Wednesday, August 17, 1966
Press conference in Toronto
Press conference • Interview of The Beatles
Last updated on September 24, 2023
Wednesday, August 17, 1966
Press conference • Interview of The Beatles
Last updated on September 24, 2023
Interview location: Hot Stove Lounge, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto
Previous interview Aug 16, 1966 • Radio interview in Philadelphia
Concert Aug 17, 1966 • Canada • Toronto • 4pm show
Concert Aug 17, 1966 • Canada • Toronto • 8pm show
Interview Aug 17, 1966 • Press conference in Toronto
Interview Aug 17, 1966 • The Beatles interview for WCFL
Concert Aug 18, 1966 • USA • Boston
Toronto • Maple Leaf Gardens • Canada
Aug 17, 1966 • 4pm show • Canada • Toronto • Maple Leaf Gardens
Toronto • Maple Leaf Gardens • Canada
Aug 17, 1966 • 8pm show • Canada • Toronto • Maple Leaf Gardens
October 2000 • From MOJO
October 1999 • From MOJO
“The Beatles Anthology 1” press conference
Nov 20, 1995
Calm down! It's The Beatles. Their only interview!
December 1995 • From Q Magazine
Andy Gray talks to the Beatles, 1968
Jul 13, 1968 • From New Musical Express (NME)
Interview for The Kenny Everett Show
Jun 09, 1968 • From BBC Radio 1
Interview for The Village Voice
May 16, 1968 • From The Village Voice
Interview for The Tonight Show
May 14, 1968 • From NBC
May 14, 1968 • From WNDT
Press conference announcing Apple
May 14, 1968
The interview below has been reproduced from this page. This interview remains the property of the respective copyright owner, and no implication of ownership by us is intended or should be inferred. Any copyright owner who wants something removed should contact us and we will do so immediately.
Following their performance in Philadelphia on August 16, 1966, The Beatles promptly departed for Toronto from Philadelphia International Airport. This Canadian city was the sole Canadian destination on their tour.
On August 17, they played two concerts at the Maple Leaf Gardens. The first, at 4 pm, drew a crowd of 15,000, while the second, at 8 pm, saw an audience of 17,000. In the interlude between the two concerts, The Beatles faced the media in a press conference.
After a night’s rest in Toronto, The Beatles journeyed onward, flying to Boston on August 18, 1966.
There was a press conference in Toronto, too, for those who could get through the crushing mass of fans filling the corridors of the Gardens. Several of us had difficulty gaining admittance because the fans went a little wild and the police had to send everyone to an alternate entrance… but no one at the alternate entrance knew anything about our little red passes. It was frustrating at first, but we all made it eventually. The Toronto press had some pertinent and pointed questions which was the setting for one of the funnier lines of the tour. A man stood up and stated that The Beatles had been awarded the M.B.E. because of their assistance to the British economy; did they have any more plans for helping that economy? George shot back, “We could give our medals back!”
Judith Sims – From TeenSet Magazine – Quoted in “Ticket To ride – The Extraordinary Diary of The Beatles’ Last Tour” by Barry Tashian
TONY BARROW: (yelling) “May we please have quiet before we start with questioning!”
Q: “First question for John. This tremendous enthusiasm of youth, if it were channelled into good causes, would have a tremendous effect. How about the Beatles starting a ‘Feed The World’s Hungry’ fund through the United Nations?”
JOHN: “Well, you know. It’s an idea. We can’t just say yes or no now.”
Q: “And the second positive question — What are some of the positive elements of Christianity at its best that you feel you can support?”
JOHN: “The basic ideas of Christianity. We suport that.”
Q: “Would you recommend them to young people?”
JOHN: “I’d recommend them for anybody. Old people as well, you know.”
PAUL: “Especially!”
JOHN: “Especially, yeah.”
(laughter)
Q: “Mister Lennon, is there any connection the lonely people in Eleanor Rigby and your recent attempt to formulate an opinion on religion?”
JOHN: “Well, there’s a connection inasmuch as you’ve connected it. That’s all. And it just happened at the same time over here, but Eleanor Rigby came after that article. The article’s quite a few months old, and Eleanor Rigby came a couple of months later.”
Q: “Mister Lennon, do you possibly put a message in your songs as a sort of crusade or do you just make songs that you like because you think other people will like them?”
JOHN: “I don’t know, you know. I don’t write them for other people, really. They’re only for other people after they’re finished, if they like them or not then, you know. When I write them, or we write them, it’s gotta be for yourself.”
Q: “The Beatles, in general, you seem a healthy bunch. You rarely cancel due to…”
JOHN: (to George) “I told you we were.”
