Press conference to comment the MBE announcement

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On June 11, 1965, it was announced that The Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II after Prime Minister Harold Wilson nominated them for the award.

A press conference was organized the day after.

The Beatles had agreed to meet the world’s press at Twickenham film studios at lunchtime. The conference was arranged for 1.30 — 2½ hours after the start of their first viewing of the “Help!” film. John Lennon missed the screening and arrived 70 minutes late for the conference, after being fetched from home by his manager.

As the crowd of reporters, photographers and TV men waited and waited, one of them called out “MBEs and they still treat US as suckers!”

At the conference itself the Beatles were frequently asked if being honoured would change their way of life. But if Paul’s unshaven arrival wasn’t enough to convince all concerned, he added: “It doesn’t make me feel any more respectable. I’m still a scruff.”

I asked George how they had first learned they were getting the awards: “Paul was looking through the pile of fan mail in our dressing room a few weeks ago when he came across this envelope that said From The Prime Minister on it. It must have been there at least a couple of days. He opened it and the letter said he was being considered for an award and would he sign the enclosed form. We all said ‘wish we had one,’ dived through the rest of the mail and found we did — one each!”

Asked what they would do with the medals, John said: “I think I’ll have mine made into a bell push so that people have to press it when they come to the house.”

Somebody asked if the Beatles thought Cliff Richard should have got a medal, too. “Yes, a leather one with wooden strings,” quipped George.

And as the bright remarks continued to fly as fast as at any Beatle press conference I have witnessed, their manager stood at the back, arms folded, and beamed as Paul said he thought MBE stood for Mr. Brian Epstein.

From New Musical Express – June 18, 1965

John Lennon: I set the alarm for eight o’clock and then I just laid there. I thought, ‘Well, if anyone wants me, they’ll phone me.’ The phone went lots of times, but that’s the one I never answer. My own phone didn’t go at all, so I just laid there.

Reporter: How did you first learn that you were getting the award?

George Harrison: Paul was looking through the pile of fan mail in our dressing room a few weeks back and he came across this envelope that had ‘From the Prime Minister’ written on it. It must have been there at least a couple of days. He opened it and the letter said that he was being considered for an award and would he sign the enclosed form. We all said, ‘We wish we had one,’ then dived through the rest of the mail and found that we did have one – one each!

Paul McCartney: We thought that MBE stood for Mr Brian Epstein, because we always sign his contracts, because he’s our manager.

Reporter: Why have you been honoured this way?

Ringo Starr: Look at the dollars we’ve pulled in from America.

John Lennon: We’ve paid the government quite a bit in tax, don’t you think?

Reporter: Do you think you deserve the awards?

George Harrison: It’s not up to us to say that. The Queen must have thought so, or she wouldn’t have given them to us, would she?

Reporter: What will you do with your medal?

George Harrison: Hang it on the wall.

Ringo Starr: Tuck it around my neck.

Paul McCartney: Keep it in a safe place.

John Lennon: I think I’ll have mine made into a bell push so that people have to press it when they come to the house or I’ll take it to an antique dealer and find out what it is.

Reporter: Do you think Cliff Richard should have got a medal too?

George Harrison: Yes, a leather one with wooden strings.

Reporter: What do you think now of Mr Wilson?

George Harrison: We think of him what we always thought of him. He’s a good lad.

The rebel image

REP: What’s the MBE going to do to your teenage rebel image?

Paul: Who’s got a teenage rebel image?

REP: You have.

John: We’ve never had much of a rebel image.

Paul: I don’t think the people who like us think we go around kicking old ladies up or anything.

REP: Has any of you any ambitions left at all?

George: Yeah — I want to be an astronaut. Yeah, and I want to be a deep-sea fisherman. [?]

REP: What about you, Ringo?

RINGO: Oh, I’m happy. I’ll just keep going.

REP: John?

JOHN: I’d like to be a Duke.

Congratulations, and why

REP: Well, congratulations, boys. How do you feel about having MBEs?

BEATLES: Wonderful. / Great. / It’s marvellous. / Yes, great.

REP: Have you told your families yet?

BEATLE: Yes.

REP: What did they have to say about it?

BEATLE: “Whoopee.”

REP: Why do you think you got it?

BEATLE: We don’t really know.

JOHN: Well, we got it because [the Queen] wanted to give them to us.

REP: You don’t really believe that.

JOHN: Well — somebody wanted to give them to us.

REP: Yeah, but why do you think they wanted to give them to you? Is it for music, or is it for dollars?

PAUL: It could have been for anything. It could have been for exports, or selling records.

JOHN: Yeah — we’re getting all those dollars.

BEATLE: We don’t think it’s anything to do with coming from Liverpool and having Huyton’s MP for a Prime Minister. [?]

PAUL: Not really, you know. [?]

BEATLE: He stands for Empire — he stands for Empire, he stands for Empire… [?]

On honours generally

REP: Have you ever thought seriously about this business of giving honours?

BEATLE: Well, you know, you just sort of see Stanley Matthews get one. It’s great, innit, when they get them. Good on him — I always said.

BEATLE: I never said it before.

BEATLE: Do you believe me?

BEATLE: Sir Gordon Richards. Sir Gordon.

BEATLE: Riding horses, also. [?]

REP: And what about Sir Gordon?

BEATLE: What about him?

BEATLE: Nothing.

REP: There must be something special about being the first pop group.

BEATLE: It’s good, because everyone said you have to be old to get them.

REP: Yeah, but there have been young pop groups before. Did [any of them] get them?

BEATLE: Some of them — he wasn’t… [?]

Living up to it

REP: Well, how are you going to live up to it?

BEATLE: You don’t have to live up to it — you’re still the same, with a medal. I mean, I’m sure Sir Stanley Matthews doesn’t go around with his top hat on all day.

