… but for the first time in full colour! Ringo MBE, John MBE, Paul MBE and George MBE — with the other MBE, Mr. Brian Epstein, out of the picture but looking on with nods of approval. This exclusive shot was taken after the boys had left Buckingham Palace and gathered, still sleepy-eyed, to meet the Press at a London theatre. You’ve read all about the actual investiture, about how Ringo told the Queen the Beatles had been together now for forty years. But this is the first “glorious colour” shot of it all.

Meanwhile, the Beatles are in the throes of writing and recording songs for their December LP and single. All the tracks on the album will be by John and Paul and possibly George — no other composers allowed! On Monday and Tuesday this week, the boys filmed their parts in a mammoth Beatles’ TV show to be screened by ITV on December 17.

From Record Mirror – November 6, 1965

Going further

• http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1965.1026.beatles.html