(laughter)
PAUL: “Very healthy.”
JOHN: “Well, George and I were disputing it. He’s thinking we’re unhealthy, and I was saying we are healthy… or they wouldn’t let us make films.”
Q: “This question is for John. Which question do you dislike being asked the most?”
JOHN: “At the moment, the one they’re all asking when we first get in about the statement I made.”
Q: “Could you tell us about that?”
JOHN: “Uhh, well, you… (laughs)
(laughter)
JOHN: “Well, I mean, you ask me what you want to know about it, and I’ll tell you. I’m just going to go over it and over it.”
Q: “This has been asked before — What did you really say? Was this taken out of context?”
JOHN: “The words themselves weren’t out of context, ‘cuz they were from an article. The article was out of context ‘cuz it was taken from the paper and from England, you know. That’s how it was out of context.”
Q: “Do you feel this has hurt your image in any way?”
JOHN: “Uhh, no.”
PAUL: “It’s been straightened out, I think.”
JOHN: “With a few people, you know, but I don’t think I mind about them.”
Q: “George, I think the business of John’s statement has been cleared up pretty well. I’d like to ask you what you think is really important in life? I tend to agree that probably the Beatles are more popular, if popularity is gaged, than Jesus. But is popularity the most important thing? What is the most important thing in life?”
JOHN: “Love.”
GEORGE: “Love is the main thing, I’d say. But I mean, there’s lots of things in Christianity that are so right which, all the people who set about us after the comment made, they dont really sort of keep up with what they are supposed to believe in. I mean, first of all, love thy neighbor like thyself. They tended to hate a bit more, didn’t they, the people who disliked us. Well, for a kick off, that’s not a Christian answer to whatever Lennon said.”
Q: “John, may I ask you, what is it in your estimation that can and does really inspire the young people today?”
JOHN: “I don’t know, honestly, you know. I just know that what we’re doing inspires them to a degree, but not to inspire them to do anything else other than enjoy themselves.”
Q: “What you do excites them and makes them enjoy themselves.”
PAUL: “They get inspired by people who talk honestly to them. And not people who take the long way ’round and talk in riddles. I think, you know, if they believe us on some things it’s because we can say it like they would think it, ‘cuz we’re exactly the same. We don’t pretend to be anything better than we are, you know.”
Q: “Do you always play it straight, Ringo?”
RINGO: (pause) “Nope.”
(laughter)
Q: “It seems to me that it’s the grown-ups that are small-minded about all these things — the children don’t seem to be at all and they don’t believe any of this. But the parents are telling them that they should do. And this is where the big mistake is made, is the parent’s leading them the wrong way.”
PAUL: “Well, you know, there’s a gap between the generations that’s very hard to fill. I don’t think most children think of their parents as human beings ’til the children themselves are about sixteen, seventeen, you know.”
JOHN: “Older than that.”
PAUL: “And they suddenly realize that they’re just people like them and not, sort of, great big people to be feared. You know, THAT’S the gap that should be healed.”
Q: “What are the Beatles going to do about their diminishing popularity?”
JOHN: “WHAT dimishing pop…?”
(laughter)
GEORGE: “For a start, there’s no signs as far as we’re concerned of it diminishing. Our records and our shows are still selling as well as ever. You’re just giving your opinion.”
PAUL: (jokingly) “You’re finished, George, you’re finished!”
(laughter)
GEORGE: “And if our popularity does diminish, we’ll be the last to worry.”
(applause) PAUL: “Hurray!” (whistles)
Q: “With the background instrumentalisation for Eleanor Rigby, aren’t you really heading into something very new?”
PAUL: “No. Very old.”
JOHN: “Violins are old.”
Q: “What’s happening for pop music now, going back to the old?”
PAUL: “It’s not…”
JOHN: “It’s progressing, you know.”
PAUL: “It’s progressing because it’s having new things with the old, instead of just the old on its own.”
PAUL & JOHN: “Or just the new.”
PAUL: “It’s combining them. You know, it’s taking bits from everything and being, I don’t know… (pause) liberal.”
Q: “Do you think you could go electronic?”
PAUL: “Yes, you know. We could go anything.”
GEORGE: “Not totally…”
JOHN: (jokingly) Oh, I could.”
(laughter)
Q: “The four of you — Would you sometime like to visit Russia?”
JOHN: “As Beatles or as people?”
Q: “Both.”
JOHN: “Yes, wouldn’t mind.”
Q: “What kind of reception do you think you would get from a) the people and b) the officials?”