BEATLE: He does. He plays football.

BEATLE: He doesn’t have to live up to anything. He’s not getting it in the middle of a career — he’s getting it at the end.

BEATLE: Yeah, but the thing is, it’s good to get it while you’re still young, you know. They usually give you it when you’re old and you die the next year.

BEATLE: Apparently someone said the policy was a bit daft anyway, because they always used to just give it to old people, and it was nothing to do with [merit?]. [?]

Interview with George Yateman for US TV

YATEMAN: How did you all react?

JOHN: [Whoopee.] [?]

GEORGE: Well, I sort of went, “Wow — that’s great.”

YATEMAN: Yes?

RINGO: About the same. Yes, I think we all felt pretty well the same.

YATEMAN: Now, last year in America your records sold no less than ten million dollars’ worth. Do you think your export sales have something to do with this?

BEATLE: Well, you know, somebody said it could have been that. It might have been that — or Australia. [?]

YATEMAN: Now, do you think you’ll go back to [visit?]

BEATLE: Yeah, well, you know, we probably will. It’s up to Mr. [Epstein?] [?]

YATEMAN: [To go] to the Palace there’s a certain protocol to be observed. Are you going to dress up in morning dress?

JOHN: Yes — well, I think you’ve got to, haven’t you.

GEORGE: Yeah. We’ll have to.

YATEMAN: What about the hair?

RINGO: Well, we’re not going to get it all cut off, you know. Someone said we can carry the hats, so that’ll be easier.

PAUL: I think [Her Majesty] will understand, you know. She may well do.

YATEMAN: From obscurity in a cellar in Liverpool four years ago, and now to Buckingham Palace. Gentlemen, what do you think everybody on the other side of the Atlantic is going to say to this?

BEATLE: “Whoopee,” I hope.

BEATLE: Yes, I hope.

BEATLE: You never know — they might say…

BEATLE: Who?

BEATLE: They might say, “Hello, cobber,” or something like that.

BEATLE: “Hello, dear boys.”

BEATLE: “Good on you, blue.”

BEATLE: “Well done, boy.”

BEATLE: “Howdy — Europe.” [?]

BEATLE: “Texas speaking.”

YATEMAN: Now, two of you have got married, and you all live in — well, [comfortable?] domestic splendour. Has this affected your writing, Paul and John?

PAUL: No — it’s easier to write with cushions on, [than?] pieces of hard bench, which, you know, we were on. Hard benches, before we made it.

JOHN: Yeah, in the slums and [cellars?] of Liverpool. [?]

PAUL: And it’s much easier on a nice cushion.

YATEMAN: Your plans for tours, for this year and next year?

PAUL: We’re going to Europe next week, and then we come back, and then we go off to America. And we do a telly — we do the Ed Sullivan. Good old Ed.

BEATLE: Ed Sullivan!

BEATLE: Hi, Ed!

BEATLE: I hope he’s watching. He’s watching, he’s watching…

BEATLE: There he is. Alright, Ed.

RINGO: Mister Ed!

YATEMAN: Have you checked, gentlemen, whether you’ll be able to wear your MBEs on any of these other foreign television programmes?

BEATLE: Well, I suppose once they’ve given them to us, we can wear them.

YATEMAN: You’d look a bit funny going around with your medals hanging off, wouldn’t you?

BEATLE: We’d look a bit funny, you know — the metal thing, you know. Well, we could wear them on stage.

YATEMAN: Anyway, it hasn’t changed your life to any great extent.

BEATLE: No — we’re just honoured, that’s all.

YATEMAN: Well, we’re all delighted. Thank you. Congratulations.

BEATLE: Thank you.

BEATLE: Thank you very much.

BEATLE: Thank you for coming.

YATEMAN: Goodbye.

BEATLES: Bye. / Goodbye. / Thank you.

Interview with Richard Lindley for ITN

Well, gentlemen — first of all, many congratulations on your MBE. The whole country seems very delighted indeed. But how do you feel about it, Paul?

PAUL: Delighted, you know — glad everyone’s delighted.

But I mean, is it fun for you?

PAUL: Yeah, of course. I mean, you know, it’d be fun for you, wouldn’t it, if you’d just woke up one morning and they said, “Muh-buh-eh” — ah, that’s great, that’s great.

Ringo, how did you first hear about it?

RINGO: Well, we heard about it six weeks ago, when we got the forms to fill in. And then we knew that we were going to get it two days ago, officially.

INT: How did these forms come? Straight through the post, or in the fan mail, or what?

RINGO: Just in brown envelopes. They were delivered by somebody, you know, by hand — I think one of Brian’s secretaries.

GEORGE: They were sent from the Prime Minister, down in [Downing] Street, to our manager’s office, and they were delivered from there to Twickenham, where we were filming —

JOHN: — filming Help!, our new film.

GEORGE: And then, about a day later, we just found them and we thought we were being called up for the army. And then we opened them, and we found out we weren’t.

JOHN: Paul said that line.

GEORGE: I know — but this is ITV, that was the other one. [meaning a previous interview]

Why the MBE?

PAUL: I don’t know. I know nothing about it, it’s just that we’ve got it. It’s nice to have, and it doesn’t make you more respectable or anything. Maybe other people think it does. Doesn’t make me any more respectable — I’m still a scruff.

Well, I was wondering about that, Ringo. How do you feel about going to the Palace in the morning suit and all that?

RINGO: I don’t mind, you know. It’s alright — when I buy one.

You haven’t got one?

RINGO: No, not yet. I’ve got an evening suit — that’ll do.

I don’t think it will.

PAUL: That’s different from a morning suit.

RINGO: Well, I’ll just go in me pyjamas, then.