A quiet day 50 years ago........
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Beatles A Day in the Life Blog posts of '1966' 'March'
Two weeks after they flew to Switzerland for a skiing holiday, Paul McCartney and his girlfriend Jane Asher returned to England.
The couple had rented a chalet in the mountains about half a mile from the Swiss town of Klosters. After arriving back in London they moved into McCartney's home at 7 Cavendish Avenue in St John's Wood, which he had bought a year earlier but had since undergone considerable renovations.
The following is the original article as written by Maureen Cleave - the third in a series of five - on How Does a Beatle Live? - exactly as published in the London Evening Standard on March 18, 1966. Part 3 - George Harrison:
* * * *
Page 8–EVENING STANDARD, FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1966
George Harrison:
Avocado
with everything …
HOW A
BEATLE
LIVES part 3
by MAUREEN
CLEAVE
GEORGE HARRISON is 23, the youngest Beatle and the least well-known. He isn’t one of the two who sing and he isn’t Ringo; indeed some people like him best because they think (wrongly) that nobody else does. “Good old George,” is how he used to see himself, “good average old George, plodding along, a mere morsel.”
He is in fact a strong-willed and uncompromising character with a strict regard for what he considers to be the truth, and an even stricter regard for his own rights.
“I asked to be successful,” he said. “I never asked to be famous; I can tell you I got more famous than I wanted to be. I never intended to be the Big Cheese.” There then followed a typical piece of Harrison logic: “People keep saying, ‘We made you what you are,’ well, I made Mr. Hovis what he is and I don’t go round crawling over his gates and smashing up the wall round his house. I can’t understand some of them being so aggressively bad-mannered; I suppose they feel belittled wanting something from four scruffy louts like us.”
He is pretty independent; the others often think George is out on some kind of limb but, though they laugh at him, they often end up doing the same thing themselves. He was the first to move out of London, the first to become interested in Indian music. He does not watch television during all its waking hours and he thinks Rolls-Royces look dreadful. He likes to rise at 10:30 and has got hold of the revolutionary idea that Beatles should take exercise. “Just swimming,” he said hastily, “not exercise you’d notice. I want us all to be healthy and that, not going to clubs.
Any self-consciousness seems to have been drummed out of him in the early days in Liverpool when he would stand at the bus stop wearing his black leather suit, white cowboy boots and very pale pink flat hat. When the bus arrived, he would board it with guitar, amplifier and often tea chest bass. George likes to be himself and bitterly regrets having abandoned his early habit of eating and sleeping on the stage. “We should have stuck out for all that,” he said, “eating toast and chips and chickens. We only cut our hair and said all the yes-sir-no-sir three-bags-full-sir bit to get in.”
He lives in Esher with his young wife Pattie in a large white sunny bungalow surrounded by an old brick wall. ”Part of Queen Victoria’s country pad,” he said grandly, “and Clive of India had it for a bit. It’s a National Trust wall - you’re not allowed to chop it up or anything.” He added poetically that it glowed red in the setting sun.
He has a housekeeper called Margaret, a Ferrari, two Minis; 48, so far unread leather-bound volumes on natural history in French, a Sidney Nolan print that he loves, a conservatory; and a music room with tape recorders, a little juke box and walls covered in guitars.
Happy St. Patrick's Day from The Beatles
'Rubber Soul', 15th week in the Top 10 (UK New Musical Express chart)
The Beatles fail to win any Grammy Awards
The Beatles were nominated in 10 of the categories for the 8th Grammy Awards. The ceremony took place in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel, New York.
Six of the nominations were for Yesterday, while the other four were for the Help! album. Sadly, however, The Beatles failed to win any of the awards. The nominations, with the winner in brackets, were as follows:
- Album of the year: The Beatles, Help! (Frank Sinatra, September Of My Years)
- Record of the year: The Beatles, Yesterday (Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, A Taste Of Honey)
- Song of the year: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Yesterday (The Shadow Of Your Smile)
- Best vocal performance, male: Paul McCartney, Yesterday (Frank Sinatra, It Was A Very Good Year)
- Best performance by a vocal group: The Beatles, Help! (Anita Kerr Quartet, We Dig Mancini)
- Best contemporary (rock and roll) single: Paul McCartney, Yesterday (Roger Miller, King Of The Road)
- Best contemporary (rock and roll) vocal performance, male: Paul McCartney, Yesterday (Roger Miller, King Of The Road)
- Best contemporary (rock and roll) performance by a group, vocal or instrumental: The Beatles, Help! (Statler Brothers, Flowers On The Wall)
- Best arrangement accompanying a vocalist or instrumentalist: George Martin, Yesterday (Gordon Jenkins, It Was A Very Good Year)
- Best original score, motion picture or TV show: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ken Thorne, Help! (Robert Arnbruster Orchestra, The Sandpiper)
The next day Capitol Records' president Alan Livingston issued a protest that Yesterday had been denied the Song of the year award. "It makes a mockery of the whole event," he said. The following year they won three awards.
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What do you think the Beatles were doing 50 years ago today??
Beatles A Day in the Life Blog archive
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