Fact #181518
When:
Short story:
George Harrison of The Beatles is busted for drugs just before setting off for Paul McCartney's marriage to Linda Eastman at Marylebone Registry Office, London, England, UK, Europe.
Full article:
Pattie Harrison (wife of George Harrison) : It was Paul and Linda McCartney's wedding day and party …
George Harrison : They chose Paul’s wedding day to come and do a raid on me, and to this day I’m still having difficulty with my visa to America because of this fella.
He came out to my house with about eight other policemen, a policewoman and a police dog, who happened to be called Yogi – because, I suppose, of the Beatle connection with Maharishi. They thought they’d have a bit of fun.
Pattie Harrison : I was at home on my own, getting ready, when there was a knock at the door. … I thought it must be just a gang of friends coming to our house on the way. I was about to answer the front door when the back door bell rang at the same time and I had a very uncanny feeling that all was not well.
I opened the door and there they were, about six policemen, a police woman and two dogs. A piece of paper was handed to me by Sgt Pilcher, who was gunning for everybody at the time. I knew exactly what it said without really reading it and I answered, 'Look, we don't have any dangerous drugs,' and then I went to answer the back door, and they all came flooding in and proceeded to search the house and the greenhouse. I phoned George and said, 'Guess what's happened?'
Mal Evans (diary entry) : Pattie rang the office from home for George to say '8 or 10 policeman including Sergeant Pilcher had arrived with search warrants looking for cannabis'. George went home with Derek and lawyer, and was released on £200 bail.
Derek Taylor : I was with George in the office when that call came through. It was the end of a long day at Apple. Pattie rang and said, ‘They’re here – the law is here,’ and we knew what to do by then. We phoned Release’s lawyer, Martin Polden. We had a routine: he came round to Apple, and we all went down by limousine to Esher, where the police were well ensconced by then.
George was calm about it. George is always calm – he sometimes gets a grump, but he’s always calm – and he was extremely calm that night, and very, very indignant. He went into the house and looked around at all these men and one woman, and said something like. ‘Birds have nests and animals have holes, but man hath nowhere to lay his head.’ – ‘Oh, really, sir? Sorry to tell you we have to…’ and then into the police routine.
That’s how calm and how cross he was, because, as he said, he kept his dope in the box where dope went, and his joss sticks went in the joss stick box. He was a man who ran an orderly late-Sixties household, with beautiful things and some nice stuff to smoke.
Patti Harrison : Finally, Sgt Pilcher said, 'Look what our dog Yogi has found.' And he produced this huge block of hash which I'd never seen before. I said to him, 'Where on earth did you find that?' And he said, 'In George's shoe.' It was preposterous and I said, 'Well, if you're looking for grass, it's on a table in the sitting room, in a little box."
George Harrison : I'm a tidy sort of bloke. I don't like chaos. I kept records in the record rack, tea in the tea caddy, and pot in the pot box. This was the biggest stick of hash I have ever seen and obviously I'd have known about it if I'd seen it before.
Patti Harrison : I also said, 'I don't understand why you're doing this, because obviously it's going to attract a lot of publicity and many Beatles fans might start smoking and I thought the idea was to try and stop people taking drugs.' And he said, 'I want to save you from the evils of heroin.'
Pete Shotton (friend) : Everything was in an uproar. The coppers had tipped over virtually all the furniture and were tearing through the closets when George suddenly burst in.
Patti Harrison : Eventually George and Derek (Taylor, PR man) turned up and we all went to Esher Police Station, and the police there were very sweet. When we got back to the house, the vibes there were so bad I said, 'Look, we've got to go to the party. I can't bear it, the idea of the police going through everything.' So we got ready and off we went.
Derek Taylor : I stood bail for George and Pattie. They went off to the police station. We were all extremely indignant because it was the day of Paul’s wedding, a poor way to celebrate it.
George Harrison : They took us off, fingerprinted us and we were busted. It was written in the papers like a fashion show: ‘George was wearing a yellow suit and his wife Pattie had on…’
Patti Harrison : As we went downstairs (at the wedding party), George saw Lord Snowdon and said, 'I'm going to talk to him. Maybe he can stop this bust.' And I was casually looking around, when suddenly I spotted my younger sister, Paula, puffing on a joint which she then proceeded to offer to Princess Margaret … I couldn't believe it, it was the early evening of the same day that we'd just been busted and there was my sister trying to hand Princess Margaret a joint.
(Source : not known)
Derek Taylor : In my opinion he didn’t have to be busted because he was doing nobody any harm. I still believe what they did was an intrusion into personal life.
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George Harrison : They chose Paul’s wedding day to come and do a raid on me, and to this day I’m still having difficulty with my visa to America because of this fella.
He came out to my house with about eight other policemen, a policewoman and a police dog, who happened to be called Yogi – because, I suppose, of the Beatle connection with Maharishi. They thought they’d have a bit of fun.
Pattie Harrison : I was at home on my own, getting ready, when there was a knock at the door. … I thought it must be just a gang of friends coming to our house on the way. I was about to answer the front door when the back door bell rang at the same time and I had a very uncanny feeling that all was not well.
I opened the door and there they were, about six policemen, a police woman and two dogs. A piece of paper was handed to me by Sgt Pilcher, who was gunning for everybody at the time. I knew exactly what it said without really reading it and I answered, 'Look, we don't have any dangerous drugs,' and then I went to answer the back door, and they all came flooding in and proceeded to search the house and the greenhouse. I phoned George and said, 'Guess what's happened?'
Mal Evans (diary entry) : Pattie rang the office from home for George to say '8 or 10 policeman including Sergeant Pilcher had arrived with search warrants looking for cannabis'. George went home with Derek and lawyer, and was released on £200 bail.
Derek Taylor : I was with George in the office when that call came through. It was the end of a long day at Apple. Pattie rang and said, ‘They’re here – the law is here,’ and we knew what to do by then. We phoned Release’s lawyer, Martin Polden. We had a routine: he came round to Apple, and we all went down by limousine to Esher, where the police were well ensconced by then.
George was calm about it. George is always calm – he sometimes gets a grump, but he’s always calm – and he was extremely calm that night, and very, very indignant. He went into the house and looked around at all these men and one woman, and said something like. ‘Birds have nests and animals have holes, but man hath nowhere to lay his head.’ – ‘Oh, really, sir? Sorry to tell you we have to…’ and then into the police routine.
That’s how calm and how cross he was, because, as he said, he kept his dope in the box where dope went, and his joss sticks went in the joss stick box. He was a man who ran an orderly late-Sixties household, with beautiful things and some nice stuff to smoke.
Patti Harrison : Finally, Sgt Pilcher said, 'Look what our dog Yogi has found.' And he produced this huge block of hash which I'd never seen before. I said to him, 'Where on earth did you find that?' And he said, 'In George's shoe.' It was preposterous and I said, 'Well, if you're looking for grass, it's on a table in the sitting room, in a little box."
George Harrison : I'm a tidy sort of bloke. I don't like chaos. I kept records in the record rack, tea in the tea caddy, and pot in the pot box. This was the biggest stick of hash I have ever seen and obviously I'd have known about it if I'd seen it before.
Patti Harrison : I also said, 'I don't understand why you're doing this, because obviously it's going to attract a lot of publicity and many Beatles fans might start smoking and I thought the idea was to try and stop people taking drugs.' And he said, 'I want to save you from the evils of heroin.'
Pete Shotton (friend) : Everything was in an uproar. The coppers had tipped over virtually all the furniture and were tearing through the closets when George suddenly burst in.
Patti Harrison : Eventually George and Derek (Taylor, PR man) turned up and we all went to Esher Police Station, and the police there were very sweet. When we got back to the house, the vibes there were so bad I said, 'Look, we've got to go to the party. I can't bear it, the idea of the police going through everything.' So we got ready and off we went.
Derek Taylor : I stood bail for George and Pattie. They went off to the police station. We were all extremely indignant because it was the day of Paul’s wedding, a poor way to celebrate it.
George Harrison : They took us off, fingerprinted us and we were busted. It was written in the papers like a fashion show: ‘George was wearing a yellow suit and his wife Pattie had on…’
Patti Harrison : As we went downstairs (at the wedding party), George saw Lord Snowdon and said, 'I'm going to talk to him. Maybe he can stop this bust.' And I was casually looking around, when suddenly I spotted my younger sister, Paula, puffing on a joint which she then proceeded to offer to Princess Margaret … I couldn't believe it, it was the early evening of the same day that we'd just been busted and there was my sister trying to hand Princess Margaret a joint.
(Source : not known)
Derek Taylor : In my opinion he didn’t have to be busted because he was doing nobody any harm. I still believe what they did was an intrusion into personal life.