JOHN: “From the people it would be okay. I don’t know about the officials. You know, I think it would be okay now.”
GEORGE: “Okay now.”
(laughter)
Q: “John, are you going to have a hand in writing your next movie?”
JOHN: “Umm, I don’t think so. I hope not, you know. I’d sooner somebody else wrote it. I don’t know how to do it.”
Q: “When is it coming out, do you know?”
JOHN: “I don’t know when it’s starting even. Probably the…”
GEORGE: “January, I think.”
JOHN: “January. February.”
Q: “Gentlemen, you received the medals for assisting the British economy a couple of years ago. The economy is in kind of rough shape now…”
GEORGE: …and we’re still assisting it now.”
(laughter)
Q: “Anything to give it a fresh boost?”
JOHN: “Well, we could give them the medals back.”
(laughter, followed by applause)
JOHN: “Ahh, it’s very friendly here.
(laughter)
Q: “With the people throwing things on the stage, are you worried ever about getting injured?”
JOHN: “You worry about your eyes, mainly. You know, ‘cuz little things you can’t see.”
Q: “John, I don’t want to get you too tangled in politics, but I read that you weren’t very excited about the situation in Vietnam. I would be interested in knowing your opinion, or any of the Beatles opinion, about the question of the United States involvement in Vietnam and whether or not you see this as a possibility of a world confrontation with China, and whether you think it’s dangerous, and whether you think it’s important for people to become informed and concerned on this issue.”
JOHN: “Yes.”
(laughter)
JOHN: “I mean, we all just don’t agree with war for any reason whatsoever. There’s no reason on earth why anybody should kill anybody else.”
Q: “Well, why don’t you say… Why don’t you come out and…”
GEORGE: “The main thing is…”
JOHN: “Because somebody would shoot us for saying it, that’s why.”
GEORGE: “Somebody once said ‘Thou shalt not kill means THAT, not amend section A.’ And there’s a lot of people who are amending section A and who are killing. And it’s up to them to sort themselves out.”
PAUL: “But we can’t say things like that.”
JOHN: “We’re not allowed to have opinions. You might have noticed, you know.”
(laughter)
Q: “Continuing in that line, what do you think of the youthful Americans who are coming across the border to Canada to escape the draft? Are you in favor of the draft or military disipline for the younger generation?”
PAUL: “No.”
GEORGE: “I think anybody who doesn’t feel like fighting or feels like fighting is wrong has a right not to go in the army. There’s nobody can force you into going and killing someone.”
JOHN: “But they do.”
PAUL: “Shouldn’t be able to, really.”
JOHN: (sighs, and continues jokingly) “Ahh, we’ve had it in Memphis now.”
Q: “Paul and John, have you ever thought of writing a musical such as ‘My Fair Lady?'”
JOHN: “Nothing like that, anyway.”
Q: “Why DON’T you write one?”
PAUL: “We thought about writing a musical, but not like ‘My Fair Lady,’ because if we did one like that… There are people around that can write that kind of musical better than we can because they were doing that fifty years ago, you know. And the only thing is that if we tried to write a musical, we’d try to write one with up to date tunes and up to date music. It’s difficult to think what to do, ‘cuz everyone seems to go to fifty-year-old ones… you know, that sort of era.”
Q: “In bringing Eleanor Rigby and Yellow Submarine, are you trying establish any sort of a trend in music, away from rock?”
PAUL: “No. I don’t think we ever try to establish trends, you know. We try to keep moving forward and do something different. And if in the meantime it starts trends, you know, that’s okay. But we never try consciously to start them.”
Q: “It’s certainly original.”
PAUL: “Thank you.”
Q: “Can I ask Paul, it’s either my imagination or are you doing less physical effort on stage now in your performances?”
PAUL: “I dunno, probably, you know. I mean, you manage to sort out after a few years just how much jumping around will produce just how much sweat. Perspiration.”
Q: “Mister Lennon, you’re were asked a question you said, ‘The Beatles are people.’ What do you think, that you are…”
JOHN: “I really meant, you know…”
Q: “…do you think you’re going to split up?”
JOHN: “Well, everything’s possible, you know. There’s no answer to that. We obviously are not going to go around holding hands forever.”
(laughter)
JOHN: “We’ve got to split up or progress. I mean, we might… You know, I can’t… It might happen. It’s quite possible.”
Q: “This one is for Ringo. Your actions are so limited so much by public demand and riots and mobs. What normal, everyday thing would you like to do that you cannot because of your fame?”
RINGO: “Umm, when were off I live quite normally. It’s only on tour we’re like this and we’re always in hotels and that. But when we’re off, I’m just like you.”
(laughter)
JOHN: “He’s one of THOSE.”
Q: Gentlemen, have you given any thought as to when your popularity might end, and if so, do you think you’ll be around in another ten years time?”
PAUL: “We’ll be, you know… The only reason we won’t be around is we’ll be dead. But, uhh, as Beatles we could be around still doing the same thing as we’re doing now only we have developed a bit. But you know, it’d be a bit embarrassing at 35.”
(laughter)
JOHN: (jokingly, to Paul) “Long Tall Sally.”
PAUL: (giggling) “Yeah.”
Q: “Paul, I’ve gotten ten variations of the story of how you chipped your tooth. Can you set the record straight? How did it happen?”
PAUL: “Umm, it was Christmas and I’d had a few drinks and I went for a ride on a moped. And I was watching the moon and I fell off.”
(laughter)
TONY BARROW: “This is the last question.”
Q: “This question is for Ringo.”
RINGO: “Again?”
Q: “You must get frightened sometimes with all these youngsters screaming so loud. If you do, what is the time or what city does this most happen in?”
RINGO: “The screaming never frightens you, it’s just when they start a break and try to get onstage.”
Q: “At what point or what tour have you been the most worried about maybe being attacked?”
JOHN: “Manila.”
RINGO: “Cleveland, I think.”
Q: “Cleveland on the current tour?”
RINGO: “Yeah.”
JOHN: “Oh, this tour.”
RINGO: (to the others) “Was it Cleveland?”
BEATLES: (exaggerated) “Sure. Yeah.”
(laughter)
RINGO: “They broke through there.”
PAUL: (to Tony Barrow) Is that it? (to the reporters) Thank you. Goodbye.”
(reporters applaud)
JOHN: “Thank you.”
Beatles on Viet Nam – “The Thing Is, ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’”
TORONTO — Criticism over religious statements made by John Lennon has not quieted the Beatles. The Liverpool quartet made this clear at a press conference held at Maple Leaf Gardens here between performances Wednesday afternoon. Among the topics discussed at the 15-minute sitting were the war in Viet Nam, draft dodgers, the decline in popularity of the Beatles, the British economy and more on religion.
It all started when one reporter asked John what question irritated him the most. “The one they’re all asking when we first get in,” John said with a trace of a smile, “about the statement I made.”
When asked if he had been quoted correctly John said he had. The words had not been taken out of context as had been suggested, he said. “They (the words) were taken from an article. The article was taken out of context — it was taken from the paper and from England — that’s how it was out of context.”
It’s been smoothed over now, added Paul McCartney as if to end a discussion that has been haunting them. However, they agreed that whether they are more popular than Jesus is not important — that is that popularity is not important.
“What is important?” they were asked.
Almost simultaneously John and George Harrison answered. “love“. Then, reflecting on the furor over John’s statement George added that the people who criticized the statement so bitterly — “don’t really keep up with what they believe in.” “They weren’t practising love but tended to hate us.”
Asked why they didn’t comment on the war in Viet Nam George said, “Someone is liable to shoot us.” To which John added, “We’re not allowed to comment on such things, perhaps you’ve noticed.“
However, he added. “There is no reason on earth why anybody should kill anybody else.”
“The thing is,” George offered, “Thou shalt not kill and you can’t amend Section ‘A’. A lot of people are amending Section ‘A’ and they’re all killing.“
About the draft, George said he feels that “anyone who doesn’t feel like fighting or feels that fighting is wrong has a right not to go in the army, because not one can force you to kill someone.“
Are they alarmed at the decline in popularity of the Beatles? “There are no signs, as far as we re concerned, of a diminishing popularity,” said George, “our records and shows are still selling as well as ever. And if our popularity does diminish, well, we’ll be the last to worry.“
In reply to whether or not the Beatles will ever split up and what will the Beatles be doing in ten years time. John said anything is possible. “After all we can’t go on holding hands forever. We’d be a little embarrassed singing ‘Long Tall Sally’ at 35“.
It was pointed out that the group had received medals for assisting the British economy a couple of years ago. “The economy is in rough shape now. Is there a plan to give it a boost now?” a reporter asked. “We can give them the medals back,” John replied.
Paul offered that kids are inspired by simple honesty. He said the Liverpool quartet didn’t inspire teenagers with their performances but only excite them and make them forget their problems for a while.
“If we inspire them it is because we understand them and we are honest when talking to them. There is a gap between the adults and the kids that has to be healed.”
Ringo, true to form, said very little.
From The Kingston Whig-Standard – August 18, 1966
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