Fact #105641
When:
Short story:
The Beatles play at The Forum, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Support acts on this show are The Righteous Brothers, The Exciters, Jackie De Shannon and the Bill Black Combo. While in Montreal, death threats are made against drummer Ringo Starr, so the group leaves the city immediately after their two shows.Full article:
George Harrison : A Montreal newspaper reported that somebody was going to kill Ringo. Because they didn't like his nose or something? Because he was probably the most British of The Beatles? I don't know. Anyway, we decided, 'Fuck this, let's get out of town,' and we flew a day early, instead of staying the night in Montreal.
Ringo Starr : Some people decided to make an example of me, as an English Jew. The one major fault is I'm not Jewish. Threats we took in our stride. I mean, suddenly there would be a few more cops; but this was one of the few times I was really worried. We were playing the gig and, as always, I was on a high-riser. I had the cymbals up towards the audience to give me a bit of protection; usually I had them flat on. I also had a plain-clothes policeman sitting there with me. But I started to get hysterical, because I thought, 'If someone in the audience has a pop at me, what is this guy going to do? Is he going to catch the bullet?' I found this was getting funnier and funnier all the time, and the guy just sat there.
George Harrison : We got on the plane to Jacksonville, Florida. But we found that there was a hurricane hitting Jacksonville, so they diverted us to key West, announcing, 'Fasten your seat belts. The runaway isn't big enough for this plane. We're going to have to go in with full reverse thrust.' This was on an Electra, a plane that we later discovered has a very high accident record. But we landed at Key West all right and had our day off there.
(Source : sleeve notes to The Beatles Anthology compilation)
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Ringo Starr : Some people decided to make an example of me, as an English Jew. The one major fault is I'm not Jewish. Threats we took in our stride. I mean, suddenly there would be a few more cops; but this was one of the few times I was really worried. We were playing the gig and, as always, I was on a high-riser. I had the cymbals up towards the audience to give me a bit of protection; usually I had them flat on. I also had a plain-clothes policeman sitting there with me. But I started to get hysterical, because I thought, 'If someone in the audience has a pop at me, what is this guy going to do? Is he going to catch the bullet?' I found this was getting funnier and funnier all the time, and the guy just sat there.
George Harrison : We got on the plane to Jacksonville, Florida. But we found that there was a hurricane hitting Jacksonville, so they diverted us to key West, announcing, 'Fasten your seat belts. The runaway isn't big enough for this plane. We're going to have to go in with full reverse thrust.' This was on an Electra, a plane that we later discovered has a very high accident record. But we landed at Key West all right and had our day off there.
(Source : sleeve notes to The Beatles Anthology compilation)