BEATLES MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR BUS
1968 - I was only 16 and a devoted Beatles fan
Between 1965 and 1969 I lived in a public house in Harold Wood, near Romford in Essex. The pub faced the local train station and I frequently bunked the trains up the track to London and down the track to Clacton on Sea where my family had holiday homes.
My excursions into central London were always a secret because I was very young and a lodger at the King Harold pub which was run by my best friend’s parents, Moira and Albert Coward. They certainly would not have approved of me slinking off to a Soho nightclub several times a week!
The nightclub I went to was called the Marquee because the décor appeared to be like the inside of a circus tent. One wall was entirely mirrored because the place was very small and the mirrors helped to create a sense of space. In that place I met Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Peter Frampton, Phil Collins and David Bowie long before any of them became famous.
Fashion in that club was very artistic. Everyone was growing their hair long and wearing bright colours, home-made outfits and many of us went shoeless. It was the beginning of the hippy era, but we did not call ourselves hippies. My grandmother described my choice of outfit as ‘bohemian’ at the time.
One Saturday in the summer of 1968, I persuaded my best friend, Debbie, to accompany me to Carnaby Street because I wanted to see the new boutiques and shops which had sprung up there. I particularly wanted to visit Mary Quant and Biba so that I could turn the clothes inside out and figure out how to make copies of them.
We were coming out of Biba when we were hailed by a young woman with a clipboard. She asked us if we were Beatles fans. I immediately enthused that I certainly was. Debbie held her silence, she was not so keen on music.
The young woman asked me a whole series of questions about the Beatles and I answered them all accurately. At the end of the questionnaire, I was told that I had won two tickets for A Magical Mystery Tour which was to start at 5pm the following Friday evening. I was ecstatic! Debbie was not impressed.
When we got back to the pub, I asked Moira, Debbie’s mum, if I could go to the event and she examined the tickets. She said, that would be fine but I would need a companion because Debbie was not interested. She asked our young barman, Simon to accompany me with full pay, as if he was working a pub shift. He agreed enthusiastically. It all sounded so very mysterious and exciting to us both.
The following Friday afternoon we boarded the train at about 3.30pm and made our way to the rendezvous outside Victoria Station in London. There was a number of gaily dressed people milling about and at 5pm the Magical Mystery Tour bus pulled up in front of us. We all piled aboard and the Conductor examined our tickets before announcing that we would be off to a secret location outside of London.
After about an hour of travel we finally pulled in front of an aircraft hangar and were told to disembark. We filed into a small doorway and there, in front of us, at the end of the building was a stage with the Beatles black and white kit set up in front of two rows of seats for an orchestra. The backdrop was made of chromium finished paper which was being warmed with a lighter to make it stretch one way or another.
There was a lot of lighting and an arc of cameras on tripods in front of the stage.
At the left of the huge aircraft hangar we were invited to choose drinks and snacks from a long line of trestle tables. That was when the Beatles casually joined us and explained what they were about to do.
Paul McCartney explained that they were releasing a new single called “Hey Jude” and we were going to take part in recording it that very evening!
We were astounded.
From then on it was a whirl of rehearsals and giggles and running forwards to crowd around the stage and sing “Na, na, na, nanana na!”
I remember that George made a slight error during one of the ‘takes’ and the other three Beatles pretended to faint. They said that George NEVER made mistakes! He just smiled and looked as if he was used to being teased like that.
Meanwhile, Yoko Ono was sitting underneath a tall camera tripod in a crossed-legged position. She did not seem to be aware of her surroundings at all. She looked completely peaceful. When we stopped rehearsing and took another refreshments break, she came out from under the camera and I asked her what she had been doing. She explained Transcendental Meditation to me and I was determined to find out more as soon as I could get back to our local library. She told me that it was a way to completely rest the mind by stopping thought. I was intrigued by her gentle manner and sweet smile. She was very kind to me and John Lennon was clearly very fond of her.
Yoko Ono does not know that she provided me with a catalytic moment which eventually led me to practice meditation, study eastern philosophy and qualify in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
After performing the song at least 10 times, we were hoarse and physically exhausted. It was getting very late and I was worried that we might miss the last train back to Essex from Liverpool Street station. We said our goodbyes and thanks to the Beatles and the staff at the aircraft hangar. We returned to the Magical Mystery Tour bus which whisked us back to Victoria station and dropped us off.
Simon nodded off on the train home but I was too excited, running on a wild adrenaline rush. I could not wait to tell my friends about this fabulous experience.
The film was shown on Top of the Pops the following Thursday evening and I saw myself on TV for all of two or three seconds! I was dancing and singing at the side of the drum kit.
I never saw that particular recording again because the song became very popular and the Beatles made a number of additional recordings later. I have searched several times but the original film never made it to the internet - a tragedy to me, really.
This film ^^^ informs us that the aircraft hangar where we filmed Hey Jude for the first time must have been West Malling Airfield in Kent, which was a significant filming location for The Beatles' 1967 television film "Magical Mystery Tour." The band spent nearly a week at the disused RAF airfield, which is now redeveloped as Kings Hill, filming various scenes including the Mystery Marathon and the ballroom sequence for "Your Mother Should Know." The airfield was also used for filming the "I Am The Walrus" video, with scenes atop the anti-blast concrete walls.
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I love The Beatles and stories such as these. Sometimes I wish I was around back then to have lived through that time. Definitely a golden of age of music!