Expert: Elizabeth - 3/11/2005

Question
hi Elizabeth-Back when they were doing concerts, were they ever banned from cities,etc.? did arenas ever cancel their shows(thinking they were too offensive)?if so, where & how many times? My dad had  tickets to see The Doors in Salt Lake & the show was cancelled cause of Jim's behavior- Anyways, were The Beatles considered "freaks" back then? -Thanx, Sean


Answer
Yeah, some people considered the Beatles freaks only because their hair was considered fairly long for the time.  But the only time I can recall a Beatles show in the US being cancelled was due to the concert being outdoors and a thunderstorm was ocurring that night.

Even when the Beatles were at the height of controversy in the US (during the whole "more popular than Jesus" thing) the shows never were cancelled during their 1966 tour.  The KKK picketed, Beatles merchandise was made into bonfires outside the venues, someone even set off a firecracker in the middle of a show once, but the band played on.

The closest I could think of for the Beatles to be banned anywhere in the world was the Phillipines.  But that wasn't really being banned.  They'd played their concert, and were so tired the next day that they turned down a luncheon with Imelda Marcos, but she held the luncheon anyway and made the entire country mad at the Beatles because they didn't show up.  So they were kicked out of the country.  Obviously, they didn't want to come back after that, so it wasn't even an issue if they were banned or not.

Thanks for taking your time to ask me a question!