When The Beatles came to Hong Kong in June 1964, and screaming teenagers welcomed the Fab Four at Kai Tak airport
Over 1,000 waited in the rain to greet the Beatles when their plane landed in Hong Kong, and more gathered at their hotel. ‘So much for the Beatles’ wrote Post’s stuffy critic of their concert the following night
“They’re coming: YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!” So trumpeted the headline in the South China Morning Post on March 14, 1964, as “Beatlemania”, now at fever pitch worldwide, swept into Hong Kong. The Fab Four would arrive on Monday, June 8, en route to Australia, staying at the President Hotel and playing the following evening before departing on June 10.
As anticipation grew, the Post’s May 24 edition reported stores doing a brisk business in “Beatles suits” and “moptop” wigs. On June 5, the newspaper reported drummer Ringo Star Starr was too ill to travel. The “substitute Beatle” would be Jimmie Nicol.
“Wild Welcome at Kai Tak for The Beatles”, ran the headline on June 9. “Hundreds of screaming teenagers in Hongkong yesterday gave Britain’s Beatles a wild welcome,” the story read. “More than 1,000 boys and girls waited in the rain at Kai Tak airport for the plane carrying the long-haired pop singers, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Jimmie Nicol. As the plane approached the runway, one English girl said: ‘I told myself I wasn’t going to scream, but I think I will.’ A Chinese girl, asked if she was going to scream, replied: ‘Of course.’”
“Question: ‘Why did you call yourselves The Beatles?’
“Paul McCartney: ‘We thought it was a good name – at the time